The Disappearing Mr. Romney

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Agent_286, Dec 2, 2012.

  1. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    The Disappearing Mr. Romney

    Mitt Romney's Loss Creates GOP Leadership Vacuum

    By Steve Peoples | 12/01/12 10:44 AM ET EST
    Excerpts:

    BOSTON – “Mitt Romney's shadow looms over a Republican Party in disarray. The face of the GOP for much of the last year, the failed presidential candidate has been a virtual ghost since his defeat Nov. 6. He has quietly weathered the fallout of the campaign from the seclusion of his Southern California home.

    His loss and immediate withdrawal from politics, while welcomed by most, has created a leadership vacuum within his party. It's left the GOP rudderless, lacking an overarching agenda and mired in infighting, with competing visions for the way ahead, during what may be the most important policy debate in a generation.

    He declined to comment on the Treasury Department's recent refusal to declare China a currency manipulator, which was one of his signature issues over the past 18 months. He made no public remarks after his meeting with Obama, quickly fading away, again.

    "If I had to tell you somebody who is the leader of the party right now, I couldn't," said Amy Kremer, chairman of the Tea Party Express "There's a void right now."

    There's no shortage of Republicans maneuvering to fill it, from House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to a number of high-profile politicians looking to boost their national profiles, if not position themselves for a 2016 presidential run. That group could include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, son and brother of presidents, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

    Republican officials acknowledge party tensions between the moderate and conservative wings, as well as the tea party and evangelical constituencies. But they dismiss the leadership vacuum as a standard political reality for the losing party in the presidential race.

    Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, never had a strong relationship with the conservative base, given his more moderate past.

    Party officials are optimistic that a team of younger and more diverse leaders, drawn from the ranks of governors and Congress, will emerge in the coming months to help strengthen and unify what is now a party grappling with its identity. That list includes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

    The GOP was in disarray following its 2006 showing, searching for a new path and leader at a time when President George W. Bush was deeply unpopular.

    Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 presidential nominee, briefly assumed control of a party that he long had criticized, but it never really warmed to him.

    All that created a leadership vacuum that helped give rise to the tea party movement in 2009 and sparked rounds of internal battles between party pragmatists and more extreme conservatives.

    Republican strategist Phil Musser is among those suggesting that the current void presents a breakout opportunity for the party chairman, Reince Priebus. The 40-year-old Midwesterner largely played a supporting administrative role in his first two years on the job.

    "To some degree it's a challenge in as much you don't have a standard bearer to rally behind that unifies central themes of the conservative movement," Musser said. "The bottom line is that a little bit of messiness and frank family discussion is not a terrible thing after an election like this."

    But Democrats are emboldened, both by their Election Day successes and the subsequent Republican discord.

    GOP factions are fighting over multiple issues: the "fiscal cliff," which will dominate the debate on Capitol Hill at least through the end of the year; and blame for Romney's defeat.

    The party's most passionate voters are reluctant to abandon hard-line immigration policies that have dominated their thinking for years. But Washington-based strategists describe a dire need to win over more Hispanic voters and other minorities who overwhelmingly supported Obama in the swing states that decided the election.

    At the same time, rank-and-file Republicans on Capitol Hill are struggling to coalesce behind a single message during fiscal cliff negotiations that have exposed a new rift with fiscal conservative guru Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge.

    Democrats already are working to exploit the GOP divisions to strengthen their own political standing.

    Obama has taken his party's message directly to voters. He visited a Pennsylvania toy manufacturer on Friday, calling for Republicans to embrace the immediate extension of tax cuts for all but the top 2 percent of wealthiest Americans.

    Though Boehner has taken the lead in negotiations with the White House, Republicans generally did not have a standard-bearer to counter that message. Instead, they're relying on familiar Capitol Hill leaders to guide party doctrine during his debate.

    "We don't have one person out there carrying that torch. You'll have (South Carolina Sen.) Lindsey Graham, Speaker Boehner, (Wisconsin Rep.) Paul Ryan, John McCain - same old, same old," said Republican strategist Hogan Gidley.

    No one, it seems, is talking about Romney assuming any sort of leadership role. It appears Romney may cooperate, choosing business over politics in defeat.

    The former businessman is subletting office space at the Boston-area venture capital firm, Solamere Capital, which was founded by his oldest son.

    Former aides expect Romney to stay out of the spotlight for the foreseeable future - spending colder months at his California home and warmer months at his New Hampshire lake house.

    "It might be better for him, better for the party, to start fresh," Gidley said.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/mitt-romneys-loss-creates_n_2223565.html
    ......

    The farther away from politics Mitt Romney is, the better off America will be. But speculation about him will continue after his refusal to disclose more than two years of tax returns during his presidential campaign despite longstanding protocol to produce more and being more transparent.

    Now he has rented an office in his oldest son’s business which Romney set up for him and is probalby a financial blind for family’s fortunes which are blended into partnerships with his wife, two oldest sons, and the LDS Mormon Church.

    Romney will go back to doing what he knows best...being a merciless corporate raider and outsourcer of jobs.
     
  2. Yosh Shmenge

    Yosh Shmenge New Member

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    Conversely, Obama can now continue doing what he knows best...stonewalling legitimate investigations into Benghazi and continuing his Captain Ahab type obsession with getting rich people to pay slightly more in taxes while the economy, in general, goes down a self created sinkhole of borrowing, spending and debt.

    Which matters more? Romney and his personal finances or the country's dangerous financial crisis? And since the answer is obvious why do you, and the left, continue to argue over how the booking agent treated you as the Titanic sinks below the waves?
    It's utter stupidity.
     
  3. Natty Bumpo

    Natty Bumpo Well-Known Member

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    The gobsmacked President's haters will continue to bellywhinge, of course, but current rankings indicate that Willard now barely leads Pee Wee Herman on the GOP's influential scale.
     
  4. AtsamattaU

    AtsamattaU Well-Known Member

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    This is because, like so many of us said during the campaign, the guy has been in it for himself from the beginning. His post-loss behavior validates that claim. He doesn't care about the country, he cares about being President. That he was ever nominated at all shows the poor judgment in today's GOP.
     
  5. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    .....

    1) Benghazi is a total McCain inspired 'conspiracy without a motive'...anything to cast doubt as to what happened instead of patriotic mourning for the Americans killed. Take
    the republican attack on Susan Rice as a scapegoat...forgetting gap-toothed Condaleeza Rice's extreme lies about "the mushroom cloud" as an incentive to go to war in Iraq. Susan Rice is a very intelligent, well educated, hard working but easy attack victim and it won't work. McCain is just showing that the republicans are still vindictive and untrustworthy.

    2) President Obama INHERITED trillions of dollars in debt from a former republican president, the Bush Tax Cuts, a country gone bankrupt, a Wall Street Meltdown, and a record 'earmark' total to republicans thru excessive greed. GW Bush started out with a Clinton trillion dollar surlus, and ended handing trillions in debt to Obama.

    The people that benefited the most from the BTCuts were wealthy 2%ers. They shouldn't whine... they collected the most, so it's pay back time..They collected for 11 years...let them pay extra for 11 years while we are overhauling the federal tax system so that rich people pay their fauir share of taxes without the loopholes, deductions, incentives etc they formerly received. btw: republican presidents Reagan, HW and GW Bush raised taxes every year to handle their excesses without a murmur from all you republicans.

    3) The problem with Romney and his finances is because after running for president, we STILL don't know the real sources of his manipulations, offshore finances, or tax returns.
    Do you think that alert American voters would have put a draft dodger, tax dodger in our White House?

    You need to ask the obstruction republicans in Congress about our alleged "country's dangerous financial crisis" they caused it, maneuvered it, kept the recession going for 4 years..all to make sure that Obama would be a one-term-president. But how did that work out for ya?

    Each day that passes, and there are no jobs for American workers, it is laid squarely at the feet of the republicans in Congress for not passing a larger stimulus when it was needed, for not passing jobs bills sent to them by Obama, and of keeping Americans in a state of lower production. Stop whining and accept your party's treasonous actions.

    4) You still cannot move away from obstruction, rancid hatred, an unreal disapproval of getting beaten at the polls...OBAMA WON...deal with it in some other way than stupid hatred and refusal to work in Congress because the days are numbered for those that refuse to work now for the people of America instead of corporations.

    the republicans are already yesterday's news...the Democrats are tomorrow's news and every day after that!
     
  6. Flaming Moderate

    Flaming Moderate New Member Past Donor

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    Jeb in 2016!
     
  7. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    .....

    Do you really think America is ready for another Bush?
     
  8. Craftsman

    Craftsman Banned

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    bush the failure is gone, bush the loser is far too old, mcCain is a total loser and frankly I think has gone senile, and no one really likes or trusts romney......whats a party to do?
    If they can't figure out that they are a party of clowns with no leader and no aim that has been taken over by complete nut jobs, I doubt they will recover.
     
  9. Craftsman

    Craftsman Banned

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    lmfao!!!
     
  10. Craftsman

    Craftsman Banned

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    Cheese with your whine?
     
  11. Craftsman

    Craftsman Banned

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    Cheese with your whine?
     
  12. LasMa

    LasMa Active Member

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    It also shows the absence of credible candidates in the GOP, and I don't see that problem being solved by 2016. Who are they going to throw out there next time? Christie is radioactive to the whackjob base now, after praising Obama. Jindal is a creationist, and the American public is never going to elect a religious nut. Rubio has brown skin, and the GOP will think that's enough to qualify as "outreach" but he's vocal against gay marriage when the electorate is moving in the opposite direction. Ryan wants to put Grandma on vouchers for her healthcare. McDonnell believes that the state of Virginia has a right to get inside a woman's uterus. Jeb Bush has a toxic last name, and Americans won't soon forget what the last Bush did to us.
     
  13. Unifier

    Unifier New Member

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    Ah, HuffPo. That makes sense. I had to scroll all the way down before I understood why the article was so misleading. The truth of the matter is that Romney's time is done. What else is he supposed to do? Stick around and comment on everything? Is that what you guys really want? Hell, Bush was president for two terms and he's disappeared since leaving office. Nothing left to say or do. It's someone else's turn now. And Romney's absence isn't really leaving a void of anything in terms of leadership since once of the biggest criticisms about him this election cycle was that he was a second (or even third) choice candidate who did not accurately represent the party's base. No disrespect to Romney, but his departure is rather inconsquential to the GOP.
     
  14. Unifier

    Unifier New Member

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    And see, this is the kind of stuff that liberals say all the time that miraculously somehow "doesn't count" as being racist. Unbelievable.
     
  15. Yosh Shmenge

    Yosh Shmenge New Member

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    If it helps you to cope with this scandal go ahead an blame it all on John McCain. It won't go away, of course, or make things better.
    Susan Rice spread around a lie that any half way bright human could see through immediately. She bears the responsibility of helping to disseminate disinformation...just like you but of course, no one cares about you.

    Yes. A mess that Obama only compounded
    instead of fixing. His toxic spending, borrowing and debt have all greatly accelerated our grief.

    I don't mind modest tax increases at all as long as they are targeted to the wealthiest few and there are
    meaningful spending cuts to accompany them. Of course, Obama will never do this.
    He is like Captain Ahab, in pursuit of obsessive tax increases on those making $250,000 (not all that wealthy in reality) and above,
    to the exclusion of everything else of consequence.

    Well they elected a virtual unknown community organizer, so they might vote for anyone.

    Funny how Obama has been in charge for four years now yet his lackeys fail to hold him accountable for anything he does. If anyone has dragged out the recession it has been Obama and no one else.
    He runs the show and his policies have been an anathema to the economy.

    Obama's job stimulus program was a tremendous failure, even by his own standards. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/artic...t-failures-from-president-obamas-stimulus-law

    That you would even suggest otherwise shows your tenuous grasp on reality.

    Thank you, Baghdad Bob. You really earned your money with this one.
     
  16. Yosh Shmenge

    Yosh Shmenge New Member

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    A Hefty-bag for your post?
     
  17. DDave

    DDave Well-Known Member

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    And the GOP/Romney haters will keep bringing Romney up. Just like they did Palin.

    He lost. Let it go. Stop crabbing about him.

    Instead why don't you tell us all about what a great job Obama is doing and how we are so lucky that he will have a second term. Please be specific and give examples and try to do it without using the words "Bush" or "Romney" or "47%".
     
  18. Yosh Shmenge

    Yosh Shmenge New Member

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    The Obama-bots run their administration the same way they ran their reelection campaign---they have no positive vision or record of accomplishment. They can only run, or govern, by demonizing the other side.

    Blame Regan, blame Bush and now blame and continue to demonize someone they already smeared into irrelevancy...Mitt Romney. I too want to hear what Obama is going to do for American over the next four years.
    When do you think we'll hear it?
     
  19. Pred

    Pred Well-Known Member

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    No kidding. Obama not once during the campaign could cite anything positive he's done. Ooooh, he got Osama. Big whoop. Hasn't made much of a difference has it?And its not like he played any part it in. Just got lucky sitting in a chair while it happened. WHat else? Massive dept. The private industry hates him. Our power in the world is being diminished by the day. The guy didn't have 1 real positive thing to talk about so call the other side nuts, crank up the free handouts to ANYONE to garner more votes from the desperate and here we are. Worse off then 5 yrs ago.
     

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