With Mitt Romney's campaign getting hit by the perfect storm of low likeability, non-stop foreign policy gaffes, and video of him insulting half of America, Republican leaders and pundits know exactly what it is their candidate needs to turn all of his problems around and lead the party to victory.
He's got to quit being such a warm, affectionate guy and get really tough. Downright mean. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
"Mitt Romney in particular will have to speak up…It's not enough to float like a butterfly. You have to sting like a bee. No sting, no victory."
-- William Kristol
"He needs to get severely aggressive."
-- Sarah Palin
Mitt Romney needs "more fight."
-- Rupert Murdoch
"You got to use those buzz words. You got to say socialist, you got to do that to get people's attention."
-- Bill O'Reilly
If Republicans "don't get tough, they're not going to win this."
-- Donald Trump
There's the strategy. It's so clear. And easy. To stop the bleeding, Mitt Romney has to take the gloves off. Go to the mat, Fredo. Let the public finally know, finally understand what a truly bad person President Barack Obama is. Because once they learn how dangerous he is, Americans will abandon him in droves.
That's what Republicans need. Without doing it, Republican say, they will lose.
And that, too, unfortunately for Republicans, is the Insurmountable Problem that Mitt Romney faces. In fact, it's been the little-recognized Insurmountable Problem the GOP has faced since before the campaign season even started.
Apparently, you see, crack Republican experts don't understand that All They Have Been Doing for the past five years is trying to get the public to understand what a what a truly evil person President Barack Obama is. Since before he was even president.
"I do know this, he's not an American. He's just not an American."
-- Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Barack Obama is "the most dangerous president" and "anti-American."
-- Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
"Barack Obama [has] turned the United States into a pro-homosexual regime and it's just despicable."
-- Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) President Peter LaBarbera
"We have to put an end to this Barack Obama presidency before it puts an end to our way of life in America."
-- Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus
"I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate."
-- Rep. Vicki Hartzler (R-MO)
"I can't say categorically that [Obama is not Muslim]"
-- Evangelist Franklin Graham
President Obama pursues an "outrageously anti-American" policy.
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
Barack Obama is "paling around with terrorists."
-- former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK)
Was that "a terrorist fist jab?"
-- Fox News host E.D. Hill, on Barack Obama greeting his wife
The President has "radical Islamic policies."
-- Alice Stewart, press secretary for Rick Santorum (later claiming she misspoke)
"There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way."
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
"I don't think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on religious freedom we've seen in Barack Obama."
-- Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R-MA)
President Obama "should be tried for treason."
-- woman at Cleveland town hall meeting to Mitt Romney, who stays silent.
"Am ppl r not stupid as this x prof of con law."
-- Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA)
"You lie!"
- Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)
"The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his [racist] influence on Barack Obama."
-- independently-financed Republican proposal for ad campaign
"You did not once during the 2008 campaign ask why Barack Obama voted in favor of legalizing infanticide."
-- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
And Republicans now want Mitt Romney to finally talk tough??
Seriously?
From John McCain derisively dismissing Mr. Obama as "That one!" in the 2008 presidential debates through Republicans claiming that Obama "death panels" want to literally kill the elderly, Republicans have not stopped spinning themselves into a whirling dervish of manic hatred.
If Republicans believe that Mitt Romney's one hope is to get tough, that he needs more fight, that he has to get severely aggressive and call President Obama a socialist…well…well, here's the thing -
Been there, done that. It hasn't worked. Americans elected him anyway. And they still, personally like him. Despite being decried for five years as a socialist, Nazi, Muslim, anti-American, Kenyan traitor, a CNN poll last week showed the President has a 57% likability rating among Americans, compared to just 42% against. And he's up 7 points in the polls.
And Republican intelligentsia want Mitt Romney to finally "speak up" and "sting like a bee"??! They've been pummeling Barack Obama with nuclear bombs for five years. A bee-sting would be like a blessed relief.
And when Mitt Romney did try to get "tough" last week, and criticized the President during a national tragedy, he was not only slammed by Democrats and diplomats, but by Republicans, as well, among them Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Peggy Noonan, Bill O'Reilly and more. Words like "craven," "ham-handed," "disgraceful," "offensive" and "irresponsible."
Mark Twain tells a story about a woman feeling sick, and he cheerfully offered her the same health advice he'd recently gotten. He said she should give up smoking, drinking and swearing, and therefore healthy living would cure her. Unfortunately, the woman explained that she didn't smoke, drink and swear. Twain thought a moment, and finally said, "There you have it! She was a sinking ship with no ballast to throw overboard."
Panicking Republicans have come to the point where their experts are saying that their candidate has only one option. That with a candidate who only 31% of Americans like, who is unwilling to discuss specifics of his proposals, has chosen to hide his tax returns, is without foreign policy experience, can't criticize affordable healthcare because his Romneycare is the same, can't use his vice presidential candidate's budget plan because of the attention it brings to ending Medicare, can't address abortion because of his vice presidential candidate's direct ties to Todd Akin and "legitimate rape," and who is falling in the polls - all their candidate has left is to finally start saying tough, aggressive, stinging things about Barack Obama.
This is an Insurmountable Problem.
Because if that's what Mitt Romney must do to stay afloat, Republicans have already shot their wad. His campaign is a sinking ship with no ballast to throw overboard.
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Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
Where does on Start?
Liberals Have short memories---------------
I wish Sarah Palin was also on that Plane
Keith Halloran, a Democratic candidate for state representative in New Hampshire on the plane crash that killed Ted Stevens.
Liberals love the afric:an American
MSNBC talkshow host Lawrence O'Donnell said of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, "Michael Steele is dancing for his real master, the RNC."[38]
The tell-all book Game Change reports that Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid said America would vote for Barack Obama because he was a "light-skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."[39]
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton, when asking Sen. Ted Kennedy for his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, said of Obama: "A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee."[
Former Vermont Governor and current DNC chairman, Howard Dean joked during a speech, “You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here.” [43]
Condoleezza Rice was the first African-American woman to be Secretary of State. Liberal columnist Ted Rall made a racist cartoon stating her "punishment" was to be sent to a racial re-education camp, and in the process calls her "Bush's beard" and Bush's "house n****". [44] Other liberal "cartoonists" like Pat Oliphant, for instance, depicted her as a bird with accentuated lips praising her "master".
Liberals Hates Indians---------------
Former liberal press member Helen Thomas disparaged Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal by making a reference to the film Slumdog Millionaire and associating it with him
Liberals love the Disabled:
Liberal pundit and columnist Maureen Dowd referred to "extra chromosome conservatives" in an interview with Bill Maher's on HBO. The National Down Syndrome Society issued a statement saying use of the term "extra chromosome" as a negative descriptor "is insensitive and demeaning to the more than 350,000 people in the United States who have Down syndrome, which occurs when there is an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. Regardless of who originally coined the term... Ms. Dowd has perpetuated it as a slur against hundreds of thousands of Americans who are contributing members of society and who deserve the same respect that we all expect."[3]
Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is reported to commonly denigrate persons he disagrees with as "retarded;" he was pointedly criticized for this by Sarah Palin.[4]
Former Vice President, Nobel Prize winner, and senior Democratic Party elder statesman Al Gore mocked children with Down syndrome by referring to his political critics as having "an extra chromosome."[5]
On March 3 2009, President Obama ridiculed children with disabilities on Jay Leno's program when answering a question about his bowling prowess. Obama said "It was like Special Olympics
>
> Liberals Have short memories
Seriously, do you think those few, 18 quotes I came up with were "all" I could find? Seriously? If you don't grasp that these were just the tip -- of the tip of the tip -- of the iceberg, then you have been living in seclusion for the past five years.
I don't excuse ill-mannered jokes -- but I at least can draw the distinction between bad jokes in poor taste and true, pure, visceral hatred and fear. Most of what you quoted were the former. What I listed were all the latter. Most of who you quoted were non-official pundits; most of who I quote were official Republican political leaders. And all your quotes are spread out among many separate individuals -- mine were all directed at one person only.
But mainly -- again -- seriously (and I mean "seriously" in all its actual meaning), do you truly think that those 18 quote I found were all I could come up with?
Seriously?
I could still be typing through next Wednesday, and still not come close to quoting the angry, mean-spirited, guttural, racist, abhorrent hostility of the Far Right towards the President of the United States.
Please don't try to suggest otherwise. It does you no service.
Anyone who could vote for Obama after listening to the dodges of his lieutenants over the past few days in response to the disastrous consequences of Obama's misreading of Islam and epic negligence relating to elementary security measures, is fatally deluded.
A recent poll indicates that the all-important independent voters have drastically turned against Obama in the last week.
Over whom? Dustbunnies under the bed?
No Robert there are racists everywhere. I live in Boston-Liberal Mecca where I didn't most eet a Republican til I was in College. It has long been considered a most racist city.
I could type forever as well on this subject.
From 2008- this should have sank the campaign right there----
Speaking in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today, would-be First Lady Michelle Obama said, "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."
Then in Madison, she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change."
While Obama has prompted the racist wing of the GOP to act out, they'd be bringing on the crazy if Hillary had won. They are simply idiots who have too much control over the Party, and it's hurting Romney even more than he hurts himself. I don't think anyone in America except the wingbats thought the RNConvention did a good enough job of hiding the base crazies because anyone paying the least bit of attention knows the ignorati runs the show.
That aside, observe how the Indoctrinated Loyalists like Gordie and Jay try to talk their way around the obvious, to no effect other than advertising their own inability to see the disastrous course the GOP has taken. Of course Gordon's graveyard whistling is droll compared to Jay's absurd effort to compare random quotes to the organized efforts of the idiot-driven "conservative media" and Party pols.
Romney is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't and damned in general. The loyalists should know the Party wasn't expecting to win this year, which is why they got left with B-list Romney. The clue they should take is that they don't like him either, so why should they expect others to join in their stoic delusions?
There is racism everywhere both parties. Nobody got it like Clarence Thomas. Condi Rice was trashed repeatedly. Michael Steele was called an Uncle Tom..............
I thought it was great a great moment that America could elect a Black man. I knew he was ill-prepared and at best a socialist. I read his book and was shocked that he could even consider running. I actually was rooting for Hillary as I knew John Mac was a joke.
I know liberals who have incredibly low opinions of blacks, they think they need special treatment and society to even it out. Nothing more racist than that in my opinion.
Paul, you can attack all you want and paint a version of me that suits your basic three cord strumming but, I feel sorry for you. One would think you were on the payroll as you have never found a flaw in your candidate or your cause. Of all places, you should feel safe to do so here.
And someone should tip off Gordon O to InTrade where Romney shares are now going for around $3.30. There are many who looking for Romney bettors and there are fortunes to be made.
You have a problem with word meanings. Clarence Thomas was a victim of racism because many thought he didn't belong on the bench? 20 years later, the guy has spoken 2 sentences and proved his detractors right. However, that's not racism. Condi is also pretty much incompetent, depending on what gov post she held. That doesn't make me a racist. Just like your above pointless list, what you just wrote made no sense. It's not congruent with reality. It's desperate example that doesn't connect. Do you think simply saying something makes it a valid response?
If you knew anything about the GOP, you'd know race baiting is a Party-acknowledged strategy. This post was not about racism, but somehow you found your way to it because it's on the GOP trait list, and then you prove you don't even know what the word means.
You don't know my political views and you don't have the capacity to know them anyway. I can assure you they're far more considered and knowledgeable than yours, but that's not my point in dealing with you. My point is your politics are Follower-Repeater blended with what little you can generate with your own perceptions, and your arguments are adolescent, mis-and-uninformed, unreasoned and illogical. You go up against the Bigger League players and laughably think that cut-and-paste boilerplate Rwing crapbabble makes you a player.
That's really the gist of what I'm saying.
edward
samaa tv
JAY has a problem with meanings?! Laugh of the day.
Vintage PJOR. Application of nonsense liberally larded with self-praise and almost psychotic defense of a sub-standard mentality.
Normal commentators are content to point out the errors and/or stupidity of others. But notice how PJOR invariably couples that with a self-inflicted pat, no more like a blow, on his back. Really quite sad.
Considering your status as the Open Salon gasbag, your sissy sniping only prompts a grin. There's so many of my footprints on your back we can't see the "Welcome" invitation.
Your linguistic legerdemain is inversely proportional to your political knowledge, reducing the impact of your overwrought attempts at criticism. Your snippy lil' remarks could be used to argue quantum mechanics - another subject you know little about - because they're generic and insubstantial.
Gordon Osmond -- Master of Pansy Polemics.
> have drastically turned against Obama in the last week.
What you conveniently left out is that that same CNN poll (which I assume you are referring to) has President up among ALL voters by six points. And you picked-and-chose your data. The Gallup Poll has Mr. Romney up by just 1 point among independents. And ultimately, we elect the president by Electoral votes (where all studies have President Obama heavily ahead), so none of these poll figures really matter.
> As long as Obama and Biden are given the right to open their
> mouths, Romney is on his way to victory.
Given the potential campaign-ending problems that Mitt Romney has made for himself the past week by talking, I think this odd argument might not be the best one to make...
Nothing in my article or comments discussed racism in America. You are making an unfair connection. Racism in America is a matter for a much longer analysis -- and though racism does exist everywhere, it doesn't exist everywhere equally, and a discussion of the subject, I suspect, is not one you would like. To be clear, though, my one comment noted only the ongoing racist attacks for the past five years against the President of the United States. I certainly hope you are not attempting to suggest that *that* hasn't been the case. It would remove your credibility.
> From 2008- this should have sank the campaign right there----
>
> Speaking in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today, would-be First Lady
> Michelle Obama said, "for the first time in my adult life I am
> proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a
> comeback."
And yet, despite you thinking "it should have sank the campaign right there" -- it didn't! And the reason it didn't is because (unlike what you're trying to inappropriately suggest) most Americans understood that that wasn't a racist comment at all -- just like taping her fist with her husband wasn't a "terrorist jab." Indeed most Americans understood what she was saying -- that she was deeply happy to see a sad history of racism taking a back seat and people voting finally for a Black man for President. And so her comment didn't sink the campaign -- Barack Obama actually won and was elected President of the United States.