Members of the Republican National Committee gathering in Arizona were invited to meet with Mitt Romney in private Friday and have their pictures taken with the presumptive GOP nominee, but there was a price of admission: loyalty. RNC members and state GOP chairmen were welcomed into the private reception only after signing a form pledging to support Romney as a delegate to the national convention in Tampa. All 168 members of the committee have a vote at the convention as “superdelegates” – and one of Romney’s supporters on the RNC estimated that over 100 members signed the form. The Romney “delegate pledge form” asked members to sign their name and “pledge to vote for Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican National Convention on all ballots until Mitt Romney has been nominated.”
Romney spoke only briefly and spent roughly 20 minutes shaking hands and posing with members in a photo line.
“This is where all the power is, huh?” Romney joked as he entered the room to applause. “Thank you for all your work. Thank you for your help.”
Not everyone was allowed to join in the fun. All three members of Iowa’s conservative RNC delegation – party chairman A.J. Spiker and committee members Steve Scheffler and Kim Lehman – attempted to enter the reception but were rebuffed after refusing to sign the delegate pledge.
The dispute became heated in the hallway outside, with the Iowans demanding to know why they had to sign a form to get their picture taken with the former Massachusetts governor. Several of Romney’s deputies on the committee assured the trio that they could keep their support a secret by checking the appropriate box, but they refused to do so.
“They don’t trust us,” a frustrated Scheffler said after the argument. “I have said I will support the nominee when we have a nominee, no ifs, ands or buts.” The Iowa delegates were later given the opportunity to pose for a photo with Romney at a luncheon for RNC members, after the private event for supporters.
These are superdelegates, so the comparison is not an exact fit, but I was an Obama delegate in 2008 and the Romney and Obama approaches seem very different. Once the primary was over, the Obama campaign set up a series of conference calls with pledged Obama delegates and pledged Clinton delegates where we could talk to each other and make some attempt at unity going into the convention. Everyone understood we needed both camps. No orders were issued, no loyalty demands were made, it was all persuasion. Maybe the situation was different for Clinton superdelegates, and they were ordered to sign loyalty oaths prior to the end of the primary season, but that was absolutely not the approach with ordinary, elected delegates in Ohio.
Also, this:
“This is where all the power is, huh?” Romney joked as he entered the room to applause.
This is an example of what I’m starting to think is a classic Mitt Romney put-down poorly disguised as a joke. Having buried his incredibly weak opponents in tons of money, he’s there to remind them who has the real power: Mitt Romney.
In an interview with ABC News in Scottsdale, Ariz., RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said that “Tuesday is going to be very important” as the committee moves to “further accelerate the communication between the RNC and Governor Romney’s campaign.” While Priebus said the RNC would continue to “show respect” for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul, Tuesday’s primaries will pave the way toward a “complete and total merger between the RNC and the presumptive nominee.”
It’s a merger. I wonder if the Republican Party rank and file are starting to feel like these employees who were thrown on the scrap heap after Mitt Romney’s Bain came to town:
His specialty was flipping companies—or what he often calls “creative destruction.” His formula was simple: Bain would purchase a firm with little money down, then begin extracting huge management fees and paying Romney and his investors enormous dividends.
The result was that previously profitable companies were now burdened with debt. But much like the Enron boys, Romney’s battery of MBAs fancied themselves the smartest guys in the room. It didn’t matter if a company manufactured bicycles or contact lenses; they were certain they could run it better than anyone else.
Bain would slash costs, jettison workers, reposition product lines, and merge its new companies with other firms. With luck, they’d be able to dump the firm in a few years for millions more than they’d paid for it. But the beauty of Romney’s thesis was that it really didn’t matter if the company succeeded. Because he was yanking out cash early and often, he would profit even if his targets collapsed.
BGinCHI
It’s aristocracy without the class or manners.
Imagine how boring “Downton Abbey” would be if they did it at Romney’s house.
4tehlulz
“I wonder if the Republican Party rank and file are starting to feel like these employees who were thrown on the scrap heap after Mitt Romney’s Bain came to town”
Lie down with dogs etc.
Litlebritdifrnt
I Posted this downstairs, but it is still on topic here. Interesting tweet from New Hampshire
Ash Can
The Soviet Communist Party is alive and well and living in the GOP. They have become what they purported to detest most.
Steve
It really doesn’t make a lot of sense to be a sore winner. If they don’t get loyalty oaths from all the delegates, what are they afraid of, suddenly they’re all going to vote for Tim Pawlenty at the convention? Just dumb.
DFS
Now I envision Romney pointing at his hand and screaming THIS IS WHERE THE POWER LIES
amk
All that money apparently couldn’t buy class for mitt.
I just hope he keeps treating his party members and voters as his paid minions till nov.
beltane
@BGinCHI: At least Princes William & Harry were expected to perform some kind of military service. Our own Romney-style aristocrats don’t even make a show of true patriotism and service to country. They just want to lead this country to slaughter so they can sell the parts and render the fat. To Romney, “America” is just another business he can pillage and loot.
eemom
Also this:
Fucking ARIZONA. And Obama has a significant advantage in every battleground state poll that I’ve heard of so far.
These facts, and the constant daily innundation of jaw-dropping grotesqueries from Romtron, Inc. like the one in this post, more and more convince me that ANY kind of portrayal of this election as any kind of a close contest is pure fabrication by those whose livelihoods depend upon it.
butler
@Steve: Doesn’t surprise me at all. This is a party which has demanded loyalty oaths from those in attendance at “town hall” style campaign events in the past (and possibly still does).
Kay
@Steve:
I can’t figure out if it’s a plus or a minus in conservative circles. They like Strong Leaders, but I’m not sure anyone likes contempt mixed with robotic demands for compliance.
It’s a fine line he has to tread, not that he gives a shit :)
BGinCHI
@beltane: Yep. Nouveau riche worthless fucks. Even if To the Mexican Polygamist Compound/Manor Born.
aimai
I hang out a lot at a women’s site for dealing with Mother in laws and assorted crazy family. Mitt’s abiding characteristic is his…bitchiness. His comments are all passive agressive “digs” at the other person, orders and commands poorly disguised as “suggestions.” His “we” is always the royal “we.” I think that is one of the most disconcerting things about Romney’s public affect–he looks so masculine but his speech is all gratingly bitchy.
aimai
Stooleo
Remember the part in the movie “Goodfellas” where they take over the tiki bar?. They max-out the credit in the bar, squeeze every dime out of it and then torch it. Who cares if the previous owner kills himself out of despair.
Mitt Romney did this legally.
joeyess
Sounds like a bookie to me.
eemom
@Litlebritdifrnt:
And that is yet ANOTHER key fact that has been quietly reported upon and ignored by the emmessemm noise machine: the short-sighted foot-shooting moronity of the Romtron campaign in closing up those offices in ALL the primary states, as compared to the common sense of the Obama campaign in ’08 keeping them to use them as launching pads for the general.
BGinCHI
@joeyess: Or a parasite, though parasites generally try to keep the host alive so they can use it.
So, stupid parasite I guess.
PeakVT
People like Romney are basically strip-mining the country. They’re converting the accumulated human and fixed capital in cash and transferring it into their pockets. What’s left behind is giant mess of lives.
seanindc
that shit reminds me of this scene from Goodfellas
This is how that crew works. Seriously. No difference between Bain and Goodfellas.
Kay
@aimai:
I loved the clip with Romney and Sean Hannity, because you can’t see Hannity’s face but you can see Romney.
Mitt Romney thinks Sean Hannity is a clown. His expression is bored and condescending. He’s practically idly humming while Hannity speaks. He would never spend time with him in his “real life”.
eemom
@aimai:
I LOVE this. I want to marry it.
joeyess
In fact…… this is what comes to mind with this quote:
BGinCHI
@eemom: Polygamist.
Or just polygamist curious?
Litlebritdifrnt
@eemom:
We’ve had an Obama office open in Wilmington here in NC for at least a month.
Steve in DC
As scum baggy as what Romney did was, it remains legal and is pretty much what capital firms do. You take a company and flip it to make a buck. Or find a way to make it more profitable.
Of course the problem with profit is that all costs, of which employee compensation and benefits are a fucking massive one, are bad. You always try to lower costs and raise production.
People at the top look at America like a company. It’s all stocks, bonds, how the DOW is doing. And it’s a competition to have America beat other nations like this.
The problem is we can’t. We simply can’t keep those great profit margins they love and pay people a working wage, and we sure as shit can’t support a welfare state either. Unless people fundamentally change on all levels, and I’m talking savaging all the people making over 100k and focusing on the workers entirely, profit being almost a dirty word, that’s not going to change.
What’s really scary is it’s that sort of “economics” that our elite schools and institutions are cranking out.
amk
@BGinCHI: mittbot is more like python – crush, eat and leave crap behind. But hey, the “hard-working” whiteys are his willing victims. Good for them.
gaz
Shorter Romney: Nice delegation you’ve got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it.
Brachiator
Mittens was far better organized than his opponents, and clearly had the support of the GOP party bosses. To put this down to just the application of money seriously underestimates what Mitt has accomplished.
I agree that his arrogance is slipping through. It’s almost as though he sees his election as a done deal, and has already booked all the venues for his inaugural balls.
Look to see him use a variation of this in the debates. He will try to make it look as though he is not just presidential, but that he has always been president.
Villago Delenda Est
Oooh, a preemptive strike on the stealth Paulites! Woot!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I often think he’s the most contemptuous politician I’ve ever seen. Romney has all (maybe more) of the Bushian sense of entitlement and none of the Dumbya’s sweaty insecurity. Romney’s insecurity in this, such as it is, is a byproduct of his arrogance. “One really can’t trust these people, they’re the sort who would vote for Santorum, even Gingrich.” Poppy Bush pandered with pork rinds and the Oak Ridge Boys, but while he was a snob, it wasn’t as nasty as Romney’s condescension. Poppy was like the preppies who booze it up at the dive bar after dinner at the Club with the parents the night before the regatta. Romney can barely conceal his impatience with these proles who signatures he needs to turn their farm into a shopping mall, or landfill.
FoxinSocks
My mother and I were talking the other day and Mom pointed out Romney’s habit of putting people down and making them uncomfortable, even when he’s out and about with voters.
Take the infamous cookie incident from last week. Romney is given a batch of cookies. A normal person would be delighted, say ‘thank you’ and maybe ask who baked them. A seasoned politician would certainly do this. But not Romney. He started in that the cookies must’ve come from 7-Eleven and jokingly accused the woman who had given him the cookies of tricking him.
First of all, that’s just unforgiveably rude. But there’s also a power dynamic at play. He’s belittling the woman, making her feel uncomfortable, and apparently this guy is such a prick that he can’t help himself.
gaz
@Steve in DC:
Wait. So Romney is going to lay off the rubes and outsource his support to India?
That’d be fucking cool to see.
MattF
And… if delegates sign the form and then change their mind, they have to attend the convention in a box tied to the roof of the convention hall.
Villago Delenda Est
@MattF:
Win!
c u n d gulag
“Baby Doc” Bush’s base was “The have’s, and the have more’s.”
Mitt’s base is “The have more’s, and the want it all’s!”
Steve in DC
@Jim
Bush the elder was a blue blood, just like Romney. Unlike Romney however he didn’t seem to disdain those less well off than him. I’d chalk part of that up to military service which can be rather humbling.
This isn’t just a “rich asshole” thing either. I know plenty of people that hate on non college educated people because they themselves have a degree and what are those losers doing. Certain professions (lawyers, doctors) also loath those less well off than them. Or the sneering jerkishness of liberals like Maher and other people when they think about “people from fly over country”.
As a country we are very prone to hold those who haven’t accomplished what we have in contempt.
Romney just has a lot more people to shit on.
Kay
@Brachiator:
I don’t think it does. I think burying them with negative ads was over-kill. It was an incredibly weak field. That fact is, none of those people were going to be the GOP nominee.
I don’t know how Romney will do in the general, but he beat an incredibly weak field. I know people like Ryan Lizza have to pretend Michele Bachmann has a shot at being the GOP nominee, but, no, she doesn’t. It was always going to be Romney, because he was the only one who was remotely electable nationally. It was an inevitable process of elimination. I think it was nothing like Clinton versus Obama.
Martin
@c u n d gulag: One of my favorite lines from a TMBG song is “I don’t want the world; I just want your half.”
That really should be the Romney campaign slogan.
El Cid
@aimai: I’m not sure about these cookies. They don’t look like you made them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gaz:
He is certainly taking that way in the article quoted. He has that whole take over CEO meeting the new purchased employees “I have to make you f****ing leeches feel good for the d*mn year until I can fire you” thing going.
dmsilev
@FoxinSocks:
So, I wonder, has Chris Matthews gone on some long rant about how Romney can’t relate to ordinary folks, the way he did when Obama asked for the incredibly exotic drink of orange juice back in 2008?
amk
@MattF: LOL. Prolly mittbot will hire a fire engine to tag along to clean up his car’s rear windshield 24×7.
gaz
@Kay: I agree.
“Romney will win the nomination, and lose the general.” has been gospel to me since the GOP primary field formed, and half of that prediction is precisely based on what you said about the weakness of the field.
And as far as the general? Let’s face it. Short of economic disaster, as effective as the GOP is in general at the messaging game (with much help from a sycophantic MSM), Romney absolutely sucks at it. Either that, or he’s stealth campaigning for Obama. The more he talks, the more votes Obama will get.
Let’s see:
1. An upticking economy, and dropping unemployment rate.
2. Historically significant low popularity with his base.
3. Horrible at campaigning.
I don’t even need to contrast that with Obama’s strengths in that regard.
This is one of the most lopsided fights in modern American politics.
ETA: And that by no means is an excuse for anyone to be complacent. American politics is a strange game. Anything can happen.
That said, I’d still put money on Obama’s 2nd term. And the only other thing I bet on is the Seahawks to lose the superbowl =)
El Cid
Rachel Maddow last night showed where the Paul campaign is indeed cleaning up the delegates they promised they would in Iowa and Minnesota.
From the International Business Times:
And, a tee, and a hee, and another hee for good measure.
FoxinSocks
It’s not just that Romney can’t relate to ordinary folks, it’s that in any situation, he needs to put down those around him.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
Tweety is probably still mesmerized by Mitten’s 737 landing strip shoulders.
Kay
@gaz:
I don’t know if he’ll lose the general. I just think it’s nonsense that eking out a win against that field is an “accomplishment”. Newt Gingrich, who was collaring innocent convention goers wandering by a rented room to attend his “events” was going to be the GOP nominee? No, he wasn’t. Not a chance.
cckids
@aimai:
I think you’ve hit on a main reason women dislike Romney at such a basic level–that combo of the disdain his religion feels for strong women combined with the mean-girl bitchiness so many of us hated in high school. Worst of both genders, rolled into one shiny package.
Yikes, GOP.
gaz
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I hope his robo-calls are voiced over by support guys in India. That will play well with the xenophobes – and anyone that’s ever had to understand technical support jargon through a thick accent. =)
(Yes I’m being silly at this point – but the situation demands mirth!)
Yutsano
@El Cid: FEEL TEH PAULMENTUM!!
(Seriously, I can’t wait for this rodentia copulation to begin. I know Paul will stake out a HUGE price for his convention support. Willard/Rand 2012!!)
rlrr
@aimai:
“gratingly bitchy” describes every Republican Presidential nominee since Bush I (inclusive).
gaz
@Kay: Well, on the general thing, if you know anyone that’s convinced Obama will lose, I’ve got a standing bet. =) I could use the extra cash – my car died recently =) I’d love to speak to romney about this. =)
Forum Transmitted Disease
The party of loyalty oaths doesn’t like loyalty oaths when they get asked to sign one?
FUCK YOU, EAT ROMNEY’S SHIT AND SAY YOU LOVE IT, YOU CRAWLING BAGS OF CRAP.
gaz
@Yutsano: I watched Willard the other night (the one with Crispin Glover). It seemed apropos, somehow.
amk
A cute lyric from theobamadiary.
There once was a dog named Seamus
Whose cuteness came along to claim us
Then Mitt strapped him on the roof
To never again cry Woof
Villago Delenda Est
@joeyess:
Another win on this thread!
Billy Ray: Sounds to me like you guys a couple of bookies. Randolph Duke: [chuckling, patting Billy Ray on the back] I told you he’d understand.
Kay
@gaz:
I don’t make bets. I like people who do, though. I picked Romney as the winner of the primary here at BJ because I think he was the only serious candidate, so it was easy.
I don’t consider bets “binding”, in my own personal ethical code, so if we lose I’ll never bring it up again anyway :)
I have no idea who is going to win. That’s an honest answer.
cckids
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Kind of like Nancy Reagan, if she’d been the politician instead of Ronnie. She had tremendous disdain, generally ill-concealed, for the public. Saved only by the hero-worship of Reagan & her puppy-like devotion to him.
eta: blockquote fail. WTF WP?
chopper
@FoxinSocks:
his whole underlying theme here, and he just can’t fucking control it, is your hard work is meaningless to me.
this is a guy who would walk up to michelangelo after he finished the sistine chapel, slap him on the back and say ‘hey, we can’t all go to college’.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I don’t have enough faith in the American electorate to say this is gonna be an easy win for Obama. I think one interesting thing to watch will be Santorum and the Bishops. The latter are clearly feeling their oats, the former is deluded enough to think he’s “next in line” if Romney goes down, and that it will prove that the American People Really Want a fourteenth century Benedectine abbot (Santovanarola in 2016!) in the White House. They could fuel each other’s madness and make it impossible for Romney to shape shift enough for all the tote-bagging suburbanites who want to tell themselves he’s not that bad so they can vote to get their taxes cut again.
danielx
@4tehlulz:
Question is, who are the dogs? And who or what is the Republican rank and file? The Teabaggers can’t stand the Marquis, they know him for what he is no matter how much bloviating he offers about eliminating government departments – and he ain’t for them. From what I can tell by reading the Freeperati, they regard him as very little different than Obama. That portion of the ‘Republican base’ – whatever the ‘Republican base’ amounts to these days – has reached the wingnut event horizon. Nobody with a prayer of getting elected is ‘conservative’ enough for them. I suspect that nobody to the left of Genghis Khan would be. Now a lot of these folks may not be very smart, but they’re smart enough to realize that a rich Wall Street asshole, Swiss bank accounts and all, isn’t going to give a fuck about their issues and concerns. Why should he? it isn’t the wholehearted support of the Teabaggers that got Mittens where he is, money got him where he is. He knows they detest him; he is, after all, fairly detestable. That’s not even considering the Mormon thing and his general attitude of there being two kinds of people in the world – Mitt Romney and the help.
Mittens suits standard issue corporate Republicans of the Mitch Daniels variety just fine. After all, he’s one of them. His economic policies look like they’d be a straight replay of those of the Bush regime – they worked very well for Mittens and his ilk, even if they pretty much sucked ass for the other three hundred million of us.
The Teabaggers forgot – if they ever knew it – the chief rule in predicting the path of the Republican party: follow the fuckin’ money. Everything else – social concerns, foreign policy, whatever – is subsidiary.
Brachiator
@Kay:
I agree that Romney was the most electable of the weak GOP field. But Romney did what he needed to do in advance to convince the GOP power brokers that he was their best choice, and he kept away stronger challengers even as Republican voters continued to be wary of him.
The Other Chuck
Not mentioned was the incident where one of the superdelegates made for the refreshments table and Mitt cut him off, angrily yelling “Coffee is for closers!”
gene108
I’ll be finishing my MBA in August and I for the life of me have not been taught how to gut corporations, ruthlessly fire people and downsize and a whole bunch of other stuff MBA’s are supposed to learn.
Too bad I can’t get a refund.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Well, one of the factors is that the “Dream Candidates” (of which Rmoney is not considered to be among) were all scared off by a popular incumbent President who got bin Laden and has an improving economy that was cratered by the previous Rethug malassministration.
They’re all keeping their powder dry for 2016, when hopefully enough voters will forget that the deserting coward’s brilliant watch nearly gave us Great Depression II Electric Boogaloo.
bemused
One of the most awful of Mitt’s little “jokes” was the “who let the dogs out” photo op.
Ann did say he was a prankster…maybe she has been the target of his jokes and hasn’t realized it.
gaz
@Kay: I love Romney. He was the only one who could have won the nom, but he’s maybe the worst possible candidate for the rabid base – and attempting to pander to them (with no political upside for him in that, IMO) has made him the worst possible candidate for general voters. Should be a fun. (reaches for popcorn)
What I love most about Romney is he seems to be employing Karl Roves tactic (Make their greatest strength their greatest weakness) only against himself.
An example (among many):
If anything, his biggest selling point (at least to the rubes, other than being white, and being Not-Obama – sort of – there’s that whole healthcare thing…) , is that he’s a “skilled businessman” and therefore “the right guy for the job”. <- I don't actually agree with that assessment, but it's marketable to people who don't think very much.
And yet, whenever he mentions his "business success" he does so in the most arrogant way possible. He lords it over his base, and over the larger public, without even trying to do so. He just doesn't know how else to behave, or that there is even another way to behave.
Keep him talking folks. Keep him talking.
Ash Can
@Yutsano: A humorous thought, to be sure, but I don’t think Paul has, or will have at the time of the convention, anywhere near enough delegates to wield any kind of influence at all. This is not to say I don’t think there will be enough rabid (is there any other kind?) Ron Paul cultists at the convention to act up, heckle, start fistfights, throw chairs, and just be all-around
entertainingpains-in-the-ass to the GOP PTB.Villago Delenda Est
@The Other Chuck:
So much pop culture win on this thread!
Betsy
Kay, you are really good at this, and I enjoyed this post.
gaz
@danielx:
Despite being a war-monger, ol’ Ghengis was fairly progressive in his day, WRT to foreign policy. When he conquered other nations, he allowed them to largely maintain their own currency, their own religion, their own culture. He just wanted his cut of the profit. Fiscally pragmatic, and multicultural, that one! =)
Well, when they refused he’d burn the place to the effin ground, but that’s another ball of wax.
royalblue_tom
@FoxinSocks: Who knew that negging would be the next big thing in campaigning!
eemom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nobody has less faith in that than I do, and I still maintain it’s gonna be a stomp.
@danielx:
@gaz:
Right and right.
What a wise and witty thread this is!
CW in LA
@gaz: Sure, but with both the general election and a Super Bowl involving the Seahawks, there’s the question of the game being rigged.
Anyway, I’m absolutely not complacent about the election; it’s always an uphill slog to convince a sufficient number of voters not be as self-destructively stupid as they appear naturally inclined to be.
Bokonon
About Romney’s campaign closing their primary offices in places like New Hampshire:
Maybe these guys think that they don’t NEED physical campaign offices, or local campaign structures, or feet on the street. After all, they intend to run millions of dollars of negative campaign ads on TV, cable, radio, and in print media, plus phone banks and robo-calls. So maybe they can just bypass all that old 20th century personal contact door-to-door stuff?
Martin
@Brachiator: Boy, that’s some faint praise there. Santorum had nearly zero organization, and Newt barely more than zero. Cain had zero as well. Bachmann at least had a little bit, but she was gone at the outset.
If Mitt had organization, he should have stomped in Iowa. That’s where organization shows best – and then in subsequent caucus states where you have to get in, get set up, and mobilize quickly. Mitt got killed in most caucus states. Santorum, with almost no offices and almost no money beat Mitt on the ground. I think when all is said and done, we’re going to look back and see that Ron Paul was far and away the most organized and got the most bang for the buck – especially for such a crazy kook.
Mitt has no meaningful organization outside of fundraising and marketing. Those big corporate things are fine up to a point, but he’s not going to win over the youth vote by carpet bombing them with ads, and that’s pretty much his whole organization so far. He got the party bosses by default – who the fuck else were they going to back? Newt? They fucking hate Newt. Santorum? Maybe – but I think everyone realized that Santorum was going to be a general election disaster because he’s a true believer. If we had someone like TPaw remain in the mix, who is arguably a passable general election candidate, I’m not sure Romney would have gotten the attention.
Perhaps Mitt can pull this together, but it’s looking like McCain all over again so far. I’m not seeing any real evidence that Romney can build a workable campaign.
But I think Mitt has to act like the nomination is his. There’s a point where you need to play the ‘attitude is destiny’ card, and I think it’s safe to say that post-Easter, he’s there. To do anything else would look pretty weak. Mitts problem I think is that he expresses it so poorly – at no time have I ever gotten the sense that Mitt could express the ‘we’re all in this together’ thing. Emotionally, it just seems like it escapes him at every opportunity. McCain had trouble with that as well. I’ve always suspected it’s because Mitt can’t really step out of the Mormon closet – so he’s always got this mask over his personal connection to everything.
daveNYC
@rlrr: At least Poppy Bush had been Li in the world a bit. Signed up for WWII flew in the Pacific and things. Doesn’t make him a great humanitarian, but it takes some of the edge off since he had nutted up in the past. Romney is just a pampered brat whose greatest hardship was having to figure out the bidet when he was spending Vietnam in Paris.
JWL
Romney is GW Bush (lacking only Bush’s phony cowboy swagger). The man is a sociopath, and proud to be one.
He shares this in common with Bush, too– neither possesses a sense of humor.
Kay
@Brachiator:
I’l give you an example of what I consider needless (and divisive) overkill. DeWine, who is the AG of Ohio, had endorsed Romney. Then Romney went after what wingnuts call “felon voting” because Dewine and Santorum had both supported “felon voting” in the Senate, back when they were pretending to be decent people.
So Dewine switched from Romney to Santorum.
It’s just this casual, arrogant douchebaggery. I don’t think it’s necessary, but it’s important to him that he be the Biggest Dick in the Room.
Ash Can
And in other, not-entirely-unrelated news, over the past year, Wisconsin under Scott Walker has catapulted to number one in the nation! — in jobs lost (h/t ThinkProgress).
The recall election is June 5. Go you cheeseheads, go!
Forum Transmitted Disease
@JWL: Bush had a sense of humor – he just wasn’t funny.
Romney’s making Bush look smart, funny, polite and restrained. I have never seen a “politician” that was so utterly inept at basic human interaction as Romney is. He’s seriously just awful, 24/7. I can’t believe that the GOP is running this chump and am very sure that the goal here is to lose.
Ash Can
Once my mostly-but-not-completely-OT comment on Scott Walker is released from moderation, I’m offering a whole box of cyber-cookies to whomever can tell me what in my comment tripped the filter.
Hoodie
@Martin: Mitt is even weaker than McCain, because Gramps could at least substitute the war hero stuff for the personal connection you describe. Mitt’s money was an advantage in the primaries, but is pretty meaningless in the general. Whomever wins the Republican nomination is going to get a boatload of corporate cash behind them. Mitt doesn’t appear to have anything else going for him. Even his “business acumen” is pretty useless, because it’s not a Herb Kelleher or Steve Jobs kind of thing. Rather, it’s Bain financial vampire stuff, which will make him look even less human.
BudP
But Romney’s campaign slogan is catchy
amk
@Martin: Nailed it. And all this talk about mitt is electable in GE is based on what evidence ?
gaz
Somewhat OT (well, it’s about romney’s business dealings & wal-mart)
I’ve been digging around the edges of the wal-mart/mexico bribery scandal, and the more I find out about it, the more guilty wal-mart seems. (And yeah, I was skeptical at first due to provisions (aka loopholes) in the FCPA)
And then bam!, check this out:
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/04/walmart-executive-in-bribery-coverup-works-at-romney-121325.html
A Romney link to the whole bribery mess. While not exactly a smoking gun, it’s a pretty substantial story, I’d think.
SatanicPanic
@JWL: The handful of people I knew who have been obvious sociopaths were strikingly unable to relate to people or assess the appropriate behavior in any given situation. Mitt really fits into that perfectly in a way that I’ve rarely seen in any politician.
Mike G
@4tehlulz:
I wonder how many kicks in the groin the Repuke rank and file will take, in their work lives and in politics, before they finally-maybe hint at the sacreligious-commie idea that maybe the “free market” and their corporatist overlords aren’t perfect and meritocratic and looking out for them. They’ve had decades of experience and haven’t caught on yet that they’re not in the club.
They sneer at the “losers” who were collateral damage in Rmoney’s vulture capitalism, while pretending it will never happen to them because they’re smarterer and whiter and gots more Jeebus.
gogol's wife
@Kay:
That’s what struck me. He’s so condescending when he speaks to him (you mean the “Austrian warmbloods” tape, right?). I know that kind of person, and I don’t like them.
gaz
@Kay:
DING DING DING
That’s why he WON’T win. =)
He can’t help himself, and he surrounds himself with people who agree with him (classic CEO). Not only are his handlers unable to stop him, they are often part of the problem.
American Politics is about the economy. It’s about likability. It’s about building coalitions. Romney has barely any cred among the sane in the first category, and no abilities in the second or third.
I’m not sure if his lack of a ground-game is indicative of this fact or a symptom of it, but I’m sure they’re related. =)
Betsy
@JWL: I AGREE. Romney is worse than arrogant, worse than tone-deaf, worse than a core-less flip-flopper — HE’S A SOCIOPATH. I just realized this after the cookie incident. The pattern is too clear: HE HAS NO HEART. Time to call the R-bot what he is: SOCIOPATH.
Sorry for all the caps; I get all excited when I’ve made a new realization.
Martin
@gaz: The more telling piece of the story:
So, Romney and crew set up a hedge fund, and then embark on the greatest act of regulatory capture every attempted in the US – taking over the executive branch of the government.
Even if that’s not the plan, it sure as hell looks like it from the outside.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Martin:
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Martin, as usual an excellent comment, which I can’t find much to disagree with, except for this part above.
__
Santorum didn’t have a traditional dedicated organization based on political operatives, fixers, and movers and shakers in local communities. What he did have was the backing of the right-wing churches and their congregations. They are an alternative organizational base which is very solid at GOTV (e.g. kay has written in the past on this blog re: the role they played swinging Ohio for GWB), but they get overlooked because their loyalty is to a way of viewing the world rather to than a specific candidate. They remain a potent force for winning elections at the grassroots level, available to any candidate who is able and willing to pay the ideological membership fee.
So overcoming Santorum’s campaign was a non-trivial undertaking for Romney to achieve, one that we overlook at our peril.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
But this is not how Republicans view this at all, especially the Tea Party and the evangelicals. The Big Lie is that Obama is an alien usurper, and any achievement, such as getting Bin Laden, was doing what any president who listened to his advisors would do. I don’t see fear of Obama as being a factor at all.
I really don’t understand this bit of conventional wisdom. Is this idea common in the Village? I don’t see the GOP ceding ground on anything, or seeing 2016 as a sure thing. If Obama wins re election, you could see Hillary Clinton deciding to try for a run, and she would certainly be a strong candidate. And a number of GOP stars today might find themselves to be perceived as stale also rams by the time 2016 rolls around.
There was a time when a number of pundits and Balloon Juice posters thought that Sarah Palin would be able contend for the nomination. This didn’t happen, nor was she particularly influential. There was a time when Bobby Jindal was thought to be a rising star. Although he still has some popularity in Louisiana, I don’t hear anyone in the GOP seriously pushing him as a VP candidate.
gogol's wife
I like the nickname “the Marquis” for Romney, but it should be “the Marquis de St. Evremonde” from A Tale of Two Cities. Except Basil Rathbone is so much more attractive.
gaz
@Martin: @ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I love you guys.
And Martin, the part you quoted about the wal-mart piece is the part that stood out to me as well, but for different reasons, and yet – you make an excellent point, although I think it’s a more broad base of involvement among the rentier class (as far as this scam goes). Romney to me isn’t the kingpin (at least not yet), he’s a definitely a player. =) see, ALEC, Fox giving to the NRGA, Kock Industries and the Dick Armey, et al.
On that note!
Romney/BLING 2012
Why u gotta hate a playah?
Brachiator
@Kay:
I agree with you here. I always think of Romney as a coward overcompensating by trying to appear to be a confident bully.
Sadly, some voters are buying this, although I think his act will begin to tire.
FlipYrWhig
I saw on Lawrence o’Donnell last night these clips of Romney with Marco Rubio. Rubio’s big pitch was that his parents taught him to admire success, the kind of success of people like Mitt Romney. First of all, I know my family has a weird dynamic, but there ain’t no way my parents would have trained me to fawn over local bigshots. In my family, the thing to do is point out how the local bigshots are all idiots. Second of all, this is clearly what they’re going with: Mitt is rich and he’ll make us all rich, so don’t be a hater. OK, good luck with that.
One more observation. I saw Anderson Cooper talking to Brian Schweitzer, who had said something about polygamy and Mormons. Ralph Reed was on to tsk-tsk him about making an issue of “faith.” He said that when the Obama campaign or Democrats bring up Romney’s secretiveness and awkwardness, they’re really trying to dog-whistle his Mormonism. What I wish Schweitzer had said was something like, “Yeah, if not for the Mormonism, I’m sure everyone would be praising Romney’s obvious genuineness and warmth.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
.One that Mitt had six years to prepare for. Yet he never made his peace with the Evangelicals, ended up fighting with them and very well may not have their support in the General Election.
Sound like win the battle, lose the war sums up Mitt.
FlipYrWhig
@Brachiator: He makes a terrible bully. Last time around McCain and Huckabee enjoyed humiliating his ass. Romney is all artificial swagger, but, even worse than Bush II, it’s not Cowboy Shitkicker, it’s a Judge Smails kind of bluster and harrumphing about doing a better job keeping out the riffraff.
Martin
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
True, but Santorum didn’t build that organization – rather that organization chose him, in much the same way that the bankers chose Romney.
Maddow has this correct that the right operate in reverse of the left. On the left, you need to win over almost every group. Fuck, Obama even had to win over blacks – they were polling more strongly for Clinton than for him even pretty late in 2007. But on the right, the interest groups drive the ship and pull candidates into their camps.
That’s not nothing that Santorum had that organization, but he didn’t really build it. He wouldn’t be able to duplicate that organization in some other context, because it was handed to him and he knows fuckall how to organize. Ron Paul is the only candidate there I see who can build something, everyone else operated around pre-existing organizations. That’s the one thing the tea party offered the GOP – yet another pre-existing organization – but they’re mostly dead now. They played their hand in 2010 and the GOP sought to crush them for their success.
How does Romney build an organization to reach women? He’s got the LDS church and a few other sympathetic groups, the NRA will weakly support him, the remnants of the tea party will throw in some effort. There’s the country club class, but they’re small and super-insular. He’s not going to get labor. He’s not going to get AARP or many of the existing senior groups. McCain could at least count on military affiliated groups, but Romney doesn’t even have that. There’s plenty of support in his column, but they’re not self-organized nor are they seeking him out as a candidate to advance their interests, which means he needs to do all of that work himself.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
They really did. That’s where I got that he was loathsome, actually. They really, really dislike him.
Martin
@Brachiator:
It’s not, but the interests of the GOP and the interests of each individual running for office are often times very different. Running against an incumbent is always a risky proposition. Running against a personally popular incumbent that tempts the worst out of your base (that race thing again) is incredibly so. If you had a choice between running in 2012 or 2016, you’d choose 2016 in a heartbeat rather than risking losing an unlikely race which you can’t recover from. One reasons why incumbents do so well in reelection, aside from the home field advantage is that the opposition self-selects themselves out of running a really strong campaign. That’s not what the party wants, but they party can’t force their strongest governors, etc. to run.
Obama ran when he did because it was his best odds of winning. No incumbent in the race at all increased the likelihood of a relative unknown winning. If Clinton won in 2008, and was re-elected in 2012, and her VP ran in 2016, Obama might not have another clear shot at the nomination for upwards of 16 years. Opportunities like 2008 don’t come up very often. 2016 looks pretty likely to be similar as I don’t think anyone expects Biden to run, so if Obama wins this year, it should be a relatively open field again.
Brachiator
@Martin:
But the larger point here is that Santorum not only had no organization, but that his organization was incompetent. Santorum failed to file for delegate slates in many of the primary contests, nullifying his vote wins. Also, Santorum appealed to religious conservatives, but could not translate this into broader or financial support.
That Ron Paul was well organized does not say much. He was kept alive by his own stubbornness and some media love. He was never a factor in the primary campaign and never won enough delegates to be anything other than a nuisance.
Mitt had organization and money, but he could not stomp in Iowa because money can’t buy you love.
But his money and organization still bought him a delegate lead, and kept more serious challengers away until it became too late for anyone else to throw a hat into the ring. He outlasted weak competition, but this was good enough.
Like McCain, Mitt still has to deal with a lack of enthusiasm among GOP faithful. But where else are they gonna go?
The general election is a new game entirely. No one knows whether Mitt is up to the challenge, or how the GOP bigwigs will mobilize to support him.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Martin:
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This is not a new development on the Right. If you read Perlstein’s Before the Storm it is clear that in the late 50s and early 60s what later became the Draft Goldwater movement was organized to take over the GOP before they even had a candidate who would answer their phone calls. It would have been more honestly titled the Draft Conservative X [by the way, we’re shopping around and hope to get Barry] movement. So the Right has always had a dynamic of grassroots organization being put to work to help the leader figure of the moment.
__
But I think after GWB left office we’ve seen an intensification of it. The Right is fundamentally authoritarian in outlook, but their lines of authority are all tangled up right now and that is a problem for them, because they can’t sort out who’s giving the orders and who’s taking them.
Brachiator
@Martin:
If Romney somehow wins in 2012, the GOP candidates waiting for 2016 will have thrown away their chance at the big office.
If Obama wins in 2012, which I sincerely hope happens, any Democrats with brains will have to start thinking about 2016. They should know by now that the GOP is committed to undoing any Democratic policy achievement that they could not block in Congress or by Supreme Court action.
Also, right now, someone like Hillary Clinton would have an advantage in 2016, so it might not be an entirely open field from the perspective of the Democrats or the voters.
And if the Democrats find a way to overcome GOP obstructionism, the Republicans might find themselves at a decided disadvantage in the future.
Still, it is premature to try to horse race 2016; 2012 is not a sure thing for either the Democrats or the Republicans.
Richard
GOPer vassals must pledge fealty to their feudal lord. How appropriate.
feebog
@ Brachiator:
I think it was over once Perry revealed himself to be an utter and complete moron. Perry was the only other candidate who matched up well against Mittens; Governor of a big Southern state with plenty of rich oil men to match Mitten’s own stable of sugar daddies. Once it was apparent that Perry would be a disaster in the General, I think it was generally understood by the “establishment” that Mittens was the only other electable candidate in the General.
eemom
I am mystified by the argument that seems to be going on here about Romtron’s “strengths” in the primaries.
He had, has, and ever will have only ONE strength, and that’s shitloads of money.
That each and every one of that pathetic palette of clowns, crazies and hasbeens enjoyed a surge at one point or another just because they were NOT HIM tells you all you need to know about his “strengths.”
God, so many words wasted on such an utter vacuity of an individual.
Reportedly the loss of a presidential election is a devastating personal blow to all who experience it. When that disgusting abomination of a non-human has sunk back into the oblivion he so richly (ha ha) deserves, I am going to remember every now and then to reflect with infinite schandenfreudic glee on how BAD he must feel.
And yes, that is one feeling I expect he WILL have. As a friend of mine once remarked about sociopaths in general, “Oh, they have feelings. They’re just not for anyone else.”
Tone In DC
@FoxinSocks:
I had not heard of that incident.
He’s more devoid of tact than even I had thought. He’s much worse than an android; a cybernetic organism would have just said thanks in a Joshua-from-Wargames voice.
gaz
@Ash Can: Ron Paul is the Lyndon LaRouche of the Republican Party. I can’t get enough of him, despite him being you know – a bigot, and all.
I’ll lament his passing. He’s done a remarkable job of being a PITA to his own party.