Romney locks up nomination

[Amelia]

Romney won the nomination when he came back to win Michigan imo

It should have, as it demonstrated why Santorum won't win in the long run. He's too vulnerable to Super PACs. Every state where he was supposed to start a come back Romney would roll in with his PAC horses and steal the election out from under him. If Santorum can't beat a Massachusetts Liberal in the GOP primary he won't in the general.

But that's the rub, isn't it.

By all rights, Santorum should never have gotten this close, nor should it have taken this much of an effort to beat him. Santorum was polling in single digits, last place back in December, and now Romney is having to throw everything he has at him.

The real problem Romney has isn't Santorum, it's ROmney. He someone who isn't liked by his own party, but the leaders of the party have deluded themselves into thinking he is "electable". (Even though the man has only won one election in his life.)

The GOP and SCOTUS made this happen with their changed primary rules and Citizens United. In your narrative it is important to put this all on Romney's weaknesses but if the GOP's new rules hadn't facilitated Santorum's continuing presence in this race, he wouldn't have been around to hypocritically cast Romney's achievements as something Romney should be ashamed of.

The GOP is splintered in a way I don't know if we can recover from. Mouthing some of the same fiscal and limited gov't ideals but profoundly split along social ideological lines.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

Romney won the nomination when he came back to win Michigan imo

It should have, as it demonstrated why Santorum won't win in the long run. He's too vulnerable to Super PACs. Every state where he was supposed to start a come back Romney would roll in with his PAC horses and steal the election out from under him. If Santorum can't beat a Massachusetts Liberal in the GOP primary he won't in the general.

But that's the rub, isn't it.

By all rights, Santorum should never have gotten this close, nor should it have taken this much of an effort to beat him. Santorum was polling in single digits, last place back in December, and now Romney is having to throw everything he has at him.

The real problem Romney has isn't Santorum, it's ROmney. He someone who isn't liked by his own party, but the leaders of the party have deluded themselves into thinking he is "electable". (Even though the man has only won one election in his life.)

I agree, there is a problem in that Romney managed to sew up the nomination while consistently getting less than 50% of the votes in the GOP primary. If Romney had faced some decent opponents instead of Perry, Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, and Huntsman, he'd have probably been in real trouble. Unfortunately your Christie's, Rubio's, Ryan's, and Jindal's all sat out this one due to either inexperience or the knowledge Obama is likely to win this one.

If you're in the GOP though, the final three choices was a guy who suffers from the kid friendly version of turrets (Gingrich), a guy who consistently lost to a Massachusetts Lib with a Super PAC, or the Massachusetts Lib with the Super PAC. That isn't a hard choice.

Now, if Romney can find/buy a personality and get a really strong break out moment where he can lay out his vision, he might stand a chance to beat Obama. Unfortunately though, Romney is looking like he'll just keep moving forward on a platform of "I'm not Obama" and pull a John Kerry/Bob Dole.

If you're the GOP you ought to be royally pissed off right now. Obama does NOT deserve a second term. He should have been an easy mark. Now you're stuck hoping you can replace the Illinois Liberal with a Massachusetts Liberal. Awesome.

 

[Decepticon]

Good luck running another fortunate son, CONZ!
They TRULY know the value of showing up for a job their dad got them and not working very hard to be VERY SUCCESSFUL!

 

[California Girl]

Was Ryan's introduction of Romney tonight an audition for the VP slot?
Ryan misspoke again when he said that Obama promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" ... that was Bush, Jr., not Obama.

So, Obama ran as being a divider?

Is that your assertion?

Good to know... I have long suspected it.... he threw me a tad with his whole 'there is no black America, there is no white America, there is the United States of America'.... see, I had that down as him being someone who wanted to unite Americans. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Good luck running another fortunate son, CONZ!
They TRULY know the value of showing up for a job their dad got them and not working very hard to be VERY SUCCESSFUL!

Something wrong with rich?


Now, be sure you warn your children to never, never become so.

 

[Avorysuds]

You know it looks bad for you as President when who your VP will be is more important to people than the actual candidate running to be President. McCain 2.0. Get ready for very low turnouts for Mitt.

 

[JoeB131]

Um, no.

Not when the publicity is generated by people who called him conservative in 2008 but are trying to shiv him in 2012.

Not to mention that every day that Santorum stays in the race, a few thousand more women peel off and go over to the Democrats.

If I were ten years younger and hadn't been paying as much attention as I have to nitty gritty aspects of Obama's activities, I'd probably vote for Obama next time around after the things prominent Republicans have been saying about women's issues in public and the legislation they've been proposing in the statehouses.

I think it's disingenuous to blame Santorum for Romney's problems with women.

Romney's problem is that he can't denounce these people or challenge them. When Limbaugh called Sarah Fluke all those vile names, the best he could come up with was "Those aren't words i would have used."

Really, Mitt?

Riiiiight. Limbaugh puts the noose around the GOP's neck and it's Mitt's fault.

Limbaugh and Santorum are out there trying to drive women into the Democrat camp, and Mitt gets the criticism because he tries to be diplomatic.

There are times when you should be diplomatic.

There are times when you need to show leadership.

Romney didn't criticize Limbaugh because he didn't want Limbaugh going fully into the Santorum camp. Can't alienate the "dittoheads".

That's not leadership. It was in fact, kind of craven.

And frankly, it's not like he showing any leadership on the Macro-Issue. When he was governor, he was all for Abortion rights and such. When he started running for President, he sucked up to the zealots... and I guess it's working, he's making ground amongst the "talking Snake" crowd.

 

[JoeB131]

The GOP and SCOTUS made this happen with their changed primary rules and Citizens United. In your narrative it is important to put this all on Romney's weaknesses but if the GOP's new rules hadn't facilitated Santorum's continuing presence in this race, he wouldn't have been around to hypocritically cast Romney's achievements as something Romney should be ashamed of.

The GOP is splintered in a way I don't know if we can recover from. Mouthing some of the same fiscal and limited gov't ideals but profoundly split along social ideological lines.

Whose fault is that?

Frankly, the GOP has for YEARS been about the business of getting working folks to vote against their own economic interests by playing the God, Guns and Gay cards. If people voted their own economic interests, and nothing else, the Democrats would never lose an election.

I don't blame citizen's united for this, I blame the fact that the GOP establishment decided early on that they wanted Romney, they were going to do everything to discourage anyone else from getting in, they were going to rig the rules in his favor.

So now, you are getting what you want. A guy who no one is enthusiastic about, barely beating a has-been.

 

[Zander]

Joe's getting fitted for a straightjacket and rubber room as we speak.....He hates the Mormons more than Al Qaeda...

 

[JoeB131]

Joe's getting fitted for a straightjacket and rubber room as we speak.....He hates the Mormons more than Al Qaeda...

Your boy is double digits behind Obama, and it's only going to get worse.

I have to honestly what kind of weirdo makes up pictures of strangers he doesnt' like... that's kind of a sad existance..

 

[Amelia]

Joe's getting fitted for a straightjacket and rubber room as we speak.....He hates the Mormons more than Al Qaeda...

Your boy is double digits behind Obama, and it's only going to get worse.

I have to honestly what kind of weirdo makes up pictures of strangers he doesnt' like... that's kind of a sad existance..

You didn't ever post that photoshopped pic of the Romneys in their "magic underwear", did you?

 

[JoeB131]

Joe's getting fitted for a straightjacket and rubber room as we speak.....He hates the Mormons more than Al Qaeda...

Your boy is double digits behind Obama, and it's only going to get worse.

I have to honestly what kind of weirdo makes up pictures of strangers he doesnt' like... that's kind of a sad existance..

You didn't ever post that photoshopped pic of the Romneys in their "magic underwear", did you?

1) Romney's a public figure.
2) I didn't photoshop that... just reposted it.