How do Republicans get the White House in 2016?
By not nominating another Romney.
By instead, nominating a candidate who …
(1) can go after ALL of the other side's vulnerabilities rather than shy away from some because of his own record on those issues. Romney never effectively attacked Obamacare (Obama's #1 vulnerability according to the polls) in large part because of Romneycare (whose author helped formulate Obamacare) and because he refused to repudiate Romneycare during the campaign. He threw away his best issue. Romney also never effectively attacked the left's environmental nonsense because of his own record in supporting Global Warming and other such nonsense. What a lost opportunity to show the public how Democrats have deceived them on this issue.
(2) will go after the media rather than let them continue to lie about Republicans and most everything else. Election season was the perfect time to confront the mainstream media on it's liberal bias, because of the many opportunities to address them on live TV. But Romney threw away that opportunity. You should listen to Larry Elder on this subject.
(3) will effectively attack the Democratic Party's socialist ideology. Romney, instead said Obama is not a socialist. Now Romney either didn't believe that or he is utterly clueless. He could have named the scores of hardcore socialists and communists in Obama's past and present inner circle. If you like I can post a list of 68 such people and defend the assertion with plenty of sourced material. In fact, I can name and defend the assertion that seven members of Obama's cabinet meet that standard. That's a stunning indication of how influential socialism and communism are to Obama's thinking. No President in history had anywhere near as many hardcore socialists and communists in his inner circle. And that's an incomplete list! Yet, Romney completely ignored this issue and instead called Obama a "nice guy" who wants what is best for America … which is, in fact, debatable. In doing so, he dismissed Obama's second biggest vulnerability out of hand … his extremely radical ideology. And I suspect the next Democrat candidate will be no further to the right. Look back the last few decades and you see the Democratic Party and their candidates moving *progressively* to the left. So instead of ignoring it, confront it.
(4) won't ignore foreign policy. Afterall, defending the nation from foreign threats and promoting the ideal of AMERICA abroad should be the number one job of the President and government. Romney basically ignored Obama's failed and dangerous foreign policy failures. It was a mistake for him not to focus on the lies and implications of Benghazi. It was a mistake not to focus on the harm Obama has done with respect to our allies … like Great Britain and Israel. It was a mistake not to highlight over and over all the radical muslims Obama's brought into his administration. It was a mistake not to focus on Obama's off-mic promise to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. These are facts that perhaps would have motivated many of the Republicans who didn't vote to vote. These are facts that might have swayed some Democrats that did vote for Obama not to do so.
(5) won't ignore Democrat criminality. Romney completely ignored the various instances of possible criminality in the Obama Administration and the failure of Obama's Department Of Justice to uphold the law … like in the Fast and Furious Scandal, the cases of voter intimidation/fraud, and Solyndra. And there were many others. Romney hardly ever mentioned them. The failure of the Bush administration to hold the Clinton administration accountable for the crimes they committed is the reason Obama came to power and staffed his administration with Clinton administration holdovers. I'll give you one example … the Riady Non-Refund. Recall that after Bush took the oath of office, Indonesian Billionaire James Riady pled guilty to providing millions of dollars in illegal campaign funds to Clinton and the DNC. With that money they tampered with the election process. As part of the plea agreement, Riady stood in front of a judge in a California courtroom and told the judge (under the requirement that he tell the truth or lose the deal) that contrary to what Clinton and the DNC had publically stated, the illegal funds had NOT been returned to him. The judge asked the prosecuting attorney if this was true and the attorney said to the best of his knowledge, "yes". And then nothing happened. There was never one more word about the matter by Bush's DOJ or FBI. And of course the liberal mainstream media completely ignored this. I called the California FBI at the time and asked if the FBI was investigating this. And they hung up on me. Find a Republican candidate who won't let that happen when elected … who will impartially enforce our laws … and you'll find the Republican base and many Democrats supportive.
(6) will publically highlight and shame the 47% (or more, now) of voters who might vote for Democrats based on promises of *free* stuff. Romney basically ignored those people, other than saying something to his wealthy backers behind closed doors … which then the media spun. Instead of apologizing for the remark, he should have vigorously defended the remark and explained why that behavior is ultimately detrimental to the country and those who think they are getting *free* stuff. He gave up on them instead of trying to educate them as to their folly … which they definitely need to be educated about if this country's to survive. Instead, he just assumed the other 53% would outvote them. That was a big mistake … perhaps the biggest of the election. I think a very powerful case can be made against such behavior. One strong enough to deter many of them from such behavior. Start by just quoting the Founding Fathers to the media at every opportunity ... something our public schools fail to do. Take Ben Franklin for example -- "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." Or Thomas Jefferson -- "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." And quote what our enemies said. Like Karl Marx -- "Democracy is a form of government that cannot long survive, for as soon as the people learn that they have a voice in the fiscal policies of the government, they will move to vote for themselves all the money in the treasury, and bankrupt the nation." Like Nikita Khrushcev -- "We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism." An election is the perfect time to insert these quotes into the public discourse and make people THINK.
(7) will confront, not ignore, the foolishness of the poor and black communities over the years in trusting Democrats to help them. Romney should have pointed out over and over and over that it was Republicans who fought for Civil Rights against such Democrat icons like Robert Byrd and Al Gore Sr. He should have focused attention at every opportunity on how Democratic policies have hurt the poor and minorities economically. That blacks have been hurt economically more than any other group under Obama. How the War On Poverty backfired as far as the poor and blacks are concerned. How capitalism was busy ending poverty and racism … until that Democrat conceived WOP began and institutionalized a minimum poverty rate and made blacks dependent on government ... victims of government. But he didn't. He again missed the opportunity.
(8) will have faith in the ideas of our party's best thinkers. Romney showed minimal faith in the ONLY solution on the table regarding the debt … Ryan's Plan For Properity. A plan that Obama's own debt commission applauded. I had hope when Romney picked Ryan, but now I wonder if it was just a ploy to win Wisconsin electoral votes. Ryan's biggest strength was how clear he can talk about the economy and debt, and what it will mean for the future. But Romney never capitalized on that … and thus gave up another vulnerability that Obama had in this election. I never saw one effective television ad attacking Obama regarding the debt or highlighting Ryan's plan to deal with it. Why didn't the Romney campaign make an ad out of Ryan educating Obama on the Debt? Or a few simple graphs from Ryan's report might have done wonders in starting a conversation amongst Republicans who didn't vote and among Democrats who'd decided not to vote for Obama but then didn't vote for Romney. Romney seemed to think it was all about jobs … when it was really about *free* stuff and the debt we are saddling our children (and their children) with in order to pay for that free stuff. Both Republicans and Democrats care about their children's future. We should have used that. We should have quoted the Founders again. Like Thomas Jefferson -- "It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes." That's a principle that would have been hard for Democrats to attack. Likewise, the Founder's notions on small government would have made excellent ads. But instead we got ads with little impact ... because Romney really wasn't a small government proponent. His past proves that and it showed. He was the wrong candidate.
(9) will entertain as he educates. Romney was pretty boring at times. He had his moments but he was not inspiring in most of his speeches. He didn't have real fire most of the time. Didn't we learn our lesson with Dole? We needed someone who could compete in the passion department with Obama. And not just once in a debate when Obama came unprepared. You can't tell me that there weren't principled Republicans with passion and good speaking/debating ability out there. There were, but the Establishment, aided by certain columnists and pundits, and certain Talk Radio and Fox News hosts, convinced the majority of Republicans that Romney was the only one who was *electable*. And ignored some of the dishonesties that Romney used to attack his Republican challengers. Obviously, they were either wrong about him being *electable* or we are a party that has no chance of winning elections. I prefer to think they were wrong. I prefer to think that someone like Gingrich, for example, could have won. Because we needed a candidate who could shame the media into examining the above issues and their implications so that the public at large would be exposed to those notions.
All in all, Romney did just what I feared. And thanks to his performance, perhaps no Republican candidate will now be able to break the stranglehold of the liberal media and the culture of "taking" and "dependency" that Democrats have created. Because their victory in this election taught them something very dangerous … that they can outvote us … that lies work … and that media control is enough to ensure their base remains ignorant. It's beggars and choosers, and the beggars won. It seems to me the ONLY option we have at this point is to change the thinking of the beggars. Make them uncomfortable with the idea they will be STEALING from their children and their children's children, not just from the *rich*.
Enough said.
