Romney’s best chance to shine
The Republican presidential candidate will need to deliver a speech that finally connects with ordinary Americans.
Tonight, when Mitt Romney accepts the Republican Party’s nomination for president, his prime-time speech will afford him a once-in-a-campaign opportunity to connect simultaneously with millions of voters.
He has yet to spark the magical connection so necessary to invigorate an electorate, mostly because voters don’t think he “gets” them. Romney fails to come across as “of the people,” a deficiency he’ll need to correct by demonstrating he understands the difficulties challenging the middle class. Unless he conveys empathy, voters will not believe his plans for America are theirs, too. So far, Romney has missed the mark.
August 30, 2012 - 7:41 AM
I see that Repubs are even ignoring American history now. For instance, did you know that Oklahomans got no help at all from the government when they settled the Oklahoma territory? When I was in school we learned about these federal land acts and the role of the military in pushing off the Indians, but I guess that was just liberal claptrap.
So Romney has to connect with ordinary Americans….
Unemployment stands at 8.3% after an $800B+ stimulus bill.
Gasoline skyrocketing toward $4/gallon AGAIN.
Medicare and Social Security are worse off than when Prezbo took office.
$16T national debt!!!
Ordinary Americans see the fallacy of big government, see the failure of DC.
Ordinary Americans feel the burden of fees and mandates and regulations.
Ordinary Americans want it to stop and the freedom to go on with their lives.
Romney has to connect with ordinary Americans? Rabbit raisins! We’ve been down that road and have been presented the bill and failed results of the coddling and connecting. Take this drivel elsewhere, please.
#2 I knew somebody would try to blame Obama for the rise in gasoline prices. BUD, at least you are partially right — part of the reason for the rise is that more people are traveling and other demands are up. I guess you can “blame” Obama for that, although I’m a little dubious about how you blame him for the refinery fire, pipeline problems, and Isaac. Get back to us on that part, BUD.
#2 Oh darn, gas line cut in Christiansburg this morning. Blame Obama.
Ordinary Americans see the fallacy of blaming one man for a Congress that is broken, dysfunctional and obstructive to fixing anything.
Ordinary Americans cannot justify tax cuts for billionaires when they feel the burden of fees and mandates and regulations.
Ordinary Americans want solutions not lies, distortions and insults to their duly elected leader.
The TP/GOP has badly misjudged America!
#2 – Actually, Obama has made medicare stronger. The ACA (i.e., Obamacare) will extend the trust fund for another 8 years. And, the ACA policies have also collectively saves seniors over $3.9 billion on prescriptions so far and an average of $629 during the first half of this year alone.
- http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2011.pdf
- http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=4412&intNumPerPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numDays=3500&srchOpt=0&srchData=&keywordType=All&chkNewsType=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5&intPage=&showAll=&pYear=&year=&desc=&cboOrder=date
“Born into privilege, he [Romney] has lived a life wrapped in the protective bubble of wealth that insulates him from the struggles of most Americans.”
I don’t remember a similar editorial comment regarding presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004!
Kerry is considerably more wealthy than Romney and lives a more ostentatious lifestyle than Romney. Kerry also refused to release his wife’s tax returns, as her estate is the major source of Kerry’s wealth and she most likely paid 0 federal income tax. That would look bad!
But then Kerry is a Democrat. I know that makes a difference.
This hit piece on Romney being the “rich guy” has been repeated by the Dems for months and doesn’t seem to get any traction with the voters. It just shows how scared the Dems are of the Romney/Ryan ticket.
The libs never mention Obama’s record. It is as if he hasn’t been president for the passed three and one half years!
It’s the economy stupid! The Dems are in for a rude awakening coming this November! Remember November 2010?
Wow, JohnR…calling someone “the rich guy” is a “hit piece”? Are you going to deny that Romney was born into huge wealth? He IS the “rich guy”. That’s just a fact. It’s not good , bad or otherwise…it’s reality. As for Kerry, his family wasn’t nearly as wealthy as the Romneys and you have no idea of how “ostentatious” his lifestyle is…but you can know that – unlike Romney or any of his FIVE sons – Kerry put on his country’s uniform once. The Romneys are apparently wealthy enough that they can opt out of that sort of thing.
John R, raises an interesting point, when Kerry was running, his wealth, his lifestyle, his taxes, where his boat was anchored were all BIG, HOTLY discussed topics of censure and disdain….flip/flop…discussing Romney’s wealth, his lifestyle, his taxes, or where he parks his money is “attacking” and “class warfare”. Do you people even hear yourselves?
It IS the economy, but no, we are not stupid enough to blame that on Obama, who is working hard to change things for the better.
#2 – Regarding the stimulus, it wasn’t a failure. The facts don’t support that talking point. It wasn’t as successful as hoped, but that doesn’t make it a failure.
Here’s an excellent article about it, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/13/think_again_obamas_new_deal?page=0,0
#7 Good lord, John R, there was incredible snarkiness about Kerry marrying into wealth along with all kinds of innuendo concerning that. Comment about the number of houses they owned. And so on and so on. But then it wouldn’t be real convenient for you to remember that, would it?
#11 – Speaking of convenient memory, gdad, let’s not forget the attacks on how many house McCain owned.
The joke on McCain’s houses was that he did not remember how many…In either case, the serious money in the family was the wife’s and neither was running for office. Not the case this time. Oddly, Romney is no stranger to demanding other people’s financial records:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/16/romney-called-for-tax-transparency-in-past-campaigns/
Romney is a dishonest hypocrite!
#12 Michael, I’m not the one who said he didn’t remember something that in fact did happen. That would have been John R.
#1 Right you are Gdad. 23 million people looking for work should add that to their resumes, and I’ll take it with me when buying groceries.
Will Kroger let me “homestead”?
The Heinz fortune easily exceeds the Romney fortune. I don’t recall any criticism of Kerry being out of touch.
#9 Kristen, you don’t believe the Obama campaign harping on Romney “the rich guy” is not a hit piece? Surely you jest!
The bad news for the Obama campaign is that all that money spent on ads about Romney “the rich guy”, Romney “the heartless capitalist”, Romney the “the felon”, Romney “the murderer”, was all wasted! Obama can’t seem to move ahead in the polls!
After the convention, the Romney campaign will be free to out spend Obama on ads.
This time next week, Romney will be 3 to 5 points, maybe more, ahead in the polls!
Let’s see if Romney repeats the same lies Paul Ryan told last evening. Major news outlets took the VP candidate to task today, a repeat performance will shine more light on their deception. Even Dirty Harry can’t save Romney from himself.
Seriously, Bush “kept us safe” but Obama did not “get Bin Laden”? I see the pattern is set for the night! If this was a drinking game, I would need a liver transplant by now!
#17 Art “Let’s see if Romney repeats the same lies Paul Ryan told last evening…”
Art, where are your links to support the “lies”? Such an accusation should be supported by links, don’t you agree?
Has anyone else noticed that the TP/GOP convention has made an entire event premised on an obvious and inadvertent verbal gaffe, twisted Obama’s words and deliberately pretended business was under siege while assuring us Akin’s remarks were misunderstood, racist antics were “insulting the media”, Dems are the ones lying, and Obama is the one running “attack ads”?
“I don’t recall any criticism of Kerry being out of touch.”
Selective memory.
This is really odd!
Sec. Hillary Clinton, an Obama admin. high official, does not have any role at the Dem National Convention next week in Charlotte!
In fact she will be out of the country! Could she be keeping her powder dry for ’16 or was she just not invited. Very curious!
I suspect the Clintons hope Obama is defeated in this election. That would expedite her path to the presidentcy. They hate Obama!
A lot of Dems are heading for the tall grass for this election! They are not willing to fall on their swords for Obama.
“Such an accusation should be supported by links, don’t you agree?”
Okay.
#21 Ah yes! That famous photo of Kerry wind surfuring! Sort of reminds one of the photo of Dukakis in the tank! Kerry looked stupid but the MSM never attacked him for being rich and out of touch.
Is that the best you can come up with?
My point is that the RTEB never criticised Kerry of being rich and out of touch as they did here with Romney. But then Kerry is a Dem!
Romney flopped. When you’ve lost David Brooks while the balloons are still falling, you’ve lost right-wing America.
#22, and if Sec. Clinton were to attend, you’d accuse her of dereliction of her duties and of pandering to Obama and the DNC machine…just admit it man, you and the other NeoCon/Repub/NFR folks are simply taking any and every move any “democrat/lefty” is making and trying to spin it to the negative. Failure is your goal.
This is at the root of the problem America faces. Neither side wants the other to have any successes…our vitriolic divisive bickering may be our undoing.
gdad #3..perhaps a course in reading and comprehension is in order. Where in post #2 did I say Obama was to blame for higher gas prices? My point behind post #2 is Romney needn’t come across as the doting grandmother, caressing your hair and whispering your problems away. It’s time LEADERSHIP came from the whitehouse and the problems of overspending and the unsustainability of the entitlement programs were addressed. Romney and Ryan
are starting the conversation and will work with whatever congress we have in 2013 to get these programs and other budgetary matters under control. Something Obama has shown no ability to accomplish or even try, as he leads from behind.
Now Dave F.. you claim medicare is being made stronger because the trust fund by government projections( you really want to hang you star on that?) will last longer. Good God fella, how could that NOT be true if ACA takes over $70B a year from medicare services. Whooppeeee, as nearly 10,000 people a day become eligible for Medicare you want to limit/cut reimbursement rates to docs and medical facilities. Do you think that just might lessen access to care for those needing it most?
And in #10 you claim the stimulus bill was not a failure. Look I’ve got articles right here saying so….BULLY! Item 1, president elect Obama said unemployment wouldn’t reach 8% if the bill was enacted. OK he didn’t know how bad the economy was..let’s cut him some slack. Item 2, Passing the bill, we were supposed to have unemployment be at approximately 5.2% in the summer of 2012 according to the plans own projections. Unemployment was underestimated by some 60%(see what I mean about government estimates?) Item 3, the bill saved or created some 2.5 million jobs. Seriously, again, how do you, beyond doubt, identify a SAVED job. But let’s assume these saved and created jobs are accurately tabulated. The stimulus bill is costing America some $800 B to S/C some 2.5 million jobs….THAT’S OVER $300,000.00/JOB. We could have identified these 2.5M Americans and given them all $80,000 over 2 years and lowered the cost of the stimulus bill by 75%. We spent/borrowed some $800B and didn’t move the unemployment needle down..at all! According to the stimulus plans own projections, had we done nothing unemployment would have been LESS today than what it is. And you and others want to think the program wasn’t a failure. I’m sorry…3 wrongs don’t make a right.
Wow! Why didn’t you guys tell me that your candidate was Santa Claus/The Terminator/Bishop Romney? He IS going to “Save America”! He is going to fix everything, he is going to “help us”, he is going to defend us, he is going to create 12 million jobs in 4 years, he is going to educate us, he is going to save Medicare, he is going to repeal “Obamacare”, he is NOT going to raise taxes on the middle class, he is not going to borrow from China, he is going to stand up to them, he is going to stop Iran cold, AND he is going to fix the deficit and the debt! Wow, and you call Obama a dreamer and a “Messiah”!
JohnR, if you want to pretend a guy on the losing ticket 2 elections ago matters, have fun with that.
In the meantime, people know exactly who Romoney is and where he came from.
#15 That made no sense at all Jim Lucas. But thanks for the comment anyway.
I;’m not the one who claimed that Oklahomans settled that territory all by themselves, it was Oklahoma’s governor who rewrote that piece of history. In fact, pretty much every time the Repubs put up somebody or something as an example of folks “building” it themselves, a quick look shows that their past and their path to success only supports what Obama was saying in Roanoke. It happened again at the Repub convention.
#27 Well, BUD, you included this in a list of things that right wingers are blaming Obama for: “Gasoline skyrocketing toward $4/gallon AGAIN.” But now you’re saying that you DON’T blame Obama for that. Good to hear.
You better be prepared to hold Mitt Romney as tightly to that “12 million jobs in 4 years” as you are to hold Obama to his unemployment “prediction”! Why do I know you won’t?
#24 Really, John R, you remember back to all the RT editorials in 2004? What about all the opinion pieces and letters to the editors?
The RT DID say things like this: “John Kerry, unfortunately, has no more credible solution than Bush to the morass in Iraq,” And they printed an opinion that said this: “The establishment media do want Kerry to win, even if it means distorting the news to support their guy. Your coverage, your editorial and the biased refutations you cite are clear examples.” And this: “As expected, The Roanoke Times endorses John Kerry, and is once again out of step with the local area, the state and the nation.” And I could go on.
IOW, John R, the RT is a lot more more forthright and evenhanded than you’ve EVER been on this blog.
#28, Sandi, I keep waiting for Mitt to rip open his shirt and expose the red, white and blue skin-suit with the giant “S” on the chest…I had to get some wine to go with his cheese.
Sandi #32…piece of cake.
“Kerry looked stupid but the MSM never attacked him for being rich and out of touch.”
Didn’t need to. They had the swift-boaters. (Of which I’m sure you supported.)
#27- Regarding. Medicare, can you provide any legitimate sources for your claims that refute mine? I’m not an actuarial which is why I turn to the experts. The same ones Congress uses. If you have other information please share it.
Regarding the stimulus, you should read the article I linked. It details all the ways it was successful. In my post I said it didn’t meet its employment goals but it was successful in many other ways which is why economists don’t consider it a complete failure like the GOP likes to claim.