Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Foreboding Gloom Pervades Vanuatu

Posted on | April 11, 2012 | 85 Comments

“After having destroyed every conservative that came on the scene, you can’t say ‘You have to line up behind me.’ No, no, no. Conservatives are not going to jump until they hear where Governor Romney wants to take everybody.”
— Richard Viguerie, veteran conservative leader

“I still think Mitt’s electability is a myth and a lot of conservatives are going to have to sell their souls to support Mitt (More than a few of them have already gotten started). There are a lot of conservatives who’ve put their reputations on the line to assure everyone that Mitt is actually very conservative — and extremely electable. Of course, some of those same people started doing CYA-backpedaling when it looked like Romney almost had the nomination locked up, which begs the question: If you don’t think Mitt is going to win, why were you working so hard to undermine all the other candidates and push Mitt in the first place?”
— John Hawkins, Right Wing News

“Wednesday April 11th is day one of the general election. But there are things I’m seeing that tell me that Mitt Romney is kicking off the campaign in a telling defensive posture.”
— Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo

“You go to war with the Mitt you have.”
— William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection

My ambition to abandon the drudgery of journalism for an exciting new career in diplomacy as the Future U.S. Ambassador to Vanuatu suffered a major setback Tuesday. When Rick Santorum promised me that ambassadorship in December — in a telephone interview, while he was still in sixth place in the Iowa polls, waiting to catch a plane during his layover in Fort Worth on the cheapest available flight from Des Moines to D.C. — I made sure I saved the recording.

Because I knew, when the miraculous Iowa victory came through, Santorum’s political advisors would try to talk him out of it.

So I was prepared to hold him accountable to that promise, and he not only won Iowa, he won 10 other states. Santorum raised $9 million in February, beat Newt Gingrich in Southern states like Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana — oh, it was so close, I could taste it. And I had the digital audio of that ironclad promise, the Word of Honor of a Christian Gentleman that next year I’d be jetting off to Porta Vila to begin my new career in South Pacific diplomacy.

Dreams die hard and, despite the professional requirements of Neutral Objective Journalism, my friends, I dared to dream.

When I’m feeling this low, it’s nice to know I’m not suffering alone: I’m not depressed; the world objectively sucks.

Yesterday, after Rick Santorum quit, my 13-year-old son Jefferson asked, “Does this mean I have to stop bad-mouthing Mitt Romney?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It doesn’t mean you have to start good-mouthing him, but you have to stop bad-mouthing him.”

Then I went on to explain that, having been saddled with a nominee whom we had opposed with all our might, we cannot be held responsible for the inevitable disaster. Therefore, on Wednesday, Nov. 7, we will be ready to demand an accounting from those responsible.

Could I be wrong? Is there actually a chance that Mitt could win? This is a possibility that must be considered, at least as a hypothetical.

In a few weeks, when I’m covering the general election campaign, I’m going to have to try to convince myself that this is not an absurd exercise in political futility, that “President Romney” is actually within the realm of the possible, and that a Romney administration might conceivably accomplish something meaningful for the preservation of the American Republic. It is nonetheless important to emphasize that today — April 11, 2012 — I am overwhelmed by a bone-deep certainty that those who actually believe such things are fools, who are wasting their time and efforts, and now asking us to waste ours, too.

Then, when it’s all over, and people ask me, “What went wrong?” I’ll point them back to this post and say, “It was do0med from the outset.”

Let me explain why this matters: Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. On Nov. 7, if Obama is re-elected, the people actually responsible for this — the Republican Establishment, which now obviously includes certain people at Fox News, both on-camera and behind the scenes — will be looking to evade responsibility. They’ll be hunting for scapegoats and, just as they scapegoated Sarah Palin for the defeat in 2008, they will blame conservatives for what went wrong.

Having warned you in advance of what lies ahead, it is now my professional obligation as a Neutral Objective Journalist to begin forgetting this. “Punch a big hatpin through my frontal lobes,” as Hunter S. Thompson once phrased it, and pretend that I don’t know what I know.

What I know is this: As of this date, April 11, Mitt Romney has received just 40.7 percent of the GOP primary vote:

Mitt Romney ……… 4,595,908 (40.7%)
Rick Santorum …… 3,209,301 (28.3%)
Newt Gingrich ……. 2,284,557 (20.4%)
Ron Paul ……………. 1,191,026 (10.6%)

“But, but, but … what about the delegates?”

Yeah, it’s amazing, huh? The guy with less than 41 percent of the actual votes somehow has an overwhelming advantage in delegates: Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, District of Columbia — there’s 61 delegates in Mitt’s column right there, and a fat lot of good it will do him Nov. 6, because those places have a combined total of zero Electoral College votes.

Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland — another 145 Romney delegates, and I’m sure the GOP geniuses are counting on those states to come through for Mitt in November, eh?

Never has “inevitability” been built of flimsier stuff, my friends: Mitt Romney is the weakest nominee in modern Republican Party history.

This is not my opinion. It is a Neutral Objective Fact. Mitt makes Bob Dole and John McCain look like unbeatable juggernauts by comparison.

If I were the only one who saw this fact as an ill omen for November, maybe I could shake off my forebodings of doom. Maybe I could dismiss my overwhelming despair as merely a result of my disappointment over losing that ambassadorship to Vanuatu. Dreams die hard.

However, John Hawkins sees it the same way, and he’s never expressed any interest in a South Pacific diplomatic career. Richard Viguerie sees it the same way, and if he harbors hope of an ambassadorial appointment, he’s shrewdly concealed his ambitions.

No, the omens are obvious, and these two fine Christian Gentlemen see the same things I see: The way Romney won the nomination is the strongest possible harbinger of defeat in November.

This is not pessimistic croaking by a handful of disgruntled cranks. We are not doomsaying as a way to salve our disappointment, nor trying to spread discouragement. We are soberly examining the auguries and frankly explaining what they portend for the future.

Longtime readers will note that I have “buried the lede,” as journalists say: You had to read through a bunch of dark humor before you got to the stuff about Romney getting just 41% of the votes so far, about how Team Mitt padded their delegate lead by racking up wins in places that will be irrelevant on Nov. 6. This is purposeful, a way of scaring off the shallow and superficial people who want to listen to Chris Stirewalt blathering on Fox News and watch Karl Rove do his silly whiteboard tricks and then tell themselves everything’s going to be OK.

It is obviously not going to be OK, but the superficial people would freak out if I tried to tell them in a Joe Friday Just-the-Facts-Ma’am way just how dire our predicament really is. So I piled up the top of the story with grim sarcasm, permitting the optimistic fools to brush this off as a joke, knowing that very few — regular readers who’ve seen me prophesy the downfall of “The Phantom Menace,” et cetera — would plow through that and reach The Serious Stuff.

How bad is it? Bad. Very bad, and when you factor in how Team Mitt deployed their overwhelming financial advantage, unleashing negative ad tsunamis against any conservative rival who threatened their man’s precious “inevitability,” it looks even worse.

Here’s the thing superficial people are really missing: Unless you were in one of the handful of states where the Mitt Blitz hit, you have no earthly idea what it looked like. I remember driving around Iowa in that black Mustang, listening to the radio — talk radio, country radio, classic rock, whatever — and hearing those ads against Newt from the Romney campaign and the “Restore Our Future” super-PAC. Then I’d hit a deadline at midnight and stumble back to my motel room, turn on the TV and see Romney ads nearly wall-to-wall during commercial breaks.

In New Hampshire and South Carolina, I saw and heard something similar but slightly less focused and heavy-duty. Team Mitt got distracted by Santorum’s Iowa surge and began hammering at him for a while, which permitted Newt to score a comeback win South Carolina. But I remember standing outside a hotel in Charleston on the Friday night before the South Carolina primary, having a smoke with a young Romney staffer. He admitted they’d taken their eye off the ball, and darkly suggested they’d learned a lesson: Next time would be different.

Indeed. Even while South Carolinians were preparing to vote, the Mitt Blitz was hitting Florida like a hurricane. Nothing in all the history of the Republican Party provided any precedent for what Romney did to Gingrich in Florida. Keep in mind, I’d never favored Newt. Back at least as far back as November, I’d said that if the choice came down to Mitt or Newt, I’d go with Mitt.

At that time, my first choice Herman Cain was cratering under the weight of unproven sexual misconduct accusations, and Rick Santorum was still struggling to hang on to sixth place, down in the single digits with “Governor Asterisk,” Jon Huntsman. Allahpundit’s “second look at Newt” wasn’t my idea of a smart move, because I knew there was no way Gingrich could ever be nominated, nor any way Newt could win even if he did somehow get the nomination.

So when I got to Florida and turned on the TV, I should have been happy to see those wall-to-wall Romney ads slamming Gingrich. Instead, I actually felt a strange sense of sympathy for Newt. Whatever his faults and flaws — and quite grievous they are — not even Newt deserved that kind of sadistic humiliation from a fellow Republican.

More ominous than that, of course, I recognized that if somehow Rick Santorum could mount a miracle comeback (and there were entire convents of nuns praying for his campaign), Team Mitt would employ the same brutal tactics against him.

By the time we got to Michigan, then, I knew what to expect. Most nights, I’d turn my motel TV to CNN or MSNBC, because every time I switched over to Fox News — where Stirewalt, Rove & Co. were constantly singing from the “inevitability” hymnal — the commercial breaks would include ad time sold by the local cable providers, nearly all of which had been bought up by Team Mitt for their anti-Santorum tsunami.

The same thing happened in Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin: Wherever Santorum posed a threat to Romney, the multimillion-dollar Mitt Blitz came slamming down. That Santorum lost Mitt’s home state of Michigan by just 3 points, and lost Ohio by less than one percent, was a testament to the enormous resistance to Romney among Republican voters.

If you didn’t watch it happen — if you didn’t see just how heavy those attack-ad rotations were in the targeted states — you can be forgiven for not understanding what these numbers mean:

MITT ROMNEY
$66.8 million + super-PAC $40.5 million = $107.3 million

NEWT GINGRICH
$19.2 million + super-PAC $16.6 million = $35.8 million

RICK SANTORUM
$13.0 million + super-PAC $7.5 million = $20.5 million

Those are the known totals of spending, the campaign totals as of Feb. 29, the super-PAC totals as of April 11, although it must be noted that we do not yet have complete disclosure for the super PACs. Nevertheless, treating these partial and incomplete totals as roughly representative of the money picture for the three major GOP contenders, we get this:

ROMNEY
$107. 3 million (65.6% of total)
4.6 million votes (40.7% of total)
Price per vote = $23.33

GINGRICH
$35.8 million (21.9% of total)
2.3 million votes (20.4% of total)
Price per vote = $15.57

SANTORUM
$20.5 million (12.5% of total)
3.2 million votes (28.3% of total)
Price per vote = $6.41

These are, as I say, incomplete metrics. Now that Santorum has suspended his campaign and Gingrich’s campaign is busted and bankrupt, Romney can be expected to win future primaries by rather decisive majorities. The dollar amounts and vote totals will therefore change as the remaining primary calendar plays out and more financial reports become available.

However, what we can see now is clear: What got Mitt to this point of “inevitability” was a strategy whereby he outspent Gingrich about 3-to-1 and outspent Santorum more than 5-to-1, yet still has less than 41% of the votes. And a massive amount of Mitt’s money was spent on a relentlessly negative ad blitz against Romney’s conservative rivals, an intra-partisan assault unprecedented in GOP history.

Having won the nomination by such methods, what are the chances Mitt can win in November? Well, I just got an e-mail from some guy named “Slim,” who said he was thinking about leaving town.

So as I contemplated the meaning of Santorum’s concession to the “inevitable” Tuesday, I tried to remember a more hopeful time:

Just off Highway 17 in the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, we found the shopping center where the state campaign headquarters was located. It was Tuesday, Jan. 17, and my 13-year-old son Jefferson was along for the ride on my road trip to cover the South Carolina primary. The day before in Myrtle Beach, Jefferson had helped me cover the press conference where former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announced he was ending his presidential bid and endorsing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Then, that Monday night, we’d covered the Fox News debate that was generally acknowledged as a solid win for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
We hadn’t come to the Palmetto State to cover Gingrich, Romney or Huntsman, however, and so on that Tuesday afternoon, driving from Myrtle Beach to Charleston, we pulled off Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant to visit Rick Santorum’s South Carolina headquarters. Wheeling into the parking lot, I spotted two familiar-looking young men walking out of the office, carrying large boxes. Rolling down my window, I asked, “Where y’all heading?”
“Mail drop,” said John Santorum, eldest son of the candidate, as he and his younger brother Daniel loaded the boxes into an SUV and drove off to the local post office. . . .

Please read the whole thing at The American Spectator. And if you feel like hitting my tip jar — hey, don’t fight the feeling.

— 30 —

RECENTLY:

April 10: SANTORUM DROPS OUT
April 9: Nate Silver, the Experts and … Me
April 8: Predictable: Gingrich Admits He Owes More Than $4 Million Campaign Debt
April 6: Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Eyewitness to History in Florida
April 5: The Last Nail in Newt’s Coffin UPDATE: Conservative Leaders Huddle With Santorum, Seek Deal With Newt
April 5: Framing the Narrative: Using Evangelicals as Hook for MSM ‘Mormon Mitt’ Meme
April 4: Mark Levin and the Omens of Doom
April 3: WISCONSIN, MARYLAND REPUBLICAN PRIMARY RESULTS HQ

Category: Election 2012, Fear. Loathing., Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Shoe Leather Fund, Vanuatu

Comments

85 Responses to “Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Foreboding Gloom Pervades Vanuatu”

Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 4:40 pm

I get people are upset Mitt will be the nominee. He is not my first choice. But while it will not be easy (it never would have for any of the final three candidates), he can win.
http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/04/can-obama-be-beaten.html
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 4:41 pm

Assuming Mitt manages to do that, conservatives would have to immediately pivot to prevent Mitt from becoming Bush-Rove 2.0.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:00 pm

Or worse.
Brian D Paasch
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:01 pm

The good news is that Mitt can cease his pandering to republicans, throw away the full-body bio-hazard suit that he had to don when coming within a mile of a conservative and he can get down and parTEE with the dems. Oh, and he’s got lots of time to draft his November concession speech.
RegularGuyPaul
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:10 pm

Liked at: http://regularthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/04/electable-one.html
robertstacymccain
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:15 pm

That’s the gloomy spirit, Brian!

Obviously, I’m stressed out. I need a vacation in Vanuatu. For about, oh, seven months.
newrouter
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:20 pm

mittens 2012: at least he’s not a communist!
CPAguy
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:25 pm

I thank @RSM for keeping up Conservative spirits this long.
Brian D Paasch
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:28 pm

Eeyore power!!
Rose
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:31 pm

Box of Rocks – – Obama? Box of Rocks – – Obama? Box of Rocks – – Obama?

You don’t even have to ask.
Finrod Felagund
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:44 pm

My challenge to Mitt supporters, as outlined in a previous comment, is this:

Give me one reason to support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama that would not also apply to supporting Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.
Publius13
April 11th, 2012 @ 5:48 pm

Slim just left town and we are left with none. No chance. Zero. Gone are NC, FL, VA, OH, and maybe even GA.
King Shamus
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:07 pm

I know I keep hitting this theme, but until somebody discounts it, I’m just gonna keep on keepin’ on:

A major reason for conservatives to vote for Romney is the ideological make-up of the Supreme Court. If Obama gets another 4 years, he’ll likely get the chance to replace probably one and maybe as many as four SCOTUS judges. In other words: “Mittens 2012: At least he’s not a communist…who will nominate a bushel of other communists to the Supreme Court!”

My problem is that as compelling as that argument is, I dunno if that is going to be enough for most rank-n-file Republicans to hang their hats on.
robertstacymccain
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:09 pm

Let me ask you: If Team Mitt could spend $107 million to win 41% of the vote and lock up the GOP nomination, don’t you think they could afford to cut me a check for $107,000 to take a seven-month blog hiatus, to therapeutic vacation in Vanuatu until the election is over?

Are they too stupid to see the value?

Wait … don’t answer that question.
robertstacymccain
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:12 pm

No, no — Slim’s hanging around a little longer, just to keep us hoping that there’s a chance. He never actually leaves town before Labor Day.
willpeir
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:20 pm

You are the only journalist whose opinion I think is worth paying for, Stacy. Remember that as we move on towards destruction.
robertstacymccain
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:35 pm

Look, it’s not that I’m gonna vote for Obama or tell anyone else to do so. The problem is swing voters are not quite as stupid as they seem, and when they turn on their TVs and watch those debates, I rather doubt they’re going to say to themselves, “Y’know, I can really relate to that Mormon multimillionaire venture capitalist who’s been on both sides of every important issue for the past 20 years.”

The very idea is implausible. This isn’t a negative wish-fulfillment thing on my part. I would very much like to see Obama defeated on Nov. 6. But I happen to know a thing or two about swing voters — I’ve actually met them in person, rather than just reading about them as poll statistics — and I simply can’t imagine them stampeding to the polls to vote for Mitt.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:36 pm

The Vanuatu Legation Constabulary makes a desperate last ditch stand to protect fleeing innocents as the Governor Whitman McCain Campaign abandons a nation to its fate…
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:38 pm

Mark Levin said it simply, and inarguably: Mitt Romney spent 91% of his primary money attacking his opponents. Not Barack Obama. His enemy, and the enemy of his handlers, was never and is not Barack Obama. It was the dissidents within the GOP.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:39 pm

The problem is, look at the judges Mitt appointed in MA.
King Shamus
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:47 pm

RE-Swing Voters: The thing is, I can imagine a few scenarios where the conservatives just aren’t all that motivated to show up on Election Day. Or if they do show up, they do it in the perfunctory 2008 McCain way: No enthusiasm, no talking up their candidate at work, no taking their friends to go vote. Because Mitt is so all over the place, there’s not a lot for righties to cite as a positive reason to vote FOR Romney.

You’re rightly concerned about the swing voters.

I’m concerned that the GOP doesn’t get enough turnout from the base to even have to worry about the swing voters.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:48 pm

Who wants to bet Adjoran changes his screen name day after the election?
Adobe_Walls
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:49 pm

I could get enthusiastic about a box of rocks.
King Shamus
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:52 pm

There’s the rub. I have no good answer for that.

All I have is a vague hope that a hypothetical Mittens Admenstruation would nominate originalist justices. Like everything else with him, I’m left with arguing, “Well, Romney’s nominees couldn’t be as bad as Kagan or Sotomayor, right?”
Charles
April 11th, 2012 @ 6:58 pm

“Mitt makes Bob Dole and John McCain look like unbeatable juggernauts by comparison”.

Oh, Romney will do much better than Bob Dole did in 1996. And he would have been a better candidate than John McCain in September 2008 when the markets were teetering on the verge of collapse. Those are the neutral objective facts.

You’re smarting from the punches Romney threw with his mittens on. Imagine how he punches mittens off. This election is going to come down to capitalism v. socialism. Obama could not be beaten on values, he can be beaten on ideology. Remember Breitbart!
section9
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:09 pm

Viguerie’s wisdom is as old as Direct Mail itself. He’s the one who came up with the idea of “sustaining membership” in the GOP, iirc (he might have cribbed it from Ray Bliss, but I digress…).

Romney’s people have waged a war of annihilation against Palin and other conservatives. When he loses, as Obama will be able to outfight him, trust me, FOX and the Amen Corner of the GOP Establishment will be out to blame Palin and everyone else but the Establishment.
Garym
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:13 pm

If he changes it to Larry Fine, we’ll still know who it is.
Brian D Paasch
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:15 pm

It is ALWAYS the right wing’s fault. If “we” win, well, “we” would have won MORE except for those primitive right wingers. If “we” lose, OBVIOUSLY it was the right wing’s fault. Obviously. Any smart person can see that!
Shawn Gillogly
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:23 pm

And then you look at Souter and realize yes, they can be. Mittens looks no more ‘conservative’ than Bush the elder to me. And souterish judges seem very likely from Mittens.

Besides, I’m done holding my nose. Conservatives for Cthulhu. Why vote for the lesser of two evils, when you can have the Great Old One. I’ve said it all along, I stand by it. I’m voting 3rd party. And if Mittens loses MO by 1 vote, I’ll be happy to raise my hand and claim it.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:25 pm

With all those windows at the RNC building? So could I.
Shawn Gillogly
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:28 pm

Agreed. But I’ve never been able to imagine anyone, besides the Establishment GOP, who ‘stampedes’ for Mittens. Doesn’t matter. If the GOP can’t get the fact we needed a real conservative after the 2010 election, they NEVER will.

Flush them, we don’t need them. And I’d rather have 4 more years of Gridlock than people trying to explain away the media meme of why “Conservative” Romney expands the government as fast as his predecessor. In the long run, Romney’s as bad for the country, and worse for conservatism.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:32 pm

Ann Coulter, berating Republicans for “fighting the last war,” continues to endorse the general who got his ass whipped last time… http://tinyurl.com/7lufejg

I swear, taking the transfats and salt out of their diets is making NY’ers stoopider every day.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:36 pm

Mitt needs to send RSM to Vanuatu! With enough per diem money for drinks and smokes.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:37 pm

You met some of them?
Harmony Lane
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:37 pm

Judges.

Even the most RINO Republican makes better picks than a Democrat.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:40 pm

Agreed. I do not see anyone outside of the Romney clan stampeding to vote for Mitt.

I could see some swing voters going Mitt in the same sense you would eat a dead rat if you were starving. You might do it, but you definitely would not like it.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

That’s why WE have to hold the House and take the Senate. Not the RNC’s drones. It will be tough enough with the GOP fossils still in the leadership positions in both houses.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 7:45 pm

I always ‘got’ more of a Shemp from him…
Zilla of the Resistance
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:01 pm

Here in NY State, I was bombarded by practically back to back attack ads against Rick Santorum by Romney’s super PAC for at least a month, possibly closer to two months. They never let up, even when the “news” said that Mitt had halted them while Bella was in the hospital, I still saw them.
Mitt must not be as sure as everyone else seems to be of his “inevitability” in New York State, where there actually are lots of conservatives once you get outside of NYC (and it’s a big state once you get outside of NYC!). My primary here in NY is in 8 days, and now that my first choice has exited the race, I will be voting for Newt. Contrary to what Mittbots and OfA Mobies have been saying all over the interloobz, voting for Not Mitt in the primary is NOT “a vote for Obama”, only voting for Obama or a third party or not voting at all in NOVEMBER is actually a vote for Obama, so anyone who wants to try to deny me or anyone else the opportunity to make our own voting decisions in primary elections that have not happened yet can simply kiss my lovely ass. They are wrong, they are lying, and they are insulting everyone’s intelligence.

But yes, Stacy is quite possibly correct about the impending DOOM!, but I’ll not give in to defeatism until after all the votes cast in the General election are counted. I do not wish to believe that the majority of Americans want this country to go full commie and see a global genocidal islamic supremacist caliphate established. if Mitt is the nominee, he damned well better take off his silky gloves that he’s been wearing when it comes to what he says is “a nice guy” Obama and get ready for some bare-knuckled brawling because he has clearly demonstrated that he’s OK with fighting dirty against CONSERVATIVES – what he REALLY needs to do is prepare to do likewise to the progs.
Shawn Gillogly
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:03 pm

David Souter. Sorry. That claim is as false as any other.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:13 pm

Seriously, what could go wrong?
ThomasD
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:29 pm

You go to war with the Mitt you have…

You know those scenes in the movies, the one where everyone is lined up being handed a weapon out of the armory, then running off to man the ramparts?

Picture yourself in that scene, only instead of a pike, or a musket, they’re handing you a feather boa.

That’s Mitt.

My response? No thanks, if bare hands is all I have, bare hands is all I’ll use.

Take your Mitt and stuff it.
richard mcenroe
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:30 pm

In most of those movies the peasants and shopkeepers are getting their asses handed to them wall or no until the hero shows up. Gandalf 2012?
ThomasD
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:32 pm

Fail.

Not only do squishy jurists who ‘grow’ in office do as much direct damage as out and out lefties, they can actually do more, as they lead people to false conclusion about conservatism, that it is no different from leftism/progressivism.
Ford Prefect
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:46 pm

Romney has a terrible judge picking record. He will likely continue in that same vein. A Republican congress will have to support his liberal proclivities. However, a Republican congress won’t feel inclined to offer the same level of deference to a President Obama.
Adobe_Walls
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:47 pm

Bingo.
Pathfinder's wife
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:49 pm

Have you seen Mitt’s record in Massachusetts?

I’m not hopeful…again.
ThomasD
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:52 pm

I agree, this is a significant problem for Team Romney.

Their PAC was the big dog in the primaries. Against Obama’s PACs and the MSM (yes, redundant) Mitt’s Money is small change.

No, or marginal support by the base means no effective push back to whatever memes Axelrod wants pushed. No fighting back at the water cooler, on Facebook, diner counter, church parking lot, etc.

McCain without the Palin, or the years spent in a Vietnamese torture cell.

So, it is going to be months of Team Romney stamping out sacks of flaming dog feces all while Obama ‘rises above the fray’ appearing very Presidential and concerned for the plight of the little guy.
Adobe_Walls
April 11th, 2012 @ 8:54 pm

How many of those swing voters from the early primary states will vote against Romney or any other republican for that matter, in retaliation for those wall to wall ads they had to endure despite having no intention of voting in the republican primary.
Adobe_Walls
April 11th, 2012 @ 9:01 pm

Conservatives for Cthulhu welcome your support.