That national snapshot is crystal clear, plus it doesn’t reflect Romney getting his ass kicked on foreign policy all through bin-Laden-is-dead week. Add to that, his policy advisor on foreign affairs is openly gay (Gasp!). That’s a combo Mittens didn’t feel he could afford to gamble on. His base being chock full of religious scolds — many so deep in the closet they’re finding old bowling balls and grandma’s faded Easter bonnets — who hate teh gay, and more importantly, who could cause a collapse in support so huge he might never recover. So, brave brave Sir Romney did what he does best, he bravely turned his tail and fled:
(US news) — The recent departure of an openly gay foreign policy adviser and communications hand from Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has left many in political circles scratching their heads, but one conservative radio host is praising the move as a win for American families.
Ric Grenell, who served as foreign policy spokesman in President George W. Bush’s administration, was recently hired by Romney and according to the campaign, was officially scheduled to begin work May 1. But when Tuesday came, Grenell voluntarily stepped down from his position.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if Romney ran as himself: A successful finance wonk raised in a big, successful, American Morman family whose willing to let actions and results speak louder than someone else’s prejudice. Hmmm … in fairness, maybe he can’t. The conservative base might not get fired up about a moderate heretic, no matter how many times the fictional Nation of Islam Kenyan revolutionary socialist Black Panther Commander Obama is rubbed in their faces.
Probably has a much to do with Grenell being widely considered a Quisling and misogynist. Basically, he was unpopular with everyone. I think it’s yet another sign of just how out of touch Romney is that he believed having the man on his team was a good idea in the first place.
Why in the world wouldn’t he have gotten rid of the guy long ago, in fact why ever sign him up at all? It’s not a good witness for Romney’s judgement on any level from any angle.
Hey, maybe the christo-fascists needed to be concerned about this guy. Maybe he had something to do with his former boss, John Bolton, not having a problem with gays serving in the armed forces or with same sex marriage. If so, maybe they think that he will brainwash Romney too.
Yeah, I think ericgill is way off. The timing is mighty suspicious if that is the case.
This is the kind of shit that is going to be a real problem for the GOP in the coming years. Having an openly gay member of his staff (I make no comment about his alleged misogyny or Quislingitude) would have been a nice plus with moderates and with young conservatives, having someone he can point to when accusations of homophobic bigotry arise (not that “Hey, I have plenty of gay friends!” was ever really been a good rebuttal to allegations of homophobia, but it seems to work on some people). But the crazy super-hate party base won’t allow that kind of thing.
Republicans will increasingly have to choose between losing the pearl clutchers and losing the youth vote.
The issue I have with Romney is that I’ve got no idea what his policies will be! Everything he stands for today, he doesn’t stand for tomorrow until he stands for them again. He’s an amorphous blob, going ultra-right when he has to, shrinking back towards center when he doesn’t. It’s dishonesty, that’s what it is. I can’t see having a President whose every actions you have to question whether he’ll stick by them a month from now.
I think they’ve made their choice, at least for this generation. Maybe they’re hoping that the next one will be a collection of raging homophobes and religious bigots that will make Bryan Fischer and Rick Santorum look moderate.
This just shows what I’ve being saying for weeks now: Romney can’t afford rush to the center. If he takes two steps toward the middle, the far right will force him to take three back. In doing so, they’re forcing him to write off not only the youth vote, but also women, Latinos, and anyone else who is not a conservative Christian and regular Fox viewer.
Wouldn’t it be incredible if Romney ran as himself: A successful finance wonk raised in a big, successful, American Morman family whose willing to let actions and results speak louder than someone else’s prejudice.
Romney can’t possible run as himself. Let’s ignore the “Mormon” and the “cares more about power and money than religious beliefs anyway” portions of his personality…
Have you seen exactly what he had to do to be a “successful finance wonk”? How many people he had to lay off, and how many businesses he swooped in, raided, and then left as a dessicated husk of their former selves when he was done?
If we were able to have a real, serious discussion about Romney’s merits as a leader based on his past actions as a leader he would never have gotten out of the initial vetting stage (nor would any of the rest of this year’s GOP clown car, for that matter). It’s in his best interest to make this election about trivial bullshit instead of his own qualities as a leader.
If occasionally the trivial bullshit rises up to smack him in the face, well, them’s the breaks. It’s his only chance at the Oval Office because if it comes down to a strict comparison on leadership qualities and how to go about each candidate would perfom the role of President based on past actions, Romney would already be a non-candidate.
This is the thing that kills me when Romney talks about people “hating success” when they talk about his business experience. It’s not that people hate success, it’s that they hate the way in which Romney went out his success. I have tons more respect for George Romney’s success as chairman of a car company than I do Mittens for running a vulture capital outfit. I also have more respect for Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and the late Steve Jobs.* These are people who made their fortunes producing something. They created products that people can use and they created real jobs. Mittens made his fortune moving assets around like game pieces in Monopoly, collecting money off the backs of the people who did the work in building these companies.
F**k Romney and his “success”.
*That’s not to say that these people are perfect saints, just that whatever personal flaws they have, the businesses they created produceds goods that had a net benefit to society.
Romney is already set up to lose, and the campaign hasn’t even started yet. I’m excited to see what the Obama campaign brings to the table; is he going to play the “good guy” and not attack Romney, whilst Romney and the Religious Right (sounds like a bad Christian rock band) play the “bad guy” and attack Obama with lame jabs? I hope so, because that’ll only make things worse.
I also wonder if the Obama campaign will even bother pointing out how much Romney is waffling, and on such huge issues. At this point, I don’t think they need to. Romney is doing a good enough job of pointing it out himself.
Are you kidding? Those guys are so far in the closet that their having adventures in Narnia!