Rush Limbaugh's latest criticism of Mitt Romney is representative of a much larger problem plaguing the candidate: Romney's trying desperately to pander to his party's far-right, unhinged base, alienating everyone else in the process, but he's still not connecting.
It was just last month when the former governor formally unveiled his campaign's tax plan, which was an awful, Robin-Hood-in-reverse sort of scheme. It lavished generous tax breaks on the very wealthy, while actually raising taxes on the working poor, all while making Bush's failed tax policies permanent.
The right was unimpressed, dismissing Romney's proposals as "timid." So, in a cringe-worthy display of cowardice, Romney threw out his month-old tax plan and replaced it with an even-more-conservative agenda. Maybe this would make the GOP base happy?
Apparently not. Romney, in unveiling his Tax Plan, Take Two, mentioned in passing he wants to make "sure the top 1% keeps paying, paying the current share they're paying or more." And this led to a stern condemnation from the de facto Republican leader, Rush Limbaugh.
Getty Images
"It accepts this 'one percent/ ninety-nine percent' premise that Obama has put forward in his class envy scheme," Limbaugh thundered. "But apparently Romney's advisers think that there is ground to be gained with the ninety-nine percent by portraying himself as being on their side and against the one percent," he continued.
With crushing kindness, Limbaugh did concede that he could see some tactical advantage in Romney's words. "In this climate with Occupy out there," Limbaugh intoned, "he does want to avoid at all costs the allegation sticking that he's a rich guy favoring the rich."
And so, Limbaugh concluded, Romney's "advisers" had decided that their apparently pliable candidate must "let it be known that the one percent are not going to be allowed to get away with anything, even under a Romney regime."
The irony, of course, is that Romney's tax plan is a far-right fantasy, that his campaign can't even talk about in detail with a straight face, because the numbers don't add up. Romney doesn't want to make the very wealthy pay their fair share; he wants to give them yet another massive tax cut, which he can't possibly pay for.
For Limbaugh and many other conservatives, that's not good enough. Romney needs a far-right agenda and he needs to use the appropriate rhetoric to defend that far-right agenda. Given that Romney occasionally forgets his own party's economic orthodoxy, this is obviously a problem.
But the larger issue is the bind Romney finds himself in. He keeps moving further to the right, in the hopes of winning the Republican nomination, but keeps struggling to overcome the doubts and mistrust from the same people he's so eager to impress.
Romney's alienating the mainstream with his policies, while alienating the right with his occasional, accidental, and arguably insincere candor.
Leave a Comment:
I think Romney is approaching this election with the idea that he can win the election with money so it makes no difference what he says. In fact, I think Republicans are assuming they will be able to buy the elections with loads of money. If Scott Walker loses his recall, that theory will go by the wayside.
These Corporations spending Billions to avoid paying thousands....makes no sense. So it must be simply a Power thing....
They could have been investing in product improvement or giving employees raises or bonuses for hard work....Stupid!
The corporations will always have lobbyists to help write favorable legislation. But if the money contributed to the elections is wasted, they will think twice before contributing again. Corporations are accountable to their shareholders and they might have some objections to scads of money in political contributions, especially because all of the shareholders do not hold the same political beliefs.
Mitt Romney is the candidate who will bring pride and prosperity back to the USA. When he speaks, his love for this country comes through. He is not in this for a power grab as is Santorum. Why would Romney give up a successful career? It’s because he wants to get this country back on track. It’s not the establishment republicans only who back Mitt Romney, it is the common person like me. We are the ones sending in our $25 to help him win this election. We don’t care that he is a Mormon, we look beyond the “categories” and look to a person who deeply wants to set this country on the right track. Let’s elect Mitt and watch a real American presidential campaign in the fall.
And your $25 is $25 more than Romney himself has put into his campaign. It isn't love of country; it's his desire to create a legacy for himself, have his name mentioned in the history books, add a feather to the Romney family hat. Nothing more. If he truly wants to set this country on the right track, he would know enough about the issues to speak more intelligently and honestly about them.
Mitt Romney is the candidate who will bring pride and prosperity back to the
USA. Wall street Bankers and hedge fund managers . We have ours we want more - screw you unwashed masses.Do you know anything about the Mormon religion do some research and then get back to us. Romney needs to be the star of a new reality series with the idea from Trading Places put him in jail and then let him our with nothing but the shirt on his back and send him to one of the poorest cities to live in then maybe I will listen to what he has to say.
So Romney loves this country. That's a pretty compelling platform, although it may be a little light in specifics. But I fear that he may be ignoring the mom and apple pie vote.
I don't care if he's a Mormon either.
I will not vote for him because I worked for a company bought by Bain Capital. Using the Romney business model the U.S. plants were closed and the jobs sent to Mexico and China. How is that good for the country? We need the opposite of Romney; someone that believes we can recover by keeping the jobs at home and end any tax benefit for off-shoring jobs.
Another way of describing Romney's dilemma is that the extreme right knows Mitt's really a moderate no matter what he says, so they don't support him. Meanwhile, the moderates know Mitt is moderate but they can't trust him because he's pandering so much to the extreme right. So Mitt twists in the wind while his advisers struggle to develop policy statements and plans that appeal to both ends of the spectrum (which quite frankly, is not possible).
This is more entertaining than watching folks run with the bulls.
KJ- Exactly, totally, and right on!
Seems to me like Romney should've realized in 2010 or so that he could never run to the right of these fools, so he should just stay more or less to the mid-right where he was and bludgeon the other candidates with his financial and organizational advantages. You lose the base, but a candidate with any sense of strategy would realize that there would be 4 or 5 (and as it happened it was more like 7 or 8) candidates trying to compete for the radical end of the party.
But somewhere around the Ames Straw Poll, I think he got nervous and decided/realized that maybe the whole party was the radical end of the party.
The right wing echo media has been lurching back and forth, alternately supporting and criticizing Romney. Once he's the nominee (and he probably still will be), it will be interesting to watch them walk back their own statements about him. The Limbaughs of the world will have no option but to wholeheartedly support him, and they did McCain in 2008. But excellent fodder for ads by the Obama campaign.
Boss is an asset to the President's campaign. The more he tears at the fabric of the Republican base, compromising its unity, the better.
I think the media should stop talking about Rush Limbaugh and showing his picture. He is just in it for the money and seeks negative attention. Rumor has it that he is a closet Liberitarian from the 50's.
Romney has more sides than a Rubric cube. He flips and flops around depending on who he is running against. He has no real vision. if you remember the movie Zelig a character who took the personality of anyone around him that would be Romney. When he was Governor of Mass. He championed health care reform and now, speaks about Obama care like it is rat poison, though patterned on his own plan . When he ran against Ted Kennedy he told the Mass. media he was a moderate to progressive because that was who he was running against. In 2008 he was more moderate in his views, because McCain was, and W had compassionate conservatism. He thought he would use his business success on economic issues, but was savaged because of his wealth, so now he is trying to connect with average people. He is responding to Rush Limbaugh who has an ego the size of his belly, and is tacking to the far right so he can kiss his ring. If he wins the nomination he will try to go back to the center and disavow his right wing comments, because he has to win over women, independents, and Latinos. He is more like a ship that is being blown around in a storm. He is a man with no convictions, a true Zelig and a perfect Rubrics cube.
I think a new brain needs to "Occupy" Willard Romneys head one that could perhaps help him to utilize his moving parts more effectively, not so stiff. Maybe teach him some manners and wake up to the fact that the American people are on to him and his pro-quo of how this country should be ran Greed free.
i almost did not recognize him without the large phallic symbol he usually has clenched between his teeth and lips. And he smiles when he does it.
Oh dear, being "sternly condemned" by Rush must be humiliating in that alternate universe known as GOPIA.
Poor Mitt, condemned to the wilderness because he isn't right wingy enough and apparently lacks the sophistication of Sanitorium's virtuoso performance in looneyville although Rush left that unsaid.
So being tied to 99% of the country is a bad thing just like liberal is a cuss word? Only in Rush world could Romney be tied to the movement.
so tired of the media giving their opinion to the public and the public just eating it up. Why can't people just watch the debates in their entirety and make their own decisions.
I could care less about Limbaugh because he's just a paid opinion. It's time America stops listening to the media and makes decisions on their own.
Republicans are listening to their preachers, priests, Tea Party propoganda makers, FOX news and believing it all with out doing ANY research!