Associated Press
Romney campaigns against student aid in Ohio.
When it comes to alienating key voting constituencies, Republicans are on a roll. The GOP has already gone out of its way to push Latino voters away, and seems to operating under the assumption that women no longer vote at all.
Yesterday, Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, decided to alienate students, too.
The high school senior who stood up at Mitt Romney's town hall meeting here today was worried about how he and his family would pay for college, and wanted to hear what the candidate would do about rising college costs if elected. He didn't realize that Mr. Romney was about to use him to demonstrate his fiscal conservatism to the crowd.
The answer: nothing.
Mr. Romney was perfectly polite to the student. He didn't talk about the dangers of liberal indoctrination on college campuses, as Rick Santorum might have. But his warning was clear: shop around and get a good price, because you're on your own.
Romney could have talked about student loans, Pell Grants, or efforts to help curtail sharp increases in tuition rates, but the Republican instead urged the Ohio student to find a college "that has a little lower price."
Maybe the kid can get a break after graduating? Romney rejected that, too: "[D]on't expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on."
This isn't exactly surprising, since Romney endorsed Paul Ryan's House GOP budget plan that includes severe cuts to college aid, but as the New York Times report added, Romney's blunt you're-on-your-own response was "pretty brutal."
In the 2008 presidential election, there was a striking age gap -- Obama not only beat McCain among younger voters, he did so by a two-to-one margin. Four years later, with Republicans now showing unrestrained hostility towards higher ed and helping students, don't be too surprised if younger voters rally behind Obama in even greater numbers in 2012.
Indeed, the contrast is striking. The president considers his student-loan reforms to be among his key domestic achievements, including doubling the investment in Pell Grants, and creating the "American Opportunity Tax Credit" that gave 9.4 million families a break on tuition rates. His likely GOP challenger's advice to students? Good luck figuring something out.
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It's almost as if Conservatives are actively trying to eliminate voters at this point. It's absolutely mind-boggling. I've asked my Conservative co-workers who they are voting for today (I'm in Virginia/DC) and they're being oddly evasive. I still don't think they know who they want. I am personally voting for Ron Paul today because I find him to be the most reasonable Republican candidate (I would probably support him fully if he was pro-choice; his abortion views are a deal-breaker for me) because I would love to see Paul win Virginia. Can you imagine? A Paul win actually might not be that incongruous: there were a surprising amount of Paul posters in Southern VA when I visited Richmond and Petersburg a few weeks ago - he probably caters well to the highly individualistic, rural voters downstate. As a major Liberal, seeing the upset in the Republican party this year is simultaneously unnerving and exciting. I can't wait for the election coverage tonight on MSNBC.
I don't think Romeny actually cares about getting votes. He knows he's got the wing nut anti-Obama vote sewn up no matter what. He could murder babies in the street and his base would still vote for him because he's not a scary black man. What he assumes will happen is, he'll win the Republican nomination. Then he'll start screaming that the economy suck and it's all Obama's fault. And this will work, because it always has. The average American voter has the political awareness of a stunned sea cucumber, the attention span of a Higgs Boson, and the memory of a drunken pot-head with Alzheimer's Disease.
You do not have enough +1's yet.
the sea cucumber thing is the best though, because..
http://seacucumberfacts.com/interesting-sea-cucumber-facts.html
"sea cucumbers do not have a brain. Instead, they have a ring of neural tissue surrounding their oral cavity that functions in-lieu of a true brain. However, experiments have shown that the sea cucumber is still about to function normally if this part of the animal is removed, showing that it doesn’t serve a central control function and is therefore not a real brain."
Which defines the GOP mouthpeice perfectly.
Good story about the sea cucumber.
You left out the part about them being bottom feeders.
They consume excrement and dead things.
More evidence that the GOP wants to create a have and have not society, with only the wealthy having an education. Makes it much easier to control an ignorant population.
so rich boy romney tells the kid not to expect government help with higher education.
maybe a combat avoider like romney (seven deferments, three years hiding out in france) has never heard of the g.i. bill and the incredible good it did for america. god knows, he could never have qualified for it. neither could his five sons.
I think the GOP thinks it's okay to alienate students because they're trying to prevent students from voting.
A significant portion of the Occupy movement is students who are angry about costs of education. Romney and his advisers know or should know this so you have to wonder about their strategy. But he is oblivious to the problems of the middle class and poor. This is just another bonehead blunder that will do Romney in in the elections.
Pretty soon going to college will only be affordable by the very wealthy just like everything else. It is already unaffordable to even go on a vacation once a year. Fly on an airplane buy a car a house Use the heater and a host of other things are becoming more and more out of reach for the middle class and poor. They do not care I don't know why? But, they know why. It is up to us to find out. The American Dream is a thing of the past thanks to large Corporations and the likes of people who are exactly like Willard Romney. Let's send a clear message that they are not confusing us enough with their social agenda to think that we would not vote with our hearts as well as our brains I have no interest of competing with any other country. I want to get to the business of living.
I'm just waiting for Romney to make an open-mike gaffe that offends older, white southern males, say something about "those NASCAR-lovin' crackers with shotguns". Then the GOP will have reached nirvana: 100% voter alienation.
I forsee the triumvirate of platforms: Lil' Ricky, Romney-bot, and the Oversized King-Cake Baby band together:
"Hey little poor kid! Dream of going to college? Well we're here to tell you that to succeed in America, you don't need to go to college at all. In fact, we pretty much know you couldn't afford it anyway. College is for those who are building empires. But feel free to slave away as a janitor in your elementary school after-hours to save those pennies! We know this trickle down economics thing will work EVENTUALLY, and some day, you might could esteem to have a living-wage job that might offer some modicum of health care. Maybe! But that's all if you play your cards right and save those value-less pennies!"
Mitt Gingrich is obviously attempting to bridge the enthusiasm gap! The GOP is truly on a roll!
the Republican checklist
2011 - present
Well said!
This should be combined with video footage.
Outstanding.
One other thing.
The only way Newt can drop gasoline price by $1.00/gallon is to outlaw speculation (the definition of communism) then lie about that so people "want to do it for the good of the party".
This is why states like Wisconsin & New Hampshire have changed the rules to disqualify student IDs for purposes of voting.
As that NH GOP leader said, students are liberal and they vote liberal. We can't let that happen.
And how about those students' parents?
Those students' parents might be in another state...
From the 'Economic Policy Institute' 11-9-2011. To paraphrase, in 1978 ceo pay was 35 times the average pay of their employees. In 2010 it was 243 times the pay of its workers. This was down from 299 times the pay due to the recession. They must wonder where their next meal is coming from. I guess they really need a tax cut.
Alienate college students?
How about "alienate parents who want their children to go to college?" Parents vote. Parents look foreward, and speaking strictly for myself some of them get "can my kids go to college" anxiety before the children are in kindergarten. I spent 26 years with the cost of putting three kids through college at the top of my long-term planning priority.
And, yes, all of them now have at least a Bachelor's, with one preparing to defend her dissertation. But I'm a lot better off than most [1], and to borrow a lovely line from Danny Glover, "That ain't right."
Tell parents like me that we're on our own, or that we should send our junior physicists to community college, is one of the best ways to drive us politically postal I can imagine. Right up with telling us that our daughters are "sluts" and "prostitutes," except that this time around it's not an insult, it's a threat.
[1] In very, very major part due to the United States Government paying for my father to be the first person in his family to attend University on the GI Bill.
I actually laughed out loud at this because my mind immediately went to the Ted Knight character from "Caddyshack" responding to a poor high school student who was fishing for a scholarship with "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too."
If the GOP candidates' answer to everything is, "figure it out, you're on your own," exactly what in the way of "leadership" are they offering?
Figure it out---then vote.
They want to BE the government to END the government - except for the part of the government that contributes to their wealth and keeps us from having "dirty, vile, disgusting pre-marital sex".
this is who he is. if you're a middle-class parent, I hope you were listening to Willard.
We cannot build a great nation if our citizens are not educated. We understood this after WWII and this resulted in the growth in our nation during the 50's and 60's.
I agree with him
Yo, Mitt. I did figure it out. I went to grad school pretty much on their dime. But you know what? Grad school stipends don't cover things like, oh, rent. Or being a mom. Or that pesky little thing known as food.