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With the presidential election seven weeks from tomorrow, it's clear that Mitt Romney is not yet where he wants to be. President Obama appears to have an advantage -- though his lead is hardly insurmountable -- and there's growing pessimism on the right.
Making matters considerably worse, however, is the evidence that Team Romney is itself in disarray. It's hard enough to defeat a well-liked incumbent with a lengthy record of accomplishments, but doing so with a campaign operation divided against itself makes Romney's challenge that much more difficult.
While "talk of infighting within the Romney headquarters" has been "percolating for months," we've clearly entered a new stage. Politico published a lengthy piece last night filled with unnamed aides pointing fingers and casting blame -- for Romney's muddled message, ineffective ads, disjointed convention, and useless speeches.
The number of Republican insiders and campaign staffers who seemed eager to dish to Politico about their dissatisfaction only reinforced the scope of the underlying problem.
It gets worse. Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei also report that Team Romney, just 50 days before the election, is going to "abruptly" shift its strategy, after Romney advisers concluded "they had to make a painful course correction."
And what strategy will the Republican campaign "abruptly" shift to? According to BuzzFeed, Romney will focus on mobilizing the GOP's right-wing base with an emphasis on "patriotism and God." And according to the New York Times, aides said Romney "would present a series of speeches, television commercials and events promoting his five-point economic policy."
So, Romney staffers agree there will be a shift in the campaign's direction, but disagree with one another as to which direction.
The talk about Romney's inevitable electoral demise still seems premature, but when it's mid-September and campaign insiders are turning on one another, and disagreeing with one another about the campaign's basic strategy, there's clearly a significant problem. We expect this from a campaign after it has lost, not before.
What's more, this isn't just inside baseball for campaign junkies; we're learning something important. One of Mitt Romney's principal selling points is that he has tremendous managerial skills thanks to his lucrative private-sector experience. Vote for Romney, the argument goes, because he knows how to run a major operation, and will be competent as head of the executive branch.
And yet, Romney appears to be struggling due in part to a failure in leadership. What does that tell us about the kind of president he'd be?
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Does anyone else get the irony of an immensely rich man asking you to donate money to him? And keeps an undetermined part of his wealth out of this country? And has said many remarkably stupid things (public record)?
And THIS is the best the GOP could offer?
Gengis Ghandi, I get the irony, and the continuity: Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain...
Romney was actually a step up, wasn't he. So Yeah, I guess that is the best they had this year.
They threw out their winner: Jon Huntsman. (He had a brain, character, and a personality.) He had real experience. They hated him.
Let them lose. I hope it is a landslide. They deserve it.
Unless there's a great big Oct surprise it's over for Romney. Obama has the electoral votes to win if he gets Oregon, Nevada and Colorado... even if he loses Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida and NH, but he's ahead in those states too!
Agree fully with roberson's comment in regards to Paul Sadler.
I would love to see Rachel have Paul on the show at some point. He is needed in the Senate.
Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Willard's entire basis on why he was qualified to be President was that he was a rich, White man.
once the Prudential Building destroyed THAT....
they never had a Plan B.
ah... the Romney hail Mary strategy...
wow 49 and wake up and he still hasn't got his base set. LOL not that the 26% would all back him anyways. he been better to had for the center and hope the nut jobs wouldn't notice.
LOL but who am i kidding.
Pilot.....not sure what you said but hear this- Romney will beat Obama by 3 - 6 points. Enough so the leftwing radicals cant say it was fixed!
LOL
Turn the lights back on.
India, real mature for a leftwing...
Yeah, I try. One day I may reach your level of immaturity and illiteracy! Then we can converse, but it is a ways down for me.
I'm workin' on it, though.
Always so nice to hear from you!
No. You'd have to be smacked on the head with a shovel to turn your lights out.
LOL
lights think about it
its now 48 and a wake up. help you a little, think how many days are left to the election, oh look its 48 complete days and we wake up on the 6th.
sadly even Rasmussen is not even that off base to make a prediction like that.
Willard can change his message all he wants, but until he produces his tax returns, no thinking person will take him seriously.
In the fading light you can hear a faint:
SSSSSsssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....pop!
That's the Romney campaign imploding.
Zeta 511, #37 I also hear, above the white noise...a thud......
That would be Romney dropping in the polls.
this guy------ just want to drop a bomb
I don't agree with dropping the bomb, but at least entangle us in another war. I don't believe that the US is out to create an Empire, but there do seem to be some of those hawks that this is exactly the way to do it.
jelly, how so?
How about that unemployment rate, and the number of people on food stamps.
And what about the debt.
Obamanomoices working like a charm.
Next no one has ever won an election in September.!
More spam from the 4-year old.
TherealChris, A rerun of last week's desperation and spam.
cow should stop eating its own manure
Nice try EDD, but the Romney campaign is doing just fine. Knock off the propaganda. We cant make good decisions with bad information.
Here's some good information for you:
Mitt Romney was caught on a hidden video tape speaking at a fundraiser earlier this year, and you will not believe the things they caught him saying…
http://www.indecisionforever.com/blog/2012/09/17/mitt-romney-caught-on-tape-talking-like-average-republican
Mitt's going to try to win an election by ignoring half the population.
Mother Jones caught Woolard talking to his rich greedy supporters!!!
http://www.motherjones.com/
After seeing the FACTS and listening to what Woolard really thinks there can be no doubt that Woolard and his corporate rich aholess. If your not a corporate your as good as dead.
What would Obama do if he got that phone call at 3 am? In judging by his reponse to the advance notice of an impending attack in Libya, which got our ambassador killed, he would hang up and go back to sleep and tell the caller to call Romney instead.
I guess you don't have a fact checker.
Always good to hear your little fairy tales, though!
What advanced notice are you referring to?
Credit where credit is due.
Mitt Romney has done something no one in American politics has ever done.
He's united the entire country.
Against him.
when you run a campaign based on lies you can expect nothing but disarray. if romney and ryan can't keep track of their lies how can they expect their surrogates to do it?
if romney was more like his father and ran on honesty and disclosed 12 years of taxes and was transparent with his plans he might be winning.
but romney and ryan and the republican party are running on lies and condonation of lies. unfortunately, the only people who believe lies are really stupid, ignorant, bigoted, or hate filled. some have all those traits.
for all the judeo-christians who believe romney's lies, shame on you. how can you ignore the sixth commandment and support an unrepentant liar?
off to war-----------we go again ask Ronmey why???? dont worry the little Ronmeys would not have to go<<>> 6 of them isnt it--------- Oh he didnt go fight for the country ether or did he????
Romney just lied his way into some more trouble with the tape recording talking about poor people not paying any taxes, yes he just destroyed himself, but we still have dummies out here who will vote for him just for G P, this man is really lunnie talks to much about nothing but got caught on tape making really bad talk about us working folks, who wants this fool representing the U.S. not me, he can't get anything right, still lying & talking against the middleclass & poor folks, now tell me why are people voting for him, beause they think like him foolish & wrong, can't even show his taxes, because he hasn't payed any, he just said 47% of americans don't pay taxes, well he must be one of the 47% not paying him & his wife-both need to be investigated, romney-ryan are both going to go "DOWN". can't wait.
"aw, sh!t, mitt."
- paul ryan
I guess we (read that, most Republicans and Independents) knew that "der mittster" probably wasn't going to be our best candidate but he is what we ended up with. I give him credit for choosing Congressman Ryan, although I would have much more enthusiastically supported a Ryan run for the Presidency. But, Mitt, really doesn't have a chance unless you consider the following:
Odumbo can't "fundamentally transform" America if he isn't there.
He won't have "more flexibility" with Vladimir Putin (who just loves Odumbo enough to endorse his re-election) if he isn't there.
He won't be able to unilaterally reduce America's nuclear arsenal to below his stated 300 nuclear warheads. Leaving us vulnerable to the surging Russian, Chinese and Terrorist military threats if he isn't there.
He won't be able to continue to dismantle, what was once the greatest military on the face of the earth (which by the way he has already begun), if he isn't there.
He won't be able to continue to take more and more of "middle class" (yes I know he talks about soaking the rich.......but they don't have enough money to pay for his welfare state so you will have to) tax dollars to pay for an Odumbocare program aimed at helping illegal aliens (yes, I know some of you prefer "undocumented workers"), and 30 million new welfare recipients to the detriment of seniors from whom he has already stolen $716 billion dollars, if he isn't there.
He won't be able to continue his policy of "crony capitalism" with his buddies in the phony solar, wind and other alternative energy world ala Solyndra, if he isn't there.
He won't be able to continue to "reset" "America's relationship with Islam" as he has so effectively done thus far (i.e.Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunis, Iran, etc.) and we won't have to continue to bow and scrape to Saudi Kings, if he isn't there.
Odumbo has set out to fundamentally "transform America" and given another four years you will not even remotely be able to recognize what was once the greatest nation on earth. I agree, I don't think the Mittster has a chance, because Odumbo has broken out the freebees and the 47% Romney was talking about are standing there with their hands out. They will vote in droves; some of them will be dead, illegal, and vote multiple times in multiple states and collectively they will assure that Odumbo gets another shot to screw things up even worse than they are. I can't even, with any confidence, assure you that if you vote for Romney things will be better, only that he might screw it up a little less. To paraphrase a previously stated idea "I think, for the first time in my adult life" I am ashamed of my country and many of the people in it.
We have become a nation, not of rugged individualists (people who are totally responsible for their own individual lives) but a nation of lilly livered milksops (who expect you and me and every other taxpayer) to pay their freight. A sad day indeed, but I guess it was inevitable..........it happened to Greece (oh my god(s) look at Greece now), it happened to Rome, to the Royal British Empire, etc. I guess it was bound to happen to us. I am urging both of my sons to consider becoming citizens of another country should Odumbo get another four years. They won't be welcome here at that point anyway as they are of mixed ethnic background, but have the misfortune of looking white.
Meanwhile, the economy is still in the toilet. Unemployment continues to rage. Gas prices are headed for the moon. Our ambassador to Libya was murdered...possibly raped. And our kids are still being killed in Afghanistan.
Now what is it about Romney that makes you hate him so much? And why are democrats so consumed by hatred?
because hatred and propaganda are their stock in trade. and with a complicit media, they manage to ignore rising gas prices, middle east disarray, unemployment, and any other news that would be bad for (and proper vetting of) the narcissist in chief. we essentially live with a state run media (at least when dems are in office). welcome to 21st century america. journalists, at this moment, are one notch down from pond scum. they have no ethic, no professional code, no credibility (to anyone with a brain).
thanks for the propaganda, benen, you two bit miscreant hack. i'd expect nothing more from MSNBC. a couple years from now, when the lemmings you fool are still dealing with +8% unemployment and a foreign policy in disarray, their health care premiums continuing to skyrocket (despite the "affordable health care act" lmfao), let's see what kind of crap you spew in defense of their arrogance in chief. you are a joke, a hack, a bought and paid for propaganda tool. man i hope i pass you on the street in nyc one day.....
LMAO
thanks for this morning laugh!
sounds like someone found something brown in their Wheaties this morning.
Romney has earned a monumental loss in the upcoming election. He continues in the closing weeks to campaign for a big fat goose egg when it comes to sitting in the oval office. Only the most bleary eyed syncophants believe he's competent to be the leader of the free world.
The GOP's obstructionist snobs might learn their lesson when they are humiliated in November to move past previous centuries and strategies to become more "people friendly".
It's so insanely comical at this point i'm anxious for the debates.
Romney will take this election in a landslide. Prez Zeros buddies the Islamists are showing him for what he is, weak in every way
This week's news: Federal Reserve panics and will print 40,000,000,000 a MONTH to try to rescue Obama's economic debacle; the Obama foreign policy in the Middle East collapses --- literally --- into flames and the first US Ambassador since the Carter presidency is murdered by Islamic terrorists; the administration becomes a laughing stock for insisting the a spontaneous civilian protest somehow included rocket launchers, mortars, and indirect crossfire strategy; unemployment jumps; inflation jumps; debt breaks 16,000,000,000,000.
And your conclusion? The Romney campaign is in trouble.
Couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.