I'm not sure why CPAC invited Mitt Romney to speak this year. I'm also not sure why he agreed to participate.
There wasn't much to his address -- delivered, incidentally, from notes he read, instead of the teleprompter he relied on throughout 2012. "I'm sorry I won't be your president," Romney told the conservative audience. "I will be your coworker and I'll work shoulder by shoulder beside you."
Unless your job can be outsourced, at which point the former governor will stop being your coworker and start being the guy who laid you off.
There was one paragraph, however, that struck me as interesting.
"It's no secret that the last century was an American century, and it's no secret that over the span of the coming century, that is not written in the stars. America's pre-eminent position is not guaranteed. And the consequence if America were to become surpassed by another nation would be devastating. Why do I say that? It's because the other leading contenders for world leadership -- China, Russia, the jihadists -- not one of them accepts freedom as we understand it."
So, let me get this straight. The man who sought the nation's highest office for six years seriously believes "jihadists" will compete with the United States on the international stage? In Romney's vision, "jihadists" have the potential to become a global superpower, capable of "world leadership," on par with the U.S. of A.?
I realize the 2012 election wasn't decided on foreign policy or international affairs, but I've never understood Romney's strange view of the world.
More so than at any time in recent memory, it's not at all clear what the foreign policy of the Republican Party is. As GOP leaders engage in their intra-party debate, I might suggest they leave their former presidential nominee out of the conversation.
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Fear mongering has always been conservatives' number one weapon. It was true when Alexander Hamilton went up and down the coast warning of the imminent French invasion to get money for a standing army, so he could be a peacetime general, and it is true today.
The United States does not accept freedom as the Lunatic Right understands it. Let's review what "Freedom" as discussed by CPAC means
No, the US doesn't understand "Freedom" the way CPAC wants to redefine it: Freedom for the 1% to screw the population out of its money. Indentured servitude for the 99%.
every delusional paranoid needs an enemy. thiever romney employed that same tactics when he robbed people of their lives. he will kill for profit if he has to - and he will also blame his victims.
(Romney sees 'jihadists' as possible global superpower)-----
RobUs should know , after-all - he is One of their Leaders ! Anti-American Scum !
Heheheheheheeeeeeeeee ................ Loser !
We certainly don't understand CPAC's definition of "freedom" defined this way (from Think Progress):
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans.
The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.
After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it:
ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation.
When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.
At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”
Conservatives number one weapon? Well,... there's lots to choose from.
1. Mass stupidity of voters.
2. Media propaganda that ignores what's really going on.
3. Dis-information, half-truths, sophistry, lies, lies and more lies.
4. Appeals to hate, prejudice, sectarianism and bigotry.
5. Election rigging strategies.
6. Fearmongering
5. Flag waving fascism
6. Religion
Romney is not a well man. Losing the election was too much for him.
He's proof of the fact that money can't buy happiness or peace of mind.
I wish I could sympathize with him, but I can't even stand to look at him.
Well yeah, but not so much as he would understand. You see, according to his faith, he's a stand-up guy. And according to his money, he's one of the privileged few. But according to nearly 1.5 billion Muslims, he uses the word "jihad" incorrectly.
IOKIYAR
Well, hell, Rochester, he gets everything else wrong! Why the surprise?
Apparently money can't buy brains, either.
Rochester,
You know what they say, "One point five billion Muslims can't all be wrong." LOL
My money's on Romney not knowing a jihad from a gee raffe!
I mean....he didn't recognize a donut! That's setting the bar pretty low, there!
So tell me Mitt, how does a group that does not have a country or are dissidents of multiple country's, challenge the US either militarily or economically?
Romney is telling his audience what he thinks they want to hear, another vast Islamic conspiracy to take over the US, the world and so on.
adolf, stalin, polpot, gadafi, bashar and other tyrannists all did the same thing. romney is a monster without a military to command. phew!
by the way, he does want to pit christians against moslems to inherit the earth - being as he is not a christian.
Well, they had to have something to replace the commies under their beds.
joseph common,
Romney with an army to command, that's a frightening thought. I could hear him say, you're either with us or against us.
@#4.3
The new conservative army is getting to pick and choose who is with you and who is against you.
"Unless your job can be outsourced, at which point the former governor will stop being your coworker and start being the guy who laid you off." - Mr. Benen
Kaaa-zing and a rimshot. Very nice.
What??!!!?
The guy is not playing with a full deck.
Hr's got a full deck, it's just that he's sitting at a high stakes Blackjack table, while playing gin rummy for a penny a point.
If he is including all Middle Eastern Oil States, their role as Soverign Capitalists long past a clear marker - just look at Dubai.
I wonder what Mittens thinks of England, Japan, and Germany as powers in the world.
None of them have tried to take over the world, but are considered world powers.
Hard to believe Russia got mention as a world power. Japan's GDP is 5 times that of Russia, Germany's is 3 times and the UK's is twice. Heck, Canada's GDP is nearly the same as Russia. If Romney is right we may end every sentence with "aye" and pronounce about as "a-boot." He only lost by 5 million votes? That ranks an 8 on the "Palin-o-meter" for scary.
jhamje,
Thanks for the chuckle! I've actively shown dogs in obedience in Canada. One of the commands that the judge has to give you during your performance is an "a-boot turn".
@ Dogjudge Queen Elizabeth II took over an empire that still spanned the globe, Germany kicked off two World Wars in the twentieth century to establish a global German empire, and while Japan has settled down since Nagasaki the USMC has been boots on the ground in Asia for over a century now because of Japanese attempts at empirical domination. In modern European history, Islam dominated Asia, Africa. and a large part of Europe.
( Today's UN Peacekeeping forces in Korea is in effect the successors to the pre League of Nations coalition to put down the Boxer Rebellion )
I'd like to hear Governor Romney talk more about Benghazi.
LOL, just kidding, just kidding.
Whenever I hear a conservative/GOPer make a speech lately, it seems like it was originally a Mad Lib into which catch words and phrases have been inserted.
I'm not at all sure the election wasn't decided on foreign policy. I remain convinced that the contrast between Obama's calm assurance and Romney's borderline coherence and not at all borderline flop sweat at the foreign policy sealed the deal.
In Romney's fevered mind, he sees the US capitulating to fundamentalist Moslems. But those fundamentalist shadows that he sees out the corners of his eyes aren't Moslem, they're fundamentalist christianists. When they take over, as they promise they will, their rule will be so close to the worst forms of Sharia that it will be difficult to tell the difference. The forms of Sharia that are in concordance with modern liberal democracy won't even have a chance to surface.
I might also mention that the previous administration was well on its way to capitulating to fundamentalist extremism of all kinds by ignoring the human rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights and creating the society that Osama bin Laden wanted here. It was funny/horrifying how al Qaida could yank Bush's chain anytime they wanted, and he would hop up and down like a marionette totally oblivious to what he was actually doing.
Why couldn't a network of jihadist groups eventually secure leadership in a patchwork of countries and, if nothing else, hold the world hostage...this from the Washington Post:
I would not ever say never.
Yeah, Mitt....always the kidder
The only thing that would be weirder than this is if Sarah Palin gets up and starts insisting that Obama track down and kill this Ben Ghazi guy she keeps hearin' so gosh darn much about!
OMG,, LMAO,,, Perfect,, :>)
When I read or see this kind of talk I hear "New Kid in Town" by the Eagles playing in the background.
And I wonder, Well, Johnny, what did you do in your tenure as the new, hot kid in town that would allow you to remain relevant and a major player when your time on top came to an end?
Is it possible the U.S. is such an attention whore that it will be devastating to us if we are no longer #1 on the world stage?
I look at Europe. Just about every country in Europe had their turn on top, being #1, and when their turn was over they adapted and stayed relevant. Many are doing just fine.
.
Romney is clearly an effing idiot...how the hell did he get so rich? Oh yes, i remember...by stealing!
What I wnat to know is how the hell he got nominated for president and why the hell so many people voted for him.
It's truly frightening...
stealing - its what wallstreet bankster thievers do. they steal for a living. they rob you of your balance of power as an employee (vs owner) so that they can threaten you without justice. then they steal your productivity for their wealth accumulation god. then they kill you as a sacrifice for the "no-expenses" policy by depriving you of life support.
if that sounds like evil, walks like evil, talks like evil....
Mr. Romney is mistaken here. The conservative view puts the white male heterosexual married protistant with the best pedigree and largest net worth at the top of the heirarchy. The more one deviates from these characteristics, the lower on the heirarchy one is. The conservative view of freedom is that anyone may do as he or she pleases to anyone lower on the heirarchy.
China, Russia and the "jihadists" would understand this view of freedom quite well. They use different criteria to assemble the heirarchy, but the mechanisms are strikingly similar in any authoritarian context.
exactly! all pecking order bull@!$%#.
I love how he threw China under the "Freedom" bus but somehow they are still ok to do business with...
a couple of thoughts. one, china has been bought and paid for by american businesses. these businesses are run basically or owned by rich, republican supporters. so building up china is thanks to the rich, conservative, gop people. no one else! not any of us middle class people have built or bought businesses in china. secondly, the arab world fights and argues so much with each other i am amazed when they have time for us. i believe in most arab countries that unemployment is at or near 50%. when you have a large group of young people standing around day after day, its easy for the emirs to incite them to violence. they are looking for something to do. its the same way everywhere in the world. if the younger people can find a decent job with decent pay, most of the time they will be good citizens.
Check out Qatar.
Well Steve, you're the one who gave us months of weekly chronicles on Mitt's voluminous mendacity, so you shouldn't be surprised that you question whether he "seriously believes" in something. To me, he's just been out of the spotlight, but he just can't resist not telling the truth. One of my favorites since the election is that he really didn't want to be President anyway (what does that say about someone who ran for the office for 6 years, if true?).
Quite frankly, considering how large China is, it should be expected that they eventually surpass us (although he was vague as to what they would be surpassing us in).
I wonder if he feels any responsibility in getting the Chinese economy going with all of the outsourcing jobs he got them (I bet he would proudly take credit, if he were speaking to a Chinese audience).
Since he will not submit to the popular vote for some time, he can unleash his madness and make mistakes like this one. After all, if CPAC applauds, this will be the sign the conservative movement is not right...
Did you notice the low volume of applause when he described a party committed to making political points rather than running the country? His audience knew he was describing them even though it was the Liberals he was trying to put the blame on.
lol... applause? that's how they shoot themselves. they need feedback and dont get it because they rely on image fraud by trotting out unpaid workers under threat and window dressing and canned applause. with that type of fictitious operating environment how can any repoop do anything but swallow his own bs?
Romney's a mobius strip. He never ends, just loops and loops.
Go with what you know Mitt: money. Don't say anything about anything or anyone else because you just end up looking like the single-malt, @!$%#-tard you actually are.. Isn't it time to sail to Greece or something?
hey mitt!! there is a lot of real estate available for free right now and it's the most mineral rich place around the earth!! there's a shuttle leaving tomorrow and i booked your flight already.
Mittbomb just won't go away. He must have that Karl Rove hearing aid that keeps whispering: "You won."
Romney's only enemy is the way-more-than-47% of Americans who voted for the other guy.