Romney Hatred -- From Whence Does It Come?

[Alexander Hamilton]

Romney is the phoniest, most plastic candidate I've ever seen. He clearly has no principles or convictions, and his charisma is that of a sleazy used car salesman. I don't know why he has any appeal at all amongst Republicans.

And having business knowledge doesn't mean he has a clue about economics, as the eight year legacy of Harvard MBA George W. Bush should have made apparent.

You are a hack.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Romney is the phoniest, most plastic candidate I've ever seen. He clearly has no principles or convictions, and his charisma is that of a sleazy used car salesman. I don't know why he has any appeal at all amongst Republicans.

And having business knowledge doesn't mean he has a clue about economics, as the eight year legacy of Harvard MBA George W. Bush should have made apparent.

You are a hack.

Many thanks for that thought-provoking response.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Romney is the phoniest, most plastic candidate I've ever seen. He clearly has no principles or convictions, and his charisma is that of a sleazy used car salesman. I don't know why he has any appeal at all amongst Republicans.

And having business knowledge doesn't mean he has a clue about economics, as the eight year legacy of Harvard MBA George W. Bush should have made apparent.

You are a hack.

Many thanks for that thought-provoking response.

Bush didn't govern at all like a Businessman would have. If you look at Bush's record in Business you see the reason is because he was piss poor at that.

Okay this is just getting annoying but to put it bluntly, Mitt Romney had twice as many delegates as Huckabee at the time of his withdrawl...

And it wouldn't have gotten any better for him so, naturally, he bowed out.

 

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Again, where's the proof? He won in GOP primary in less conservative states? Big deal. It's like the idea that Obama winning the Kansas caucus or whatever meant he had appeal there in the General. Mitt winning in Maine or Nevada didn't mean he appealed to the General electorate.

As for the latter point, uh, he only won those states because he was a Mormon. It had nothing to do with his ability to win over those voters on ideology.  

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Uh, what?

 

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This isn't about electability in the General. That doesn't mean that winning in that area isn't key to winning the nomination so, yeah, the South is the most important area to win in the GOP primary fights to actually, you know, win the nomination.

The identity politics and isolated culture of the South render it a very different environment as compared to the rest of the US. This has always been the case, since the colonial-era. The South a. likes its own, b. is willing to vote for extremists, and c. is very homogeneous in its nature. Notice I didn't call Huckabee an extremist. My point is this- the South is a different place, and it's a solid Republican constituency, meaning candidates with appeal condensed mainly in the South may have trouble breaking out, whereas other Republican candidates will still win the South. The south's not important in the primary to gauge viability or to build a winning coalition of delegates. 2008 is proof.

Actually very few of those states are mormon. Maine is Catholic and Congregationalist, Colorado is only 2% mormon. Idaho isn't as mormon as some people would think. The only real good examples that fit that, Phil, are Utah and Nevada.

Thanks Fezzy, as always -- very thought-provoking.

I didn't really mean to start a flame war between Romney's fans and his detractors...though I supposed one might break out.  Mainly, I wanted to gauge what one or two issues make Romney anathema to some and close to a panacea for others.  I now infer there are far more than just one or two.

Me?  I just like the guy and his family personally.  But I could never support someone so far to the right of me.

It is a shame really that a decent conversation is impossible on this. Romney may not be Satan like Becca thinks, however I completely disagree with some people and there attempts to elevate Romney to the status of a living god for he most certainly isn't.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The impression I got during the 2007/8 campaign was that Romney was willing to press any little point to hit the appropriate buttons with the right type of conservatives.  I remember in particular a debate, sometime in November I think, where Romney made a point of viciously attacking Huckabee for a program in Arkansas that offered scholarships to those in the very top of their high school classes, because children of illegal immigrants were eligible for them, or something to that effect---the sort of policy we should be encouraging, I feel, but Romney kept on bringing it up just to hit that "immigration" button.

Not that any politician doesn't do that sort of thing, but it's many, many things like that that make me extremely wary of supporting the guy, as I have absolutely no idea how he'll govern.

Plus, as a western Mass. man at heart, there are still some hard feelings from the Jane Swift days.  (Have a look-see at the 2008 Republican primary map by town for a bit of what I mean).

The problem is, I think Romney is the closest thing to my kind of Republican we're going to have in the race, so I may end up backing him in the end, though don't expect me to do it at any point before November 2011.

EDIT:  Padfoot:  Horse-faced?  If there's one thing Mr. I Look So Presidential isn't, it's horse-faced.

I would disagree with you that we should be supporting In state-tuition for Illegals. For Legal Immigrants, fine.

As for the East-West GOP divide in Massachusetts you are completely right.

[Keystone Phil]

Actually very few of those states are mormon. Maine is Catholic and Congregationalist, Colorado is only 2% mormon. Idaho isn't as mormon as some people would think. The only real good examples that fit that, Phil, are Utah and Nevada.

Maine is obviously the exception (I didn't mean to make it seem like I was saying they had many Mormons) but Idaho definitely has a strong Mormon population. I believe someone here once explained that Colorado's Mormon population, while small, has great sway in Colorado GOP politics.

 

[Farage]

well i use to be an huckabee fan since long time ago but since some times i think that mitt romney will be the best choice for 2012.
The biggest problem with mitt romney may be his negatve attacks IMOO

[Vepres]

Actually very few of those states are mormon. Maine is Catholic and Congregationalist, Colorado is only 2% mormon. Idaho isn't as mormon as some people would think. The only real good examples that fit that, Phil, are Utah and Nevada.

Maine is obviously the exception (I didn't mean to make it seem like I was saying they had many Mormons) but Idaho definitely has a strong Mormon population. I believe someone here once explained that Colorado's Mormon population, while small, has great sway in Colorado GOP politics.

 

Considering most Mormons are probably Republicans, this means they're 6% of the Colorado GOP and they probably turn out consistently. Don't forget the very religious Colorado Springs, which might like a Mormon like Romney (I don't know, just a guess).

[Alcon]

Actually very few of those states are mormon. Maine is Catholic and Congregationalist, Colorado is only 2% mormon. Idaho isn't as mormon as some people would think. The only real good examples that fit that, Phil, are Utah and Nevada.

Maine is obviously the exception (I didn't mean to make it seem like I was saying they had many Mormons) but Idaho definitely has a strong Mormon population. I believe someone here once explained that Colorado's Mormon population, while small, has great sway in Colorado GOP politics.

 

Considering most Mormons are probably Republicans, this means they're 6% of the Colorado GOP and they probably turn out consistently. Don't forget the very religious Colorado Springs, which might like a Mormon like Romney (I don't know, just a guess).

Romney's best group was mainstream Protestants who considered themselves very conservative.  Hardcore fundamentalists, and the sort of "independent Christian evangelical but not that conservative" group (highly underestimated in the U.S.), are both big Huckabee demos.

[The Duke]

It comes from Mitt Romney.