Unfortunately, I have not been able to devote time to the latest hub-bub about Mitt Romney telling donors that free stuff for certain groups lost him the election.
That’s an oversimplification, there were a variety of factors, but who can deny that free stuff was part of it?
I’d write it up, but John Nolte at Breitbart.com, responding to a Joe Scarborough column, does it for me:
In the statement in question, Romney mentioned the fact that free health through ObamaCare and the granting of amnesty would woo lower-income Hispanics.
How is that not true?
When Obama granted that amnesty in the heat of the 2012 campaign, the same media beating Romney up today for his “gift” comments, breathlessly informed all of us that this amnesty move would help Obama with the Hispanic vote.
Moreover, Romney also said what the media did about the effect of ObamaCare on students; that being able to legally leach off mommy and daddy’s health insurance well into their twenties was a huge incentive to come out and vote for Obama and ObamaCare.
Sounds like everyone’s attacking Romney for agreeing with the media, the Democrats, and reality.
Republicans now are falling all over themselves to “distance” themselves from Romney’s statements. To a limited extent, I agree. Romney’s time to make headlines passed Election night. Whatever our fortunes will be, they should not be driven by recorded conversations with campaign donors from the last election cycle.
While it may not be politically helpful right now to point out the obvious, going to the other extreme and denying the truth will be even more damaging. Some Republicans are rushing headlong into disastrous immigration and other policies without taking a deep breath and thinking it through.
This Brit Hume tweet makes a valid point.
RT “@noltenc: Scarborough’s Dishonest Attack On Romney’s ‘Gift’Gaffe’ — breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2012…”& someone should probably hose Jindal down.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) November 16, 2012
A lot of Republicans need to be hosed down at this point. Lying to ourselves is not the path to victory. We can’t out liberal liberals. And even if we could, why bother?
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What we need Is a Conservative. A real one, because real ones have the passion and the fight.
I DO believe we should go after every vote.
What I DON’T believe is that we should radically alter who we are.
It is a matter of WHAT we go after them WITH. And how WELL we present it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYO3tOqDISE&feature=youtu.be
This is some GOOD messaging.
We have a superior philosophy. We just need to tell people about it skillfully.
I’ve always thought of liberals in the likes of a Push-me Pull-you.
When you strike out emotionally in all directions, inevitably you’re going to have competing interests…consistently.
Part of me says let them eat their own, go Galt.
The other part of me I have yet to confer…
Anyone that believes winning an election will save Conservative ideology in America is lying to themselves.
For two of you (so far), Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness emanates downward to you from an elected official.
For me, it resides inside myself, and emanates outward. I am first an individual, not a constituent to another man’s political office.
I am a
ArmyTea Party of One.Every argument about what went wrong, or what needs to change ultimately comes back one point: the mainstream media. Republicans are not going to win the Whitehouse with the current set up in the mainstream media (and large quantities of low information voters).
Ultimately, however, the democrats will fail and people will pull the lever for a Republican. At this point, it is critical to nominate someone who will affect real change, and cut back the democrats power structure (Unions, government agencies, regulations, funding mechanisms for democrat organizations etc). The last thing the country needs when it finally decides to kick the Democrat habit, is a Republican who is going to feed the habit a little bit less than the Democrats.
I think this tweet pretty much summed up my feelings: @IMAO_: Are we saying voters aren’t bribed with taxpayer money, or are we just saying it’s not smart to point that out?
Coincidentally, recently I was at home waiting for my satellite installer. I caught a segment of Judge Judy. The Defendant got highly insulted when the Judge told her she does not take care of her children. Defendant: “I DO take care of my kids”. Judge: “With whose money?” Defendant: “The Government”. Judge: “Where does the Government get that money”. Defendant: “How should I know?” Today I was returning my cable boxes. Guy behind me was there to cancel his bundled phone/cable/internet package went up to $171.00. He is switching to satellite, and getting an ObamaPhone, now that he is getting foodstamps.
Stories like mine used to, use to, be anecdotal, but no longer.
I backed Newt strongly for his ability to tell hard truths about some shocking liberal policies (supporting partial-birth abortion, i.e.), but as long as people are getting their sustenance from the labors of others, they simply don’t care. And 60 million of them voted for more.
I shared a story with my readers last week where in three separate instances, two in West Virginia and one in North Carolina, all coal county towns, I was turned away when offering up my long-standing annual donation to local organizations. Each contact person told me right after the re-election of Obama, they got phone calls from their local friendly politician, telling them how they could fast track more federal aid. How they could get more of their townspeople on welfare and food stamps. Here I am, happily offering free money and what happens? I am told thanks but Obama is taking care of us now. They said it with such joy in their voices. Money with strings versus free money and they take the former. I don’t get it one bit.
There is no hope for change from this “get all for free” train wreck Obama is conducting. Alllll-Aboard should have been his campaign motto. 🙁
It’s not leftist policies that won the election….it’s Barack Obama. A lot of people love the guy (why I’ll never know).
Back in 2010, after two years of lefties in power, the country knew that we were headed in the wrong direction and voted accordingly. It was a referendum on his policies and he got his head handed to him.
Unfortunately, he was not on the ballot at that time.
We will have another mid-term in 2014 and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see the same thing happen again. Then when we finally get to 2016 (Lord it seems like a long way off), we won’t have the kenyan to worry about anymore.
If it’s a fair fight, not a popularity contest, I like our chances after 8 years of collectivism…..
I can’t explain it, either. It’s like the otherwise smart women who keeps letting Mr. Loser have his second, third, fourth and fifth chances.
They love the ‘fiction’ of the guy — and that fiction wouldn’t exist without a completely corrupt media. On his own, Obama couldn’t get elected dog catcher.
They voted for instant gratification without perceived consequences. Blacks voted for retributive change. Minorities voted for redistributive change. Single women voted for a non-judgmental “sugar daddy”. Opportunists voted to advance their standing through the involuntary and fraudulent exploitation of their competing interests. In short, they voted for a retrogressive outcome.
Romney was partially correct. The principal motivation was material (i.e. greed), but it was also physical and ego gratification. It was about exploiting people’s base nature.
I wonder how they will react when they follow the rainbow only to discover the missing pot of gold.
I call myself “conservative” but I’m afraid this rings true. (Think Boehner)
–Ayn Rand, Conservatism, an Obituary, 1960
The problem with Romney’s commentary is two parts rhetorical.
On the first part, it is essentially a version of reverse class warfare, which at it’s heart is still class warfare.
That is pure leftist territory, the ground is not suitable for combat, and all but guarantees a leftist victory. As some have noted, we are the people of equal liberty, not enforced equality of outcomes.
On the second part it is nothing other than Mitt Romney himself. There might be some street fighting rhetoricians who can engage on leftist turf and come out victorious. In such an arena Romney is incapable of even fighting to a draw.
Might as well ask him to match you in shots of tequila.
Did Brit Hume add that “hose Jindal down” portion when he retweeted Nolte’s link? Maybe we should run Brit Hume for a Senate seat.
As the glow from last week’s win starts to fade, the left amuse themselves by asking 2016 contenders to “dance on Romney “gifts” comment.” Jindal’s practicing his his Elaine Benes moves. Show us “nobody puts Bobby in a corner” if you want to steal the show.
I noted with considerable dismay that Newt CAN be as stupid as anyone on occasion…
http://vimeo.com/53710548
I saw that after I wrote the comment. Though the elephant loaded with gifts idea was pretty hilarious, I have to say I was pretty disappointed Newt bought into an MSM narrative. He’s usually way smarter than that.
I’m with Brit Hume. Scarborough is an isipid twit with his lips firmly affixed to the MSNBC-Liberal Teet. But, Bobby Jindal getting in the chorus of high-chair pounders shocks me. And, I gasped to hear Medved snarking about Mitt’s TRUTHFUL comments yesterday. Good Freaking Grief.
If Jindal is going to make a run in ’16, it makes sense he’d try to distance himself from Romney, but he should be careful. The wounds haven’t healed yet.
He can’t win the nomination now, but he can lose it. I don’t see him ever being president anyway….
Yep, I agree, but have long thought Bobby would be heavy-duty Veep material. His snarking Mitt right after this catastrophe of an election doesn’t sit well with this Old School ‘Coot.
I am seriously considering going over to Oswald’s grave and putting the communist flag of the US at it, take a photo, and then posting it online with a caption that says “Oswald won with the “O” in Oswald being Obama’s “O.”
I wonder how many liberals and progressives would get it?
Free stuff comes from slaves.
I seem to recall a Georgetown law student who was turned into a media star by the Democrats on the strength of her demand that other people subsidize her contraception because it’s too expensive for her to buy (and her boyfriend won’t man up, apparently).
The DNC gave her a convention spotlight, proving that they were determined to attract voters who want other people to buy things for them.
Democrat voters like to say “health care is a right” and “education is a right” (i.e. free college). They’ll get on camera and proudly say those were the main reasons they voted for Obama.
Obama said he was going to “spread the wealth around.”
It’s all out in the open — until a Republican points it out, and then Democrats are outraged. Very weird.
Help! I am trapped in an alternate universe. Everything is so bizarre here.
During the campaign, Romney told a heckler:
Remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy-more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free.
They did, and did, and did.
A good an argument as any for a really steep tax increase on the masses. National sales tax or something. You want it, you pay for it.
It doesn’t take rocket science to analyze why the GOP lost…
Out of the total votes cast, better than a million were fraudulent. Guess what party they went to.
Out of the total votes cast, better than a million went to the libertarian candidate. Guess what candidate suffered from that?
Out of the total votes cast, nearly fifty percent went to satisfy the craving for free stuff. Guess which party benefited from that.
Out of the total votes cast, better than forty-seven percent went to support substance. We all know who got those votes.
Lastly, three or four million Republicans sat out the election and we all know the cost of that inaction.
Political forensics is pretty easy once you strip away the talking points and reduce the noise to usable data.
But, I’m a lot more concerned with the consequences as opposed to why it happened…
I was really hopeful America would choose better, but Romney is right. No one is going to vote to give up their stuff.
I believe this election was the beginning of the end of America.
It will go partially Ayn Rand style (re Hostess announcement today) and partially like the end of the Soviet Union and just dissolve. In a decade or two, when we get to Greece like levels of entitlement and debt, the country will split in two with new borders falling along the lines of red and blue states.
I am very grateful that we are geographically large and diverse enough that there actually will be an option in that future for people who are not parasites on their fellow man.
Even though many of the GOP freaked with Romney’s statement, he is 100 % right and has my kudos for having the guts to say it.
The free stuff crowd can be very motivated to get out the vote over and over again. Many days of early voting, absentee ballots and no photo ID voter laws makes things even easier.
The problem going forward is motivating enough people to vote without bribery money, especially as obama will continue to add more of the Free Stuff Crowd to his ever expanding payroll.
Quite the predicament…
The real issue comes down to talent, passion and will.
The GOP leadership has little talent – or will piggishly and arrogantly avoid the help — of the type of talent necessary to win hearts and minds.
They have little passion, except to hog the troughs they feed from.
As for will to win: they couldn’t care less. Not a thing in any one of their lives has changed as a result of losing the election. We lost the election, and he didn’t even campaign for Romney — but look who is still the Speaker of the House.
The GOP needs to be either taken over by conservatives, or razed and built from scratch — or suffer destruction by a third party that will eventually fill the void left by the GOP hacks.
You’ve got to be crazy to give a dime to that organization while the hacks who run it now, remain.
I’m getting fed up with the lack of a constructive message post-election among conservatives.
They can cry and lick their wounds all they want about how “Obama bought the elections by giving gifts to minorities”, but I think any reasonable person knows damn good and well that this isn’t a narrative worth competing on, and will only sink conservatives further. Jindal and others have been right to condemn it.
Is there some truth to the claim? Sure, some—but it’s really only a tiny reason behind the whole story of the GOP’s 2012 defeat.
It’s correct that moving to the Left is obviously not an answer; i.e., why vote Democrat-lite when one can just as well vote for actual Democrats?
There are many ways to go after 100% of the electorate by offering conservative-minded solutions to common problems that people want addressed. But it’s going to require actually THINKING for once, being willing to creatively step outside the box, and not resort to the usual dunderheaded platitudes and thought-terminating clichés that typically comprise conservative politicking.
Conservatives must fight for the future by intelligently articulating a compelling vision, with real ideas for actual change that can inspire— I am frankly not convinced that the vast majority of people would prefer to sit idly on the dole, when they could be pursuing opportunities to build a life for themselves with constructive endeavors. Conservatives must speak to this, and point a true path forward.
Obama is goingto run again in 2016. He’ll get 2 more justices and the 22nd amendment will be scotched. Then he can run again.
we better work on the Senate for 4 yrs…We are not going to defeat Obama…
don’t fret; only a two-third’s majority in both houses can amend the Constitution.
a better way to go is to actually select a decent candidate next time. McCain? Romney? The parade of RINO’s must stop.
For the solution, read Daniel Greenberg’s terrific piece:
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/a-conservative-sellout-is-not-the-solution/
We should never out liberal any liberal. We lost to Bill Clinton, when his term was up the next Dem lost to George W Bush. So too, in 2016 the next Dem will lose. Obama’s cult of personality will not give the next Dem the same benefit of the doubt.
Our angle of attack will be their demonstrated results of failure and the their continued excuses as an admission of their failure. The 2014 elections should go well given the mass layoffs and the millions stuck in part time jobs due to ObamaCare. 2016 will be about the repeal of ObamaCare and the dismantling the EPA.