Posted on 07/14/2012 1:29:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This week in the presidential campaign was driven by several stories, primarily Mitt Romney’s speech to the NAACP convention; the likely bogus rumor that Romney was considering Condoleeza Rice as his vice-presidential pick; and the hysterical, bogus claim that Romney may be a felon based on decade-old SEC filings. Let’s look at the common thread running through them.
Partisans on both sides of the aisle questioned Romney’s decision to appear at the NAACP convention, given that African-Americans have been a solidly reliable Democratic voting bloc for decades. However, a Romney campaign adviser told BuzzFeed that Romney’s attendance at the convention wasn’t primarily intended to break off a portion of the black vote, but to make clear to moderates that he intends to be an inclusive president. (I would suggest this was also part of the motivation for the Condi VP leak, if it came from the campaign.) It is really polite code for saying Romney was going after the votes of white college graduates, particularly women. Recall how the Emerging Democratic Majority theorists see this campaign:
[Ruy] Teixeira, writing with John Halpin, argues in “The Path to 270: Demographics versus Economics in the 2012 Presidential Election,” that in order to be re-elected, President Obama must keep his losses among white college graduates to the 4-point margin of 2008 (47-51). Why? Otherwise he will not be able to survive a repetition of 2010, when white working-class voters supported Republican House candidates by a record-setting margin of 63-33.
Obama’s alternative path to victory, according to Teixeira and Halpin, would be to keep his losses among all white voters at the same level John Kerry did in 2004, when he lost them by 17 points, 58-41. This would be a step backwards for Obama, who lost among all whites in 2008 by only 12 points (55-43). Obama can afford to drop to Kerry’s white margins because, between 2008 and 2012, the pro-Democratic minority share of the electorate is expected to grow by two percentage points and the white share to decline by the same amount, reflecting the changing composition of the national electorate.
Recent polling suggests Obama’s current support among non-college whites remains mired about where is was for Democrats in 2010. However, Obama has largely maintained his support with white college grads, still within the margin of error of that 47% he won in 2008. If he erodes much further in that demographic, it is also unlikely that he would be able to achieve the alternate target for the overall white vote.
Obama’s precarious position in this regard explains the increasingly negative, hysterical and defamatory campaign being waged by Team Obama, promoted by various establishment media outlets at different times over the past few weeks, culminating in the full flowering of Romney Derangement Syndrome at this week’s end. Team Obama must increasingly rely on the “otherization” of Romney (and his church) of the sort the very same people roundly condemned and marginalized when attempted against Obama in 2008. Indeed, Obama started painting himself into his current corner during the 2008 primaries. Obama ran — and has largely governed — against the Clintonian version of the Democratic Party, now extending to Obama’s weakening of welfare reform. It is thus not terribly surprising that Obama’s tenuous grip on white college grads has become the flashpoint of the 2012 campaign.
I just can’t go on living knowing you think that.
During Mr. RomneyCARE’s despotic reign from 2003 to 2007,
when he was not installing DNC judges, death panels,
or gay marriage without a vote of anyone, Mr. RomneyCARE
personally increased taxes (see the graph), and the
expenditures (see the graph) and tanked the state.
(see the CATO review).
There is a reason Mr. RomneyCARE is the choice of Democrats.
People who vote for the losers in the 3rd parties are losers.
Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I'd see those words posted on Free Republic. Just damn...
it’s your call
LOL...Great photoshop work done there!
Stealing it of course!
What you said was accurate.
*shrug* -- I might be a loser, but at least I'll be able to look at myself with some measure of respect regardless of who wins.
I am no longer tied to a party that only yammers about things and never does anything to further them.
When was the last time Republicans pushed for smaller government? Really pushed?
When was the last time that Republicans did something to roll back oppressive gun laws?
Trick question! The AWB had a sunset clause, they literally did nothing! Why the F--- should they get positive credit for sitting on their asses?
When was the last time they actually pushed to illegalize abortion, one of their planks since the mid-80s? Really... we had the executive and the legislative under Bush and they couldn't even pass a resolution? Not even a token gesture?
When was the last time they were serious about fiscal responsibility? Not in my political lifetime.
When was the last time they were serious about government accountability? Ruby Ridge? Waco? Fast and Furious?
I may be a loser, but at least I'm not a useful idiot.
You're being punked. Don't you know when it's time to stand up and fight?
Quoting from a Losertarian think tank doesn’t prove anything other than a consistently poor choice in supporting your position. Losertarians have a history of nothing other than abject failure, a complete inability to read or understand the nattion and a consistent state of denial.
Got a source for that?
So Magic Fingers, you prefer Joy Behar better than a long time respected Freeper here.
OMG PERFECT!!!!
Those guys were pikers compared to A+Bert.
He has become the Free Republic Nancy Pelosi.
An annoying troll with nothing at all to add, to be sure.
Is this the thread where everyone comes to bash Romney?
Ok then.
Buh bye.
Are you here to pimp your RINO and his
RomneyCARE/ObamaCARE, DeathCARE, TARP policies?
or just here to pimp him and hide the rest?
(So does this mean Romney has decided -- at least for now -- that he won't go back to what he did between ages of 17 of 32 -- for over 14 years of his life -- and give 10% of his income to racist causes like he did back then?)
So that this doesn't happen again we have to run the small GOP-e faction OUT OF THE PARTY. They already planned to lose to Obama so there's nothing I can do about their death wish, but I certainly can work to make sure they are REMOVED.
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