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Mitt Romney's symbolic appeals to conservative Republicans. Tribal Warfare {FR mentioned]
The New Republic ^ | February 21, 2007 | Rick Perlstein

Posted on 02/21/2007 7:39:36 PM PST by Torie

Mitt Romney is in trouble. In a deeply conservative party, the former governor of Massachusetts is a ghost of Republicanism past: a moderate. His presidential announcement speech read like a tribute to his father, [who was] liberal enough to get elected and reelected governor in a Democratic state, Michigan. ... "We have lost our faith in government--not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government," as if oblivious to the heresy: Rehabilitating government as a good in itself is not the usual way of introducing yourself to voters in today's post-Reagan Republican Party. Maybe Romney's tried to shake it, but he just can't: He carries progressive Republicanism around in his blood.

Which raises certain suspicions about that announcement speech. As the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) immediately observed, its location, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, is a "testament to the life of ... a notorious anti-Semite and xenophobe." ...

Those memories no longer exist--except to the hair-trigger sensitivities of the likes of the NJDC, which put out their press release and garnered an AP article on the flap. But here's something to consider: The Romney campaign has harvested benefits from that flap, whether it was intentional or not. Consider the sarcastic reflection of this denizen of the right-wing website Free Republic:

Allright, an AP hit piece! The MSM has more acute RINOdar than we. Real RINO's don't get rinky-dink MSM hit pieces such as this. This proves that the MSM believes Romney is a conservative, and therefore must be roughed up.

Translation: I used to suspect that Romney was only a "Republican in Name Only." But now I realize: He bugs the liberal media. By the tribal logic of right-wing identity politics, that is enough--Mitt Romney now can be called a conservative.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at tnr.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; electionpresident; elections; realdeal; romney
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To: Mount Athos; Torie; maui_hawaii
"I haven't seen this many comments deleted since the Harriet Miers and Dubai port controversy days"

maui_hawaii thinks that there are special rules for him. All the posts that were yanked were his. Constant personal attacks in his tag line.

101 posted on 02/21/2007 10:02:22 PM PST by editor-surveyor
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To: LtdGovt
I think Romney is a conservative Republican who was pretending to be a liberal when he ran for office in Massachusetts.

Wouldn't that be nice to have a stealth conservative. It's usually the other way around.

102 posted on 02/21/2007 10:07:00 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: editor-surveyor; Mount Athos; Torie
No no.

This has been going on long before this thread.

It hit is boiling point tonight.

No matter how many times it was mentioned by myself or others to tone things down, never happened.

Admittedly I got pissed.

Most of the posts pulled were not attacks.

Only one, possibly two at the very end of the exchange.

The Mod for whatever reason pulled the others for their own reasons.

As for now, I am headed to bed.

103 posted on 02/21/2007 10:10:07 PM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: editor-surveyor; Mount Athos; Torie
Not to mention that this thread is history in the making.

I have not had so much as one post edited in 6 years as a freeper.

104 posted on 02/21/2007 10:16:03 PM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: Torie; All
Geez, at least Perlstein could have given credit for the post :

To: areafiftyone

Allright, an AP hit piece!

The MSM has more acute RINOdar than we. Real RINO's don't get rinky-dink MSM hit pieces such as this. This proves that the MSM believes Romney is a conservative, and therefore must be roughed up.

11 posted on 02/12/2007 11:34:46 AM PST by Plutarch


105 posted on 02/21/2007 10:21:02 PM PST by Plutarch
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To: LtdGovt

"I think Romney is a conservative.....pretending to be a liberal....in Mass.
Well, Bush is a moderate to liberal politician who pretended to be a conservative to get elected Governor twice here in Texas.


106 posted on 02/21/2007 10:40:47 PM PST by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
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To: EternalVigilance
"It was less than five years ago, (see how even you are having to fudge the truth for him?)"

I don't have much time this evening as I have lots to do tomorrow. So 'til the morrow, this brief reply:

THE VIDEO IS DATED 2002. THIS IS 2007. Wow, some fudging I did for him.

107 posted on 02/21/2007 10:48:38 PM PST by TAdams8591 (Rudy is a democrat in Republican drag.)
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To: editor-surveyor
Well, then when Romney took the PUBLIC PRO CHOICE POSITION but privately had five children with his wife, I'd say his actions spoke louder then his words.

His faithful marriage to his wife of many years, and the so far intact marriages of those five children (which indicate he raised them to believe in the institution of marriage) also speak louder than his words. He has lived a most conservative life.

108 posted on 02/21/2007 10:55:36 PM PST by TAdams8591 (Rudy is a democrat in Republican drag.)
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To: TAdams8591

October '02 to February '07 is less than four and a half years where I went to school.


109 posted on 02/21/2007 11:07:19 PM PST by EternalVigilance (The Talented Mr. Romney: It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody)
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To: EternalVigilance
I watched it after your first link. This is now the third. I think you make a big deal out of not so much.

Taken as a whole, it seems he was promising not to change Mass. laws on abortion, in any direction, and that he has always supported a woman's right to choose, and that his personal beliefs or what he feels he or his family would choose personally may be different but should be kept personal. This is hardly the extreme pro-abort position you make it sound like. Basically, he was being attacked for his suspected personal misgivings on abortion rights, and responding that he had always supported them in the past and would not change the law as Governor. If I understand correctly, he kept that promise.

Today he seems to say we should emphasize life, and that he thinks it begins at conception, but we should let states decide the details--which means of course reversing Roe (and maybe resuscitating federalism a little). He also points out that this would leave Mass. in the same position as now, with pro-abortion laws continuing in force in a pro-abortion state. Not a fire-breathing pro-life position, but not that far from the man in the video either.
110 posted on 02/22/2007 5:01:33 AM PST by Joachim
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To: Torie

If the Bush family backs Giuliani, something will be seriously wrong with the universe.

And may be reason to reevaluate either Giuliani or the Bushes.


111 posted on 02/22/2007 5:42:31 AM PST by Sabramerican
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To: Torie

(If)CA moves its primary up and everything we think we know about the nominating process becomes moot.


112 posted on 02/22/2007 5:45:30 AM PST by Sabramerican
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To: Torie

There isn't a bigger schmuck (term of art) then Richard Cohen of the Wash Post, but see his latest column on Romney- it shoots and scores.


113 posted on 02/22/2007 5:48:32 AM PST by Sabramerican
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To: Domandred; Torie
Consider the sarcastic reflection of this denizen of the right-wing website Free Republic

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I was the sarcastic freeper in question. Unless someone else has taken to saying RINOdar.

114 posted on 02/22/2007 5:49:23 AM PST by NeoCaveman (Hillary Hugo Chavez wants to "take those profits" away from you, for the common good)
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To: George W. Bush
One of the reasons we lost in '06 was because we had become the party of big government. Voters couldn't see enough difference between big-government liberals and big-government conservatives.

Voters did see a difference.

They turned out big government conservatives.

One big government party is enough.

115 posted on 02/22/2007 5:54:42 AM PST by NeoCaveman (Hillary Hugo Chavez wants to "take those profits" away from you, for the common good)
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To: NeoCaveman

Not exactly. The survivors are more conservative than the previous GOP caucus. Clearly, we lost some good conservatives in the tidal wave. But the RINOs were hit much harder. There aren't many RINOs left in the House now.


116 posted on 02/22/2007 8:01:53 AM PST by George W. Bush
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To: Sabramerican

He sure did. The subject candidate in my view is a shameless salesman.


117 posted on 02/22/2007 8:16:42 AM PST by Torie (The real facts can sometimes be inconvenient things)
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To: NeoCaveman
Unless someone else has taken to saying RINOdar.

How long have you used it? I figured I coined the term RINOdar, first used in this post, in January. I am hopeful that it will take its place in the FR Lexicon.

118 posted on 02/22/2007 8:31:45 AM PST by Plutarch
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To: editor-surveyor
Probably that he's found an effective, and proper way to deal with the Drive-by-Media !! (Adopt their technique)

Pulling a Romney is an effective technique? If that's the case, why is he at 3% in the polls?

119 posted on 02/22/2007 8:37:27 AM PST by Alter Kaker
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Comment #120 Removed by Moderator


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