Poll: Romney least favorite Republican candidate among Birthers

Hot Air ^ | August 21, 2009 | ALLAHPUNDIT

[ellery]

I want a strong Christian candidate for our party in 2012. I don’t want a polygamist, semi cultist president. We are doing so well already with a President that goes to an anti-white church where White America is compared to the KKK and that believes America deserved the 9/11 attacks. I want a strong real Christian, I.E. Palin, Huckabee or Thompson. Not a cultist who isn’t a member of a true christian church.

Welcome to Free Republic.

Personally, I would knock on doors until my knuckles bled on behalf of a pro-liberty, pro-Constitution, conservative Mormon candidate. Unfortunately, Romney isn't it.

[WOSG]

I didnt ‘jump’ to the birther factoid, that’s the title/subject of the thread! For someone who claims to be making a point, you do a lot of pointless jumping to conclusions.

[MHGinTN]

It would appear the Romney platoon is seeking to use Romney’s Mormonism the way Axelgreasy has used B Hussein Obama’s ‘blackness’. Despicable don’tchaknow. But so ‘romneyesque’

[svcw]

bye bye

[ellery]

Exactly. Didn’t they do that during the ‘08 primary, too? I vaguely remember some anti-LDS push-polling that was traced back to the Romney campaign...?

[MamaB]

If he is the best we have, then we are in very deep trouble.

[MHGinTN]

They tried it extensively here at FR. Din’t work here, didn’t work with any real conservatives. Sadly, some whom we had assumed to be real conservatives exposed their not-so-conservative selves by falling for the ploy and worshipping the mittens.

[x]

What do we want, a moderate like Romney who passed homosexual marriage laws or a true christian like Huckabee?

Romney didn't pass that law. The State Supreme Court made the decision and he couldn't override it. The State Legislature could have prevented gay marriage by passing a civil union law, but they didn't want to.

There was supposed to be ballot initiative on the question. Enough signatures were collected, but the legislature finagled their way out of putting the question on the ballot, so the State Supreme Court's decision became law.

Romney, like others who opposed the decision, couldn't get their way around the legislative leaders who really run the state.

Actually, I wouldn't want either Romney or Huckabee. The case against Romney gets made every day here and there's a lot to it. But you hear less about Huckabee.

Huck is a Jekyll-Hyde guy. He looks so nice on the television, but when he has a chance to stick it to his opponents he does.

That's the thing about Huckabee: to evangelicals he may be a strong Christian, but to non-evangelicals he looks like the kind of guy who'd play the anti-Mormon or other questionable cards to get his own way.

His statement about the Middle East also makes him the kind of fellow evangelicals will love and the rest of the country will worry about.

[Diogenesis]

No. Romney is responsible because no legislature passed any law.

Romney, carpetbagger, now in La Jolla, IMPOSED gay marriage by improper executive authority.

It is the Romney way. Power. Impose. Then leave.

RomneyBOTs always try to twist the facts for their Master, don't they?

"Experts: Credit Romney for homosexual marriage"
"What he (Governor/Dictator Mitt Romney) did was exercise illegal legislative authority'
"While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney claims he did everything possible to throttle homosexual marriage in his state – his campaign now saying he took "every conceivable step within the law to defend traditional marriage" – several constitutional experts say that just isn't so.
"What Romney did [was] he exercised illegal legislative authority," Herb Titus said of the governor's actions after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court released its opinion in the Goodridge case in 2003. "He was bound by what? There was no order. There wasn't even any order to the Department of Public Health to do anything."
Titus, a Harvard law graduate, was founding dean of Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School. He also worked with former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, ...
Romney's aides have told WND that after four of the seven court members reinterpreted the definition of marriage, he believed he had no choice but to direct clerks and others to change state marriage forms and begin registering same-sex couples.

Some opponents contend that with those actions, Romney did no more or less than create the first homosexual marriages recognized in the nation. And Titus agrees."
"....But the court's decision conflicts with the constitutional philosophy of three co-equal branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial, Titus said. It also violates with the Massachusetts Constitution, which states: "The power of suspending the laws, or (suspending) the execution of the laws, ought never to be exercised but by the legislature..."
And it cannot even be derived from the opinion itself, asserts the pro-family activist group Mass Resistance, which says the decision did four things:
* First, it acknowledged that the current law does not permit same-sex marriage.
"The only reasonable explanation is that the Legislature did not intend that same-sex couples be licensed to marry. We conclude, as did the judge, that G.L. c. 207 may not be construed to permit same-sex couples to marry."
* Second, it said it is NOT striking down the marriage laws (among other things, the Massachusetts Constitution forbids a court to change laws)
"Here, no one argues that striking down the marriage laws is an appropriate form of relief."
* Third, it declared that not allowing same-sex marriages is a violation of the Massachusetts Constitution.
"We declare that barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution."
* And fourth, given that the court is not changing any laws, the SJC gave the Legislature 180 days to "take such action as it may deem appropriate."
"We vacate the summary judgment for the department. We remand this case to the Superior Court for entry of judgment consistent with this opinion. Entry of judgment shall be stayed for 180 days to permit the Legislature to take such action as it may deem appropriate in light of this opinion."
After the Legislature did nothing during the 180 days, Romney then took action "on his own," the group said.
"Gov. Romney's legal counsel issued a directive to the Justices of the Peace that they must perform same-sex marriages when requested or 'face personal liability' or be fired," the group said."

So, in fact, you are incorrect. And a Romney false propagandist who hates Constitutions.

[x]

I said in my post that I didn't want Romney or Huckabee, but I do think Mitt gets a bum rap on this. It looks to me like your sources don't understand just how liberal the Massachusetts Legislature is, and how powerful its leaders are compared to the Governor.

So far as I know, the court's decision would impose gay marriage in the absence of legislative action. And the legislature wasn't going to act against the homosexual agenda -- they wouldn't even put the issue on the ballot after it received enough signatures -- so gay marriage became law.

Could Romney just have ignored the court's ruling? Maybe, and it might have been a good thing if he had. But that sort of thing doesn't really happen in the real world of politics. Most politicians don't want to let such a crisis develop.

One reason why they doen't is because they figure that if the people are behind them they can get the votes together to stop the courts. But, sadly, that also doesn't always happen in the real world.

Romney's most vocal critics on this issue also have a share of the blame themselves, as they couldn't get together behind a common plan for or against civil unions as an alternative to same-sex marriage. That would have been the easiest way to get around the court's decision.

[Diogenesis]

How typical for a RomneyBOT such as you to blame EVERYONE else.

You blame the Legislature but ROMNEY imposed it alone to the Clerks.

Can you read what was posted? Did you go to the Url?

Then you blame Romney victims. How Romney is that?
Romney “raped” Massachusetts and then fled to La Jolla.
How Romney is that?

[WOSG]

“I said in my post that I didn’t want Romney or Huckabee, but I do think Mitt gets a bum rap on this.”

Blaming Romney for gay marriage decision in Mass is like blaming Nixon for Roe v Wade because he happened to be President when the SCOTUS made that decision. Since the Mass supreme court based their decision on the state constitution, it was imposed irrespective of legislative action and there really was no recourse except constitutional amendment path, which Romney supported.

“Could Romney just have ignored the court’s ruling?” Last time a guy tried to do that he got kicked out of office pronto. Justice Roy Moore.

It’s tiresome to go through these slams again since Romney is a non-starter for 2012 anyway, so this is all moot.

[WOSG]

“Your thinking STILL leads to a situation where the MSM controls and calls the shots on what Republicans and the GOP do — when you gage a candidate’s viability on how the candidate polls with independents”

First, I am not advocating anything on the basis of polls - no “X should jump out” “Y is unelectable” - if that was inference, unintended. Actually, polls this early wrt 2012 are pretty much worthless. And I understand perfectly how the media uses pollaganda to scare repubs.

“I don’t put much stock in polls, to tell you the truth” - Dittos.

But its simply wrong to be blind to what candidates bring to the table and how they are perceived. I am standing up for reality, not fear .. but also not wishful thinking. In 2008 I told people the reality that Huck wouldnt win the nomination and that Romney was better than McCain as a candidate. However, I ended up voting for none of them in the primary.

Reality as of right now is that Palin has very high positives among GOP base but is disdained outside that base. We can gnash our teeth or blame the media, but that’s current situation and if it was the same way in Aug 2012 and Palin was the nominee, we’d be looking at a 2nd Obama term. The challenge for Palin is to change that perception.

“Palin draws crowds in the multiple thousands.”
So does Rush Limbaugh. That doesnt make you electable.

” You are delusional if you think that popularity won’t translate to independents and regular Americans.”

The wishful thinking part is declaring it WILL happen. I agree that giving up now or assuming she cant bridge that gap is based on fear. Reality: Whether it will happen or not depends on whether Palin is up to the task of changing her image with non-Republicans in the face of media bias. Reality is it wont be easy, but Palin has time and a lot of charisma on her side.

[yongin]

I think Huckabee does so much better than the other candidates due to people not knowing him very well. He comes across an affable, calm man on Fox. That perception can change when Huckabee gets more scrunity.

The positive aspect of this poll is that a Southern evangelical is the most viable candidate against Obama. For months, RINOs like Meaghan McCain were lecturing us about the need to be more like her to win elections. It turns out that the GOP is still very much a conservative party adn we should stick to basics.

[thecraw]

The Conservative candidate in 2012 needs to to be Teflon, as was Reagan. We have to keep in mind that the state-run media will SKEWER any conservative.

I don't think Romney has this Teflon quality (nor does Huckabee), and besides if Romney's the pick, all the weirdness of Mormonism will be front and center, i.e. Heavenly Father is a man that lives on a planet near the star Kolob, the 3 heavens, baptism for the dead, etc. Jindal probably woudn't pass natural born status because of his Indian citizen parents (this will sure matter to the media if it's a Conservative) and so far the only Teflon quality I see is in Palin. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

[stephenjohnbanker]

Huckabee is a nanny stater. Pass!

[stephenjohnbanker]

“If winning in 2012 is all you care about, then Huckabee is the strongest candidate to face Obama”

You are quite mad, you know!

[McGruff]

Huckabee is our best bet if we want to win in 2012

He'll never be president. Especially this time around. We just lost with a RINO. Republicans want a real conservative this time. I predict if our nominee isn't Sarah Palin (or someone like her) Obama gets a second term. Conservatives will send a message to the RNC. NO MORE RINOS.