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What Mitt Romney Seems to Believe (and Why He's so Disliked)
Rasmussen ^ | April 20, 2012 | Joe Conason

Posted on 04/20/2012 8:26:00 AM PDT by upchuck

With the Republican primary contest over and the general election underway, Mitt Romney faces a voting public whose disdain for him has reached levels that pollsters describe as "historic." From his embittered opponents as well as from Romney and his campaign, Americans have learned that the former Massachusetts governor simply won't uphold any political position, issue or achievement he thinks might cost him votes. He doesn't seem to understand that his inconstancy forfeits more respect than any disagreeable opinion would.

No matter how carefully the former Massachusetts governor parses and prevaricates, many voters, including more than a few conservatives, evidently feel they've detected the inner Mitt: a man with utmost regard for himself and people like him -- and a profound disregard for people like most of them. They've observed him straining to express concern for the unemployed, the poor and the powerless, while sounding sincerely resentful whenever the privileged are held accountable. They've perceived an attitude of entitlement, whether he is withholding tax returns, defending tax breaks for billionaires or spending vast amounts to defame opponents. And they don't like it, no matter what they may feel about Barack Obama.

Although a new Gallup poll shows Romney with a small lead matched against Obama -- indicating how close this election may ultimately become -- voters consistently appear to disapprove of the presumptive Republican nominee. As they have learned more about him over the past several years, his negative ratings have soared. Over the past five years, since he began to run for president, the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that negative views of Romney have roughly doubled, from about 24 percent to 47 percent, while his positive ratings have lagged (only 12 percent express "strongly" positive feelings about him).

More important, Romney polls 21 points behind President Obama in public approval -- the worst rating for a likely presidential nominee in a Post/ABC poll since 1984. Indeed, he is the first to be "underwater," with higher negative than positive ratings, in the last eight presidential elections.

Vulnerable groups seem to find Romney particularly unappealing and unsympathetic, as the Post/ABC cross-tabulations suggest. Among voters with annual household incomes lower than $50,000, Obama leads by 29 points. Among the young, who now tend to be in debt, without jobs or both, Obama leads by 36 points. Among married women, Obama is ahead by 20 points. But among unmarried women, his lead grows to 45 points.

Obama's favorable score is 9 points higher than Romney's among married adults -- but this swells to a 37-point advantage among those who are not married. Romney and Obama are seen favorably by about equal numbers of married men, and Obama's unfavorable score is higher in this group. But he jumps to a 20-point higher favorable rating than Romney among married women, 25 points among unmarried men, and 45 points among unmarried women. Overall, Obama is seen not only as more likeable and friendly but as more understanding of the economic conditions faced by most Americans.

The latest CNN poll gives the president a substantial lead over his likely challenger, reflecting the same advantage for Obama among low-income, female and young voters. But all those surveyed felt that Obama was far more likely to stand up for his beliefs than Romney and to sympathize with those less fortunate and less powerful.

Evidently, Romney hopes to bury Obama beneath a barrage of negative advertising, with at least $800 million that his party expects to raise from wealthy conservatives like him. But that won't erase the lasting impression created by a primary campaign that left Americans with a bad impression of the Republican Party and a worse impression of the nominee that process selected so grudgingly.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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To: Hostage

Win.


21 posted on 04/20/2012 9:06:51 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (If you like lying Socialist dirtbags, you'll love Slick Willard)
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To: Mamzelle
At what point are we just Obama's dupes?

Not we but those who believed ABO and they were duped by mitt/GOP, also. Mitt has always been the 'anyone'!

NO 'anyone' for America but THE BEST, NEWT!

22 posted on 04/20/2012 9:13:09 AM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
"You, however, are a very nasty, very self-righteous, very narcissistic di*k. "

And your statement, however true or false, is one of the most irrelevant I have seen in a long time.

23 posted on 04/20/2012 9:22:03 AM PDT by matthew fuller (Mitt Romney is the supreme exemplification of the word SMARMY.)
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To: Mamzelle
But are you really joining forces with SALON lowlife Joe Conason?

I just post the articles M'am. Please don't abuse the messenger :)

24 posted on 04/20/2012 9:23:20 AM PDT by upchuck (Need is not an acceptable lifestyle choice; dependent is not a career. ~ Dr. Tim Nerenz)
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To: matthew fuller

What would that make yours?


25 posted on 04/20/2012 9:24:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (For every black person murdered by a white, thirty-nine white people are murdered by blacks.)
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To: upchuck
With the Republican primary contest over and the general election underway

Our West Virginia primary election is going to be held on May 8th.....and I'm voting for Gingrich now that Santorum has dropped out.

The last time I checked Romney doesn't have the numbers yet. His handlers want it to be considered a "Done Deed" so that the people who haven't voted yet will get in line behind the apparent winner. I hope that our people aren't so easily misled and continue to vote for their conservatives. Even if he wins, at least the Romney team will know that they have to pay attention to our desires or he'll have the strong probability of a conservative primary challenger in 2016.

26 posted on 04/20/2012 9:25:29 AM PDT by Retired COB (Still mad about Campaign Finance Reform)
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To: MasterGunner01
"The likely reality will be Romney's campaign will be such a debacle that he will take out Senate and House Repubs and give Obama full control of congress again. (Wanna guess who the RINOs will blame? Bingo! The Conservatives who wouldn't back Mittens.) "

We have a winner!

27 posted on 04/20/2012 9:27:11 AM PDT by matthew fuller (Mitt Romney is the supreme exemplification of the word SMARMY.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; Hostage

I believe that this thread is about the public’s perception of Mitt Romney, not any alleged and unsubstantiated traits of any FReeper.


28 posted on 04/20/2012 9:37:18 AM PDT by matthew fuller (Mitt Romney is the supreme exemplification of the word SMARMY.)
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To: Sporke
I won’t vote for him, because I have standards. I could vote for Paul, and possibly Gingrich, but not Romney.

When it comes down to the general, failing to vote for the Republican is equivalent to voting for Obama.

Only children vote their conscience!

29 posted on 04/20/2012 9:38:03 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: ansel12

“Romney disturbs people at a deep, instinctual level, like snakes do.”

An “instinctive” dislike I’ll admit to but something that crawls on its belly....? Yeah!


30 posted on 04/20/2012 9:40:27 AM PDT by old school
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To: ATOMIC_PUNK
I just wanted to look and see if anyone said Obama and Romney are brothers from another mother !

Actually George Soros came close to saying that when he publicly said he believed Romney wouldn't be that different from obama if elected...

I will vote for Romney if he's the nominee, but I believe it's critical that we face the fact that nobody but establishment drones really like or want him.

If we pay attention to this fact and vote Newt in the remaining primaries, we may escape having to vote for someone we do not want and do not like! It isn't inevitable (or even a good thing) that Romney will win the nomination.

31 posted on 04/20/2012 9:55:28 AM PDT by Sal (STAND YOUR GROUND laws are the prosecutor's target--GZ is collateral damage.)
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To: mo
A Right leaning/Conservative Congress can easily remain united behind an Obama re-election....whereas the same Congress will be sliced and diced by the RINOS if Romney is in the White House.

The problem with this is that Obama doesn't feel he's constrained at all by Congress and when he's tested it Boehner's run for cover. So he commits forces to fight in Libya in violation of the War Powers Act, congress shrugs and looks the other way. Judges order him to stop the moratorium on drilling in the gulf, he ignores them and Congress looks the other way. Obama puts all sorts of regulations in place that Congress specifically chose NOT to authorize and congress looks away. And that's just the straight forward obvious ones. Forget about controversial things like corruption, they want no part of that. They'd rather authorize more borrowing in exchange for some more fake spending cuts that never happen and say in the press "boy we really raked him over the coals" while he laughs and wastes the money on his cronies again.

So if the plan is to let Obama win but count on a linguine spined congress to keep him from doing harm (and I do think that is the plan), get ready for some serious disappointment.

32 posted on 04/20/2012 10:01:54 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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To: ATOMIC_PUNK

“I just wanted to look and see if anyone said Obama and Romney are brothers from another mother !”

Hmmm...

Republicrat/Demonrat

Mor(m)on indoctrinated racism/Reverend Wright Muslim

Liberal/Socialist

Political Windvane/Congenital Liar

Loves to fire employees/Mr. “Shovel Ready”

Dogs=hood ornaments/Dogs=entrees

A “god” from Planet Kolob/The Messiah from Kenya

Wife has the brains/Wife has the testicles (all 4)

Incoherent public speaker/Teleprompters to talk to schoolchildren

Capitulates to the left /Bows to our enemies

White on the tanned side/Brown on the light side

Wants to lead the people he believes are damned/Wants to damn the people he leads

Brothers? More like a twisted reflection in a funhouse mirror...


33 posted on 04/20/2012 10:03:31 AM PDT by AnTiw1
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To: AnTiw1

BTTT!!!!


34 posted on 04/20/2012 10:13:18 AM PDT by Hostage (Be Breitbart!)
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To: ngat
I didn’t see that it was posted approvingly. But this is how the other side actually sees Romney. We ignore it at our peril.

It is a publically posted article written by a leftist. Thus it is a tissue of lies. If this is not obvious to you then you are a retard.

Especially, since we seem to be outnumbered.

Rush says that conservatives far outnumber leftists in America. I think that Rush is right and you are a pussy.

We have proof class warfare practiced by a demogogue can get you elected.

Where is that proof? Obama did not run on class warfare in 2008 and the 'Rats got shellacked in 2010 after he exposed his true leftist self. Stop being such a pussy and start fighting confidently for conservatism.

35 posted on 04/20/2012 10:16:02 AM PDT by rogue yam
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To: rogue yam

You are an idiot.

1. It was posted so that anyone reading it can see how the other side thinks and is aware of the tactics the leftists will use if Romney is the nominee.

2. Keep thinking that dummy, and we will continue as a nation to be voted down the progressive path just as we have since the voting franchise was expanded to include nearly anyone.

3. The democrats and socialists have been splitting people along class lines forever, including in 2008. Just because some lefty named Conason correctly points out Romney is particularly susceptible to charges of elitism, and wants to reveal the demos campaign strategy, is no reason to think the guy that posted the article did so “approvingly.”

Wake up!


36 posted on 04/20/2012 10:38:41 AM PDT by ngat
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To: upchuck

Etch a Sketch has no core beliefs.


37 posted on 04/20/2012 10:43:58 AM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: All
Joe Conason is one of the worst leftist spinners out there.

His skills were perfected in the Clinton scandals; now he will use stories like this to divide conservatives.

I don't like Romney, but I would never believe a word Conason says about him.

38 posted on 04/20/2012 1:13:32 PM PDT by what's up
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To: Sporke
Ok, just what does he believe in? He has changed his position on almost everything. He can’t connect with people, that is true whether you admit it or not. The old “cut taxes on job creators” just won’t cut it anymore. He refuses to be specific about anything and that’s not going to win him any votes either. As for wasting my vote and giving obama 4 more years, I’m fine with that. If Obama wins we’ll be that much closer to armed rebellion, which is the exact thing this nation needs. There is no other way to end the corruption in DC, period.

If he can't connect w/people why is he leading the pack? Cutting taxes works everytime. Armed rebellion? Now I've realized I'm wasting my time.

39 posted on 04/21/2012 2:42:45 PM PDT by steelwheels
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