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What the Romney boomlet says about the establishment GOP's feeble 2016 field
theweek.com ^ | 9/29/14 | W. James Antle III

Posted on 09/29/2014 8:38:47 AM PDT by cotton1706

Two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney's sprawling network of consultants and aides is sitting tight, waiting for the former Massachusetts governor to decide whether he wants to run for president a third time. Romney, who until recently had long denied any true interest in another bid, is reportedly talking the idea over with his family.

Ann Romney isn't exactly denying it. Former running mate Paul Ryan, thought to be a possible presidential contender himself, is almost encouraging it. And Romney himself declined to close the door on the possibility in an interview with Romneyphile Hugh Hewitt.

As I write this, an email signed by Romney sits in my inbox. It's a fundraising appeal for the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. This kind of aggressive campaigning follows the path of Richard Nixon in 1966, as Pat Buchanan reminds us in The Greatest Comeback.

But why would Romney run again? The answer is simple: Republican establishment donors fear Chris Christie can't win and Jeb Bush won't run.

Romney is the candidate of last resort for Republican big wigs and rolodex men trying to keep the conservative hordes at bay. The fact that we are talking with a straight face about another Romney campaign is a sign of the GOP establishment's weakness in 2016. That may seem hard to believe given how the establishment dominated the Tea Party in this year's Senate primaries. But then, consider how the Republican establishment regained and maintained its stranglehold on the presidential nomination after Ronald Reagan.

Conservatives have pushed the establishment to the right — Jon Huntsman, the anti-abortion gun control opponent who supported the Ryan budget plan, was considered the liberal in the 2012 GOP primaries. Still, the nominees' surnames since Reagan almost speak for themselves: two Bushes, a Dole, McCain, and Romney.

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; elections; mittromney; romney
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1 posted on 09/29/2014 8:38:47 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706
Astroturf does not a grassroots make.
2 posted on 09/29/2014 8:40:59 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The man who damns money obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it earned it." --Ayn Rand)
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To: cotton1706

The GOP is going to nominate another dud.

Hillary is going to have a stroke or flame out under some withering scorched-earth attack from the hard hard Left.

Get ready for the Fake White Indian as your POTUS.


3 posted on 09/29/2014 8:44:13 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: cotton1706

Romney who could not garner the conservative vote because is not a conservative, is being encouraged to run again, while the last several years he trashed conservatives....the question is WTF is wrong with these consultants and GOPe people?
Romney has a big L on his forehead (could be loser or liberal or loser liberal).


4 posted on 09/29/2014 8:45:13 AM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Clinton is a straw dog, she’s never going to run.
Her baggage is BAGGAGE.
With the new grand baby, and her obvious health issues she has a reason not to run.


5 posted on 09/29/2014 8:46:57 AM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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To: cotton1706

” And Romney himself declined to close the door on the possibility in an interview with Romneyphile Hugh Hewitt. “

Just follow Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved to get your latest instructions from the GOP establishment.


6 posted on 09/29/2014 8:47:35 AM PDT by Pelham (“This is how they do it in Mexico”- California State Motto)
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To: cotton1706

The Republican Party Leadership once again is going to push Democrat light candidate which will ensure another Democrat victory in 2016.

They either have not learned a thing or they are INTENTIONALLY keeping conservatives in check by running these Democrat light candidates that WILL THROW the election to the Democrats.


7 posted on 09/29/2014 8:47:50 AM PDT by Enlightened1
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To: cotton1706
No more voting for RINOs ever, under any circumstances. Period.

In the past I voted for McCain, and Romney nationally, and for Scott Brown in Massachusetts. But I guess it depends on your belief in how far gone this nation is, and what it will take to restore it, assuming that is even possible at this point.

Personally, I now believe that the only way to save America at this point (assuming such a thing is still possible) is to put conservatives in political offices and enact an agenda based on free markets, limited government and the rule of law. As long as we have a Republican party that actively opposes those ends (and we do, obviously), then I believe our only (slim) hope is drastic action.

As long as the Republican Party establishment believes that it can continue to survive by being Democrat-lite, and that it can continue to maintain power while actively fighting against the core principles of liberty, free markets and Constitutional law, it will never make the necessary change of direction.

Only when the Republican party understands that it must change or die can we hope to turn this country around. Our too-long-serving entrenched establishment politicians can still enjoy their comfy lifestyles, their wealth, power and prestige as members of a minority party. So why should they bother to change direction?

Surely a John Boehner (or an Eric Cantor -- had he not been defeated -- or a Mitch McConnell) would be just as happy to be minority leaders if the election cycle didn't go their way. Yes, they would prefer to be majority leaders, but what good would it do them if a conservative Republican Party won the majority and then threw them out of their cushy positions and all those perks, replacing them with real conservatives?

Ask yourself -- which do you think Mitch McConnell would prefer -- a majority Republican party in which he was stripped of his position by a conservative majority, or a minority Republican party in which he could remain Senate minority leader because the majority of Republican senators were RINOs?

You may argue that we have no time to wait for the Republicans to realize that their only choice is to change or die as a viable party. But if we don't have time for that, then what makes you think we have time to wait for the RINOs and the GOP-e to pursue a "moderately marginal" course of action designed only to maintain their personal fiefdoms at the expense of a free America operating under the rule of Constitutional law?

The GOP had majority power in the House and Senate, and occupied the White House, 10 years ago. What did all that power do to move the agenda of liberty forward? Answer: nothing.

A GOP that cannot even sell liberty, limited governments and free markets to the American people is worse than useless. It is a party of tyranny enablers, and I will have none of it.

Unbelievably, today we once again face the stark choice between liberty and death.

Once again, these are the times that try men's souls. Conservatives need to be waging aggressive war against the totalitarian leftist tyrants on all fronts -- in the branches of government at the federal and state level, in academia, in the media, through public demonstrations, and in the voting booth.

Many argue that we must continue to vote for "the most electable conservative," which means "vote for the RINO if no conservative is running." But I respectfully disagree with that choice. I am done enabling.

If we really are to lose the greatest country in the history of the world, then let's at least be fighting for it when it goes down.

And who knows, maybe -- just maybe, if we show sufficient resolve and conviction -- divine Providence will once again provide the support that gave our founders their unlikely victory in 1776, and grant us once again the "new birth of freedom" that Lincoln called for a century later.

If you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. The RINOs have managed to own the Republican party because they know that conservatives have nowhere else to go.

To continue voting for RINOs is to play right into that strategy. The RINOs have become so certain of your vote that they actually believe they can continue to stay in power by declaring outright war on the conservative base.

And when they do that, they are actually declaring war on core American principles -- war on liberty, war on free market economics, and even war on the Constitution.

The RINO Republicans cannot even make an appeal to the traditional American love of those principles, because they have lost the credibility and historical awareness to articulate them, let alone promote them.

Yes, having Harry Reid continue as majority leader is a horrific scenario. But having RINO Republicans win that office is only a marginally better short-term outcome.

And in some ways it is even worse, because as the RINOs “reach across the aisle" to promote marginally modified Democrat policies, they give the Democrats cover from the well-deserved blame for the horrific damage that they have unleashed on our country in the last five years.

America is out of time now. We cannot continue on the current path. And as things continue to deteriorate, who do you think the voters will blame if the Republicans are in power when the 2016 elections come around?

You think Mitch McConnell's senate will repeal Obamacare? You think it will take the right position on immigration? You think a Republican Senate will vote against Obama’s left wing Supreme Court nominations?

America needs clear, passionate and articulate voices to advocate and defend our founding principles, to secure our borders, to preserve our nation, and to take legislative and administrative steps to turn this country around, assuming it still can be turned around.

Majority leader Mitch McConnell will NEVER provide that voice or leadership. He is not the guy to turn things around for our formerly blessed nation.

But in 2016 a newly terrified Republican party will be forced to court instead of alienate the conservative base, and come 2017 will be in a position to put the party and our nation on the proper path. Such a duly chastised party has a real chance of nominating a Ted Cruz, instead of a Mitt Romney who, according to last night's panel on Fox News, is at this point the likely Republican presidential nominee.

So in November, for those whose only choice in the mid-terms is between a RINO and a Democrat, I urge them to stay home on election day, or vote third-party -- anything to prove the RINOs wrong in thinking that they can stay in power by literally declaring war on conservatism.

Think about it.

8 posted on 09/29/2014 8:48:01 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

My money is on Romney running again. Why he thinks he would win is beyond me. The Dumbocrats playbook on him will remain the same and effective. In this country the honest rich white guy will lose every time to the rich white (yet corrupt) leftist lesbian gal with the womanizing husband.


9 posted on 09/29/2014 8:50:12 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: cotton1706
Still, the nominees' surnames since Reagan almost speak for themselves: two Bushes, a Dole, McCain, and Romney.

That is who the GOPe is.

The conservatives are Cruz, Palin, and a couple of others.

We really need a combination of the two wings to crush the Marxists. The closest combination that I can see that is capable of doing that would something like a Cruz/Walker or maybe a *gulp* Cruz/Romney ticket.

10 posted on 09/29/2014 8:50:18 AM PDT by oldbrowser (We have a rogue government in Washington)
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To: cotton1706

Exactly why we need Ted Cruz for President. No more Romneys, no more McCains.


11 posted on 09/29/2014 8:51:29 AM PDT by CdMGuy
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To: cotton1706

Romney only ran in the presidential race once, although his campaign machine is not approaching 24 years or six presidential cycles in age.


12 posted on 09/29/2014 9:25:02 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: BlueStateRightist

I disagree. I think he has a good chance of winning. If I had to bet today who will be President on 01/20/17 I would bet on Romney.


13 posted on 09/29/2014 9:26:01 AM PDT by Perdogg (I'm on a no Carb diet- NO Christie Ayotte Romney or Bush)
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To: Maceman

Grassroots is a time consuming long haul to gain command of the political landscape and right side of the isle nationally. This is exactly what the Chicago Machine did - starting in the late sixties they groomed and promoted with every election their people who now OWN the country. Change is indeed a slow moving proposition in America. To take back America, conservatives have to continue as they are currently doing for the next 16-20 years to have the impact of the Clintons and Obama el at.


14 posted on 09/29/2014 9:28:45 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: cotton1706

I took a ‘straw poll’ over at hot air the other day - it wasn’t really a real poll, more like an ad for Townhall - but any way - Romney was way, way in the lead.

I didn’t know whether to be completely shocked, or just write it off as BS.


15 posted on 09/29/2014 9:29:02 AM PDT by jocon307
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To: Jumper

He spent 50 million of his personal dollars and was a record breaking spender, with a huge organization, in his 2008 presidential primary campaign.


16 posted on 09/29/2014 9:30:57 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: Jumper
although his campaign machine is not approaching 24 years or six presidential cycles in age.

Remember that Romney didn't become a republican again until October of 1993.

In the early 1990s Romney was supporting only democrats, and fund raising for democrats and Planned Parenthood, and voting democrat, after Reagan's ascendancy had driven him from the GOP.

17 posted on 09/29/2014 9:34:35 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: svcw

The Democrat Party has moved quite far to the Left since the “glory days” of her so-called husband’s Presidency.


18 posted on 09/29/2014 9:40:07 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: cotton1706

I’ve predicted a Third Party Run that has a major impact - maybe even more than one major third party candidate.

It will be a dramatic election year.


19 posted on 09/29/2014 10:39:45 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "I didn't leave the Central Oligarchy Party. It left me." - Ronaldus Maximus)
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To: oldbrowser

Romney is not a conservative.
What would make you think that over bloated self exportant Romney would ever agree to be VP?
Or that Cruz would even consider someone who spends the majority of his press time trashing conservatives?


20 posted on 09/29/2014 10:54:52 AM PDT by svcw (Not 'hope and change' but 'dopes in chains')
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