Posted on 03/21/2012 8:42:55 AM PDT by Fred
Think Progress flags an amazing exchange on CNN, in which Eric Fehrnstrom, a top adviser to Mitt Romney, seems to confirm that the conservative positions Romney has been forced to take during the primary won’t be a big deal because he can simply erase them once he becomes the GOP nominee:
HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?
FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.
There you have it. Dems, predictably, are pouncing on the remark, arguing that it validates their message that Romney has no core and will say or do anything to get elected.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“..the media is going to Dan Quayle him something fierce...”
Which is why I am praying for a hard-charger like Allen West to break with the Gaggle of Ordinary Politicians and make an indie run. His chances of losing would be no greater than are Romney`s.. and he could generate a huge amount of excitement among conservatives.
I`ve given up on the GOP.
Romney governed as a Massachusetts liberal. In his present campaign he ran as a moderate with a few conservative positions. I have never thought Romney was sincere or principled.
Romney, the Etch-a-Sketch candidate
Once he’s orange, he can take his rightful place as the Republican John Kerry.
yep, exactly.
I have never seen anyone so intent on being added to the long list of moderate republican losers.
We need to all pitch in and buy Romney a T-shirt that says...
I spent 400 million, and all I got what this stupid T-shirt... and on the back it has:
The List of Great Republican Moderates:
HW Bush
Dole
Mccain
Romney
This clip shows how the elite media frames the public conversation on who is electable.
Mitt stinks, but you’d rather have Obama? Wow.
If that becomes the case conservatives will just stay home and Obama will win. (This will end the America you knew once upon a time.)
Magritte gives the history of campaigns from the beginning. IIRC, even Reagan ran to the right of everyone in 1980 and then just basically showed America what an incomptent boob Carter was (is), and won.
Of course Reagan had been campaigning as a right-center thinker for years...something Romney has only been doing for the past four or five.
But I think Magritte's point is still valid.
flip-flipper la grande Willard.
This feels like the Twilit Zone. After 3 yrs of that SOB in the WH, the GOP gives us Romney, Newt, Santorum, Bachman etc... as if this is the best we can get to run for President?????
I hate to believe that the GOP and Obama sat down and conjured up this nightmare scenario for ‘12. But this is what we are left with. After what Obama has done to this country, this is the only way that he could possibly get re elected is to have a clown as an opponent.
My head is going to explode.
If we get Mitt, we are in trouble. If we get Obama, this country is finished. Forever.
Yet you prefer that. I’m sure you consider yourself highly principled.
Fascinating.
Pretty much taking a page from Both John McCain and Karl Rove.
I think Milt already erased his Conservative positions...in 1972.
Mitt Romney - the kind of man that gives Republicans a bad name.
That's because ANYBODY is better than Obama. If Ron Paul was projected to carry the nomination, I would be the happiest little Paultard on my block.
I am TERRIFIED at what would happen to us with 4 yrs of Obama in the WH, not giving a damn about re election.
Apparently, you aren't there yet.
The problem for Mittens is that he has no actual conservative platform. He’s merely the status quo with a different label.
There’s an Ivy League worldview and outlook that doesn’t change with party label. You can see it run from Bush I straight through to now and see it continuing in Romney.
This worldview can be best summarized as follows:
“Hooray for us (the Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street, K Street and in power). Screw the rest of you.”
LOL do you actually think Romney is a conservative?
Of course you would say this has nothing to do with his past as he has no conservative past, heck he has no real republican past and if anyone thinks voting for this north east elitist RINO is more of a foll than I first thought for those who up there
But that is a question of emphasis. And no campaign guy is stupid enough to actually suggest that the candidate will be erased and re-painted.
Romney should fire the guy today. He probably won’t. Will this be enough to be the spark that wakes up the conservatives to rally behind either Santorum or Gingrich?
The race between Romney vs. Obama will be bascially to me... a Statist Neo-Liberal Rino GOP Puppet (Romney) vs. a Far Left Communist-Progressive Democrat puppet (Obama)
Yet you prefer that.
It is '08 all over again. They would rather sit ANOTHER election out and let O win again.
At least they will feel good about themselves while the rest of us get our ass handed to us by an untethered Obama government with NOTHING to lose.
I hope that it's worth it.
Willack oRomney is the biggest fraud since BO.
I guess its true what they say,most people don’t want solutions. They just want someone to lie to them and tell them what they like to hear.
This is exactly the way they want you to think. Fear as a rationalization for action like this leads to all sorts of irrational outcomes...like conservative Republicans voting for a Massachusetts liberal who will not even carry his home state on the grounds that he is the best to beat Obama and will stave off the day of calamity. The day of calamity is upon us whether we elect Romney or Obama this November. The question is: Will we have enough faith to stand on principle rather be sucked into some nonsense about Romney being “better than Obama” when they both lead us to the same place, one simply slower and more painful to watch?
Your name? You have my sympathy. Where I vote, we still cast our ballots in secret.
Are you people REALLY so afraid of what Willard might do, given what we KNOW Obama--the devout radical, racist Marxist Alinskyite who absolutely loathes the Constitution and everything it stands for--is capable of? I would think the mere mention of another Supreme Court vacancy (let alone 2 or 3) would be enough to scare some sense into anyone who gives a hoot about the long-term direction of this country.
If Romney does win the nomination, the non-voters and the write-in and third-party voters will be the Marxists' favorite conservatives. You don't want your name on Willard? If Obama wins re-election, you'll be every bit as much to blame for whatever he does as those of your comrades who actually voted for the SOB and proudly proclaim their allegiance through their OBAMA 2O12 bumper stickers.
You really don’t read well, do you? I nowhere stated that Romney is an ACTUAL conservative nor implied it.
Carry on.
Have I not summed this up in my tagline of the past yrs.
My largest fear would be if the choice was Obama and a dart thrown in the white pages of a phone book.
(I honestly think I would have to go with the dart on that one as well...)
Yeah, I’d kind of like someone with core principles, magritte, that sticks with what they say. Kind of like: Ronald Reagan.
Dumb answer by the adviser. Should be canned, but won’t be. Real answer was:
“We see Mitt’s positions as consistent with what America really wants and think it will appeal to both conservative AND moderates. During the general election, we will continue with these truly American themes and take back the White House.”
Really, it’s not rocket science, is it?
No, the Marxist’s favorite conservatives are the ones who vote for a guy like Romney who will only help them enact their agenda in the long run anyway.
This game is long term. We must look beyond the next four years. The world will not end and God will not leave His throne because Obama or Romney are elected. Our future is not dependent on either of these liberal “progressives.”
What we need to do is protest Romney and vote for conservatives down ballot who will help stave off Obama’s worst policy ideas. Hopefully the Supreme Court will help us with this by striking down Obamneycare this June. If that happens, I will be even less afraid of what Obama would do over the next few years should he pull off a Clintonian plurality.
Freudian slip by Eric Fehrnstrom. [who loves Freud]
Who doesn’t? But Reagan and Coolidge are the exceptions, not the rule. Of the remaining candidates, do you really think any of them are anywhere remotely close to Reagan, not only in a conservative sense, but with the vision and executive experience that the President had? They are all pale imitations.
No........I’m a voter, not a hostage.
Why do we now have to work so damn hard to STOP a Romney nomination when the GOP-E, KNEW that Masscare was a FATAL DISQUALIFICATION for the nomination in the first place?
Now Romney’s got Coulter, Drudge, Rove, and dozens of others drooling on his kneecaps this late in the process. Millions of dollars and millions of volunteer hours will have been wasted because somebody couldn’t talk sense to this guy THE DAY MASSCARE PASSED THE MASSSACHUSETTS SENATE!!
All it would have taken was, “Mitt, nice work, but you know you can’t be the nominee, right? ......You know that was the price, right?
Nope, like Dole, like McCain, he was next in line.
So, yeah. The GOP picked their candidate over a year ago, and they are PISSED we aren’t going along with it. Peggy Noonan wrote as much about a month ago.
There WAS a nominee. We changed that at the grass roots, but at what point is this party going to get a clue in to the idea that it is time to FINALLY give a conservative a shot at it.
Sorry, but its guys like you that are trying to hang the future of the country on guys like me who WILL NOT STAY ON THE RESERVATION when I WASN’T THE GUY WHO LEFT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
Nope, if you get Obama....Do Not Blame Me.....You can blame the Cardinals in the GOP college that sent the white smoke up the chimney on this fraud from before the first primary..... Romney was a presumption. .....You are trying to perpetrate that presumption.
For me, I think Gingrich SHOULD stay in...... Between Santorum and Gingrich, they should pull every free-thinking, liberty-cherishing conservative left in the party and when they go to broker the convention, .......they can be a ticket and send Romney back to the People’s Republic of Massachusetts.
So SICK of the lectures about another four years of Obama.
Can you IMAGINE if McCain had actually won?........ I’m glad this idiot had to pull the scabs off of all the banks, the CME, ratings agencies, Fannie, Freddie, and Sallie. The D’s created this in the first place during Rubin/Clinton - LET THEM OWN IT!
Obama went so much better than owning the economy. He assaulted the church, bilked taxpayers out of billions, destroyed the commodities market with Corzine, etc.
If we win, let it be a conservative, or let the idiot Obama completely destroy the country..........We apparently aren’t smart enough to learn from the last 100 years worth of mistakes. Before its over, I’ll be dead, or we’ll be chasing liberals down in the streets with weapons.
I’d rather not see it come to that, but if Romney gets the nod, Obama wins by default. “Thanks for the idea for Obamacare, Mitt, I couldn’t have done it without you!” And that’s it. That’s the election.
So please, peddle the ‘Obama is going to be your fault’ among McConnell, Cantor, and the rest of the college of Cardinals that picked that charlatan in the first place.
I’m not buying it, and neither should any sentient being still left in the conservative caucus.
“Moreover,....... IF I vote for Romney, I’m now personally responsible for what he’s about to perpetrate, which is a half-hearted attempt at repealing Obamacare, (which was his idea), and a temporary liberal lovefest from the press.
He’ll bask in it, the narcissist that he is, until he needs them again, and like every other DC Republican, he’ll be shocked to find the press has turned on him.
You want me to get behind that?”
(RinaseaofDs says it quite well)
221posted on Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:57:01 PMby RinaseaofDs
I don’t like Mitt, but the president, himself, is not the entire concern here. Obama surrounds himself with a barrage of leftists, socialists, communists, environmental and sexual fascists within his cabinet and his list of advisers and czars that scare the living daylights out of me. Mitt might be a smidgeon better here.
I didn’t want to pull the lever for McCain, but I did, and thanks to FreeRepublic.com, I’d already vetted Barack Hussein Obama even before he got the nomination. That and the fact that he chose Palin - allowed me to vote for McCain and almost like it. I hope (if Romney gets it) he chooses a running mate that is a conservative.
Truly - I would vote for Mickey Mouse before Obama.
But that doesn't mean we have to like it or even vote for that person. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to vote for Romney. But don't kid yourself: Obama is uniquely poisonous and dangerous to the Republic. Almost any qualified Republican you could name would be a step up from that evil bastard. How you choose to deal with that fact is entirely up to you.
“Truly - I would vote for Mickey Mouse before Obama.”
The problem for me is I would vote for Mickey Mouse over Romney too. While I might vote for Romney sooner than I’d vote for Obama (i.e., put a gun to my head and say vote Obama or Romney, I’ll pick Romney in a heartbeat), he still does not pass my “Mickey Mouse test” that I have constructed, so I can’t vote for him under any reasonably foreseeable circumstance.
More like the left and center moved to Reagan!
But that was before BILLIONS were spent to promote a LIAR Romney. The GOP E moved left - there is NO denying that! PRO HOMO, PRO ABORTION, Anti-traditional marriage, liberal judges, socialism big gov’t heathcare/Romenycare - it’s a liberal ticket!
Thanks for re-posting RinaseaofDs reply.
RinaseaofDs - just awesome articulate response
You’ve got it right.
They are absolutely rabid to get their Mandate-Mitt in to pass off all the bailout loses and 15 trillion+ price inflation paychecks and pensions, right off onto the productive and those with savings.
Don’t buy it for a minute that they want the Undocumented to learn to work THEIR system. They had to bribe him off for Arbeitsziehungslager-Care. They don’t want to go down with him, like everyone else is. The Exempt ones, they wrote it in.
Oh, certainly, in the eternal view, I really couldn’t care less who wins the next election or the next 100 elections. So, yeah, I could just as well take a strong stand for conservatism with a protest write-in vote for Paul Ryan, Jim DeMint, Ronald Reagan or my favorite preacher. Yeah, that would really make me feel so much better than a vote for Willard, maybe all the way up to when the votes are counted and the Kenyan Marxist wins again, plurality or not.
But, conservatives down the ballot? Hah, this isn’t Heaven; this is Iowa. Since I don’t live in Steve King’s district, I don’t have the luxury of offsetting a protest vote for President by voting for any conservatives for Congress.
If I had some reason to think we could hold the House AND take the Senate, ... But no, really, Obama over Romney? Sorry. The list of candidates who would cause me to vote for Obama (or some third-party spoiler, same thing) is extremely short. As terrible as he may be, Romney isn’t on it.
He’s left of Clinton. Clinton listened to Newt and made him do some good. And Clinton was a Christian although not a good one. Romney is void of anything good - he beats to a different drummer altogether. The knife in the back is his way of life, not an exception.
I somewhat agree...but I’m not one to stay home on election day. I will not vote for Mitt in my primary.
So, if it comes, once again to voting for the “lesser of 2 evils” and Romney is the nominee in November...I will succumb and vote for him....even without a gun to my head. ;-)
The last time I recall seeing it done was with Mitt telling everyone he would eliminate Obamacare, then having a campaign advisor go out and say Mitt really didn't mean that, he would just tinker with Obamacare a bit.
It's all part of Mitt's strategy.
Tell me what is worse than O installing Czars, circumventing Congress, covering up Fast and Furious, attacking business owners, lying about the unemployment rate, Obamacare, allowing queers in the military and last but not least, going after the active duty and retired military benefits? The list goes on and on.
Please tell me how Romney can be worse than Obama??
I am standing on principle by opposing Obama for the second time while you want to stay at home (helping Obama, one vote at a time) claiming you are doing the right thing.
It amazes me of how much Newt Gingrich gets criticized for running/staying in the campaign because he’s all about ego and not ideas. What a load of crap when you compare that with Romney. Romney IS all about EGO! ...and has always been about EGO! Period! Love of country? I don’t think so! Great ideas for turning this sinking ship? I don’t think so! Gi-normous ego? YES! Indeed! All ego...very little-to-no substance. Will say and sway to whichever direction he thinks the wind blows. No thanks.
Steal this. Make it your own idea and pass it on, and tell them to make it THEIR own idea.
Conservatives have felt this way for the last 20 years, maybe more.
All God did was put this in my head this way, but this is NOT an original idea.
Thanks for the hat tip, but please, steal this and say it was yours, because it was.
I guess ill have to bathe in peroxide after pulling a lever for Romney. The just comes off as a slick car-salesman telling everyone what they want to hear. I know Obozo is a nightmare and has already destroyed much of this country. I just cant fathom why people dont get behind a Santorum or Gingrich. Romney will still spend us into oblivion and make us buy health insurance.
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