Deroy Murdoch: Mitt's Mythical Massachusetts Miracle

Miami Herald ^ | Published August 16, 2007

[dirtboy]

Looks like Rudy asked Deroy to write a hit piece on Mitt. Should be about as effective as Deroy’s preposterous columns painting Rudy as pro-life.

[Red Badger]

If the current governor of MA runs into fiscal problems, will he blame MITT?.....

[dirtboy]

Romney's administration fades badly beside Giuliani's accomplishments.

Deroy needs to start a new TV show - Pimp My RINO.

[hardback]

You made me lol with that one.

[tiger-one]

Yep, Gov. “Coupe Deval”

[Red Badger]

The Deval is in the details........

[Ol' Sparky]

Murdock will tell the truth about Romney but won’t about RINO Rudy? Murdock is a hack. He ought to have the intellectual honest of resigning as a columnist and joining Giuliani’s campaign.

[Jaysun]

I never listen to anyone named Deroy or Taz or Mitt.

[hardback]

I can’t believe Deroy is still backing Rootie when FDT will be getting into the race soon.

[Rocky]

Romney is smooth, charismatic and handsome. Someday, he could portray George Clooney's older brother in "Ocean's 14."

I have to admit that that's a good line.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Both the Rudy and Romney campaigns are desperate.

I truly believe this race will be between Fred Thompson and Ron Paul.

[ansel12]

“”It would be easier to draw parallels if, like Giuliani, Romney had won re-election, rather than duck a second-term bid that experts widely predicted he would lose.””

I didn’t know that Romney’s only claim to fame was a single Governors term.

[oremites]

I didn’t know that Romney’s only claim to fame was a single Governors term.

He was also a very successful businessman, and he turned around a troubled Salt Lake Olympic games. I'm not sold on any candidate yet, but I was so impressed by Romney's handling of the Olympics that he is still high on my list.

[ansel12]

I know he is rich, but with the strange mixing of Reagan with his current campaign, and the fact that I remembered his father’s presidential challenge from the left in 68 and have seen him bring up repeatedly his mom’s pro choice campaigning as a senate candidate in 1970.

I just assumed that presidential candidate Romney would have had some political involvement in conservative politics at some time during the fiery, turbulent victories of the right, in the last 30 years.

Even Guliani earned a huge amount of name recognition among conservatives with his wild roller coaster ride as mayor of New York, which explains why as a liberal he could still get a little respect among Republicans.

The more I learn about Mitt the more I wonder where he has been for 60 years, I remember the Reagan revolution, the Gingrich revolution, the rightward turn for New York city, the great successes in the pro life movement and second amendment rights etc., but now Mitt Romney wants to be the leader of all of us radical, hard chargers, and I don’t remember him showing up before this last 2 years.

[oremites]

... but now Mitt Romney wants to be the leader of all of us radical, hard chargers ...

Actually, I think Mitt Romney wants to be the leader of all Americans, not just the radical, hard chargers.

[ansel12]

Actually his first goal is to become the leader of the conservative voters that dominate the primaries, then that makes him the leader of the Republican party, then he will try to use that leadership position to win the presidency.

Our interest in him at FR is whether we want him to become our leader, or whether we prefer someone else.

[Little Bill]

I was a resident of Mass for 42 years before I fled. Mitt didn't have the nads to face off the rats in the General Court. He like most of the rino's in Mass moved to the left in order to get elected and did nothing while in office.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Hey Bill! Is there a candidate yet that you favor? I value your opinion, and so far I like how Mitt’s portrayed himself during this campaign, but I fled Mass way before you and missed most of his term there. So I don’t have much first-person experience of him. Just trying to filter the facts from the spin in what I read.

Miss you guys!

[x]

Romney was only in office for four years. "Miracle" is going too far and is too reminiscent of Michael Dukakis, but if Massachusetts had an economic comeback, it has more to do with 16 years of Republican governors than with Mitt Romney alone.

The loss of manufacturing jobs is serious, but it took place before Romney took office, so you can't blame him for most of that. Romney didn't make any secret of the fact that the state had lost jobs in the years before his governorship, but he was determined to do something about that. Whatever effects Romney's policies had wouldn't show up until after he'd been in office for a while.

My impression is that it's a wash: Romney can't claim phenomenal successes, but he also can't be saddled with long-term failures. His problem is that one-term governors have a hard time making a case for their election to higher office.

A lot gets made out of the fact that so few Senators have been elected President. Someone should take a look at governors -- particularly one term governors who got elected President. Franklin Roosevelt comes to mind. Also Jimmy Carter. And further back, Grover Cleveland. Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge were both governors for short periods before becoming Vice President.

I don't know about the others, but Carter is a good reason for wanting more experience than one term as a state governor from the politicians we elect President.