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What was said: Mitt Romney’s campaign has launched a new ad making three promise of what he would do on “day one” if elected President.
- Approves the Keystone pipeline
- Introduces tax cuts and reforms that reward jobs creators
- Issues order to begin replacing Obamacare with common sense health care reform
Whom the statement is for: For what is a general election ad, all three promises are rather straight Republican orthodoxy. It would seem this far out from the general election Romney’s campaign is still more focused on trying to excite the Republican base so they rally around his candidacy. That said, this ad still works at appealing to swing voters. Of all the parts of the Republican orthodoxy, these three basic concepts tend to be the most popular with swing voters.
Did they really mean it/The record: Romney was once known as a moderate Republican (when he was the governor of Massachusetts), but he has always been a Republican. On promises one and two, wanting low taxes and regulations that favor businesses is basically what it now means to be a Republican.
The one that doesn’t fit his record is his promise to replace Obamacare, given that in Massachusetts he championed his own nearly identical law. The fact that the Affordable Care Act is remarkably similar to many past Republican plans, though, hasn’t stopped almost all prominent Republicans from developing a powerful group-think driven dislike for it. It is unlike Romney to be any different.
Likelihood it will ever actually happen: 85% if Romney wins. While it is possible some pressing emergency will require the new President to delay everything else, assuming Romney wins, it is extremely likely he will try to fulfill these three promises on day one. The campaign was smart to make them so vague and easily achievable. None of the promises require Congressional action, and what does it even mean to “introduce” tax cuts? Romney will have some tax proposals he will campaign on. There is no reason he can’t “introduce” them on day one by simply repackaging them in an official press release or letter to Congress.
The one technical problem he may have is with Keystone. He can instruct the relevant agencies to approve it on day one, but it getting officially approved might technically wait until his cabinet nominees are in place. That is mostly a meaningless distinction though.
The three promises highlight what has become the core of the Republican message in recent years: “drill, baby, drill”, lower taxes for the rich, and Obamacare is bad. If a Republican is elected President, this is exactly what we should expect he will do.
28 Comments
Obama can pound him on all three. Keystone is the one area where Republican hyprocisy can be best exposed. Romney would have the Federal Government over-ride the wishes of land owners in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Why this has not been exploited before now reveals the weakness of our elected Democrats.
I suspect Obama will pull the rug out from under him on this one, by approving it himself.
Now, can you explain how leaving Obama in place will have any practical difference?
1. Most of Keystone XL effectively goes through behind the scenes over the course of Obama’s second term.
2. Business regs kneecapped behind the scenes and taxes mysteriously thwarted behind the scenes.
3. Any halfway-decent parts of Obamacare that might actually thwart corporate profits are quietly eroded away behind the scenes and/or replaced with functionally worse options.
Obama’s cheerful lies and slow poison are not a better option than the GOP’s frothing hatred and brute force.
I wish I could believe a re-elected President Obama would not approve Keystone. Also, I wish Obama would let all the Bush Tax Cuts expire, but he won’t – or if he does, he’ll immediately propose the Obama Tax Cuts. You know, “middle class” is $50K a year, not $250K.
off topic, I just got a push poll here in new york by computer phone call
all but one of the 4 questions were legitimate, the push question was;
“do you think the pipeline should be approved, it will help relationship with canada and lower dependence on oil import (both wrong)
or you don’t believe the pipeline should be approved
actually it’s more likely getting approval if obama is elected since the democrats won’t fight him, they will fight romney
as far as obama letting the bush redistribution of middle class assets scheme expire, they did expire, he could not do anything about that, these ARE the “obama tax cuts” (more correctly, the term is “the obama redistibution of middle class assets to the wealthy scheme)
A+ This is all it is. Romney will simply say it and do it. Obama will simply say something else and yet still do it. We are in full vote for evil instead of voting for evil mode.
I don’t see what the difference IS between what Rmoney proposes to do v. what Dmoney proposes to do.
I haz confused (not really).
Vote the Third Party.
All of this sh*t will happen in 2013, no matter who is enthroned in the White House. There is only One Uniparty called Republicrats or Democans.
Obama’s simply NOT opposing anything proposed here that Rmoney is proposing to do.
Hope you don’t mind my editing. I feel this is much more accurate.
Yes. Quite agree. It’s a foregone conclusion. Anyone who thinks Dmoney’ll do something different isn’t living in reality.
When an independent voter who doesn’t follow politics hears something like “Introduces tax cuts and reforms that reward jobs creators”, she/he assumes that a “job creator” is someone who actually creates jobs, and maybe there will be a tax credit for creating a new position at a company and hiring someone. Hell, I’m well to the left of Obama and I could go along with that. But anyone who follows politics closely knows that Republicans use the term “job creator” as a euphemism for “rich person” and would not impose any requirement that anyone actually create a job in exchange for a tax cut.
Introduces tax cuts and reforms that reward wealth hoarders is what he really means.
So Dmoney’s going to repeal Obamacare? (one of Romney’s three promises).
I wanted single payer, with the public option as a second choice. But in my family there are three distinct “preexisting conditions” that would mean that we would have a very hard time getting insurance if I lost my job and Obamacare were repealed, and my nieces get to stay on their parents’ insurance. The Obama/Romney plan sure beat doing nothing.
Boy howdy! Try saying that three times real fast.
You are really goin’ crazy with that editing feature!!!
But, just to be clear, we still DO think Romney is just a filthy rich lying prick, right?
Yes. But same goes for the other one.
Yes, I hear you. And I do GET that, and I wish you well.
But it wouldn’t surprise me if that feature became a “bug” and got changed during a 2d term of Obama. I would dearly LOVE to be wrong, but… mostly anything that’s good for the 99% ends up in the trash with Obama.
Just saying. Do I think Obama will try to repeal his own HCR? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Awesome. So Romney is committing to two things that have already been done for him by the current administration, as BO is already pushing Keystone and the Dems will vote to extend the Bush Tax Cuts once more in December.
On the third count, since BO is already giving up on several parts of that “reform,” Romney won’t have to do much on that either. Damn if he doesn’t sound like a spoiled brat, executive mediocrity. Aim low, Mitt!
Why doesn’t he propose we invade Afghanistan?
Just a wild ‘n crazy blogger!
Maybe Rmoney will propose that we invade Pakistan!
It’s kind of hard to expose GOP hypocrisy when the Democratic President is doing the same thing. Since no one is working harder to push through Keystone XL than Obama, I seriously doubt OFA’s campaign masterminds want to go there.
Possibly!
The problem there, of course, is that would require real work on his part, since the Generals that actually run this country will have a rather severe problem with invading a country of 175 million people.
Since he’s sticking to talking points that were stale three years ago, it would seem out of character for him. He has a taste for low-hanging fruit.
Rmoney is just a lazy guy. But why not? He’s always had everything handed to him on a silver platter to be fed by that silver spoon in his mouth.
True ’nuff that invading Pakistan (which Obama has kindly already done for him; not that I like that) would take, uh, some work to continue on a really big-league scale. So probably not in the cards for Rmoney. For Dmoney??? Well, possibly… if the price was right.
There, fixed that.
Romney is an ultra-BFF with PM Netanyahu, of Israel. If Romney is elected, he and Netanyahu will do some fun things together.
Uh, I got a case of nickname-overload happening. “Dmoney” = Obomber?
… and Obama won’t?
I guess it’s a play off of the “Rmoney” pic and the duopoly…