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I suspect the most damaging impact of Mitt Romney’s 47% percent tape will not be how it directly changes voters’ opinion of him, but that it means another valuable week has been lost for his campaign. With less than 50 days until the election the political news for about a week has been dominated by two unforced errors by Romney.
First there was Romney’s crass September 11th statement about the attack on the embassy in Libya. It become the focus of the political news cycle for several days, receive significant criticism from a broad section of the media. Almost as soon as that story died down though the focus of the political world turned to the tape leaked by Mother Jones. For the last several days the news has been about Romney trying to defend his remarks and a broad section of the writers, including many conservative ones, criticism them.
This was roughly a week not spend focused on problems with President Obama’s record. This was a week not spend talking about Romney past accomplishments or popular proposals. The conversation for a week has been about Romney trying to defend his remarks and pundits pointing out that they are factually inaccurate and/or simply bad politics.
Effectively, this was an entire week wasted for a campaign when they have no time to waste. There are only seven weeks until the election and even fewer until early voting starts.
Barring uncovering a big scandal it is hard for a campaign to significantly move voters with any one action but every day is a battle. The best a campaign can do is each day try to slightly move the needle in your direct by reaching out to some voters and modestly improving your candidate’s overall image. Days spend on defensive or talking about gaffes that make the candidate look bad are days the campaign is not advancing.
This appears to be part of a real pattern for the Romney campaign. They seem incapable of setting the narrative. Instead they have almost constantly been on the defense, forced to talk about distractions they would rather avoid. A campaign currently behind in the polls simply can afford to have what little time remains being wasted.
36 Comments
A jaw-dropping campaign and I don’t think they have time to catch up. FUBAR
The way to fix this is for Mittens to go out and shake hands in a coffee shop in Detroit, or at a factory or farm in the middle of the country. Problem there is that Mittens is so mechanical and lacks personality. The optics created won’t be of use.
I suppose photo ops with Ambassador Stevens’ family might help, but again, the same problem results; Mittens is a fucking robot who has no personality.
I think you’re right, Twain. He can’t possibly catch up.
No problem, Barry will be busy cutting deals with Ryan soon after the election. No hard feelings Paul, since after all in the final analysis were actually on the same side aren’t we, he’ll be saying in private? I’m voting for JILL STEIN this time around, screw Barry and Willard this cycle. They’re both CORPORATISTS. We’re going to be handed a shit sandwich in Jan. no matter who gets elected.
No problem then I guess.
Yep!
At this point, events will have more effect in moving the polling than anything done or said by the candidates. I wonder if Romney’s Libyan and 47% blunders will have any effect on the polling a week from now. A bigger impact may come from the economic indicators released in October.
It looks good for Obama now, but he doesn’t have it locked up.
Republicans didn’t want him as their candidate. They DID try everybody else.
Looks like they were right. Let’s give credit where credit is due. It’s all over now but the concession speech.
Not to disagree, but Romney MUST have BOTH FL and VA and that just ain’t gonna happen.
Actually, I guess that is disagreeing. Hey, I’m almost giddy with excitement over Romney losing. I just wish I was equally thrilled with Obama winning. But I’m not. I think we be screwed either way. Just less so by Obama.
That concession speech will probably be a doozie. It’s so unattractive to see grown men stamp their feet.
How can you be a Christian, believe in the message of Jesus Christ, and still be a Republican?
It’s the crying that always turns me off. Romney looks like a crier to me. His wife will just be pissed because, after all, it was his turn. I’ll bet she already had plans to get rid of all the African art in the White House. I can just hear it, “You people don’t know what a good president my husband would have been. I’d say more but I have to take my horsie to Spain for a dressage competition and the plane leaves in an hour.”
Translation: they are setting the narrative just fine, but they are incapable of hiding that narrative behind a set of good lies that are palatable to the main mass of voters. Their real beliefs keep getting exposed, and this is rightfully hurting their chances of winning.
In this case, “setting the narrative” equates to “lying”.
I don’t think THAT is possible. LIke being a vegetarian and eating a “meat lovers pizza.”
LIke to trying to hide the fact that you’re nine months pregnant??????
Less so or more slowly?
I wish I was too. It’s nice to see Romney’s campaign go up in flames, but I am not looking forward to another four years of Obama.
I think this is an issue with monotheism. Polytheistic religions invent deities for various aspects of human nature and life, and you would worship them in combination and proportion appropriate to your own life.
Monotheists have to have a one-size-fits-all approach, so they recast the deity as convenient. So you have Prosperity Jesus who will smack you in the head with a sock full of silver dollars, or Badass Jesus wearing bandoleers and dual-weilding 50 cal machine guns laying waste to his/your enemies.
Salvation is a Get Out of Hell Free card, and all it takes is hating the people Jesus hates. (Hmmm … I’m not seeing a big list here … moneychangers and … ?) That’s OK, since Conservative Jesus hates all the people YOU hate! #winning
Obama – worst president in my lifetime. I base that, for starters, on our continuing erosions of habeas corpus and our continuing suppression of dissent and whistle blowers under this president.
We should ram a “shit sandwich,” down the “Asseslephant’s,” corporate throats, in the form of a Constitution Amendment mirrored after the original 11th Amendment, proposed by Jefferson and Madison. It would do to corporations, what the 12th, 13th and 14th Amendments, did to slave owners. End a monopoly on labor predicated on skin color.
1)Corporations are not people.
2)Corporations or agents cannot make campaign contributions to elected policy makers, influencing policy decisions
3)Corporations have set of right separate from Bill of Rights, for humans…
4)Corporation are stated based and charter revoked if corporations engages in monopolistic behavior.
5)Corporations can’t own corporations.
Funny how the SJC’s Citizens United protects everything Jefferson and Madison looked to preclude, for the benefit of the republic. Taney’s Scott decision protected slavery at Scott’s expense just as Robert’s protects Corporate Sodomy at the republic’s and the People’s expense..
They need a shit sandwich alright just as Romney needed camel dung, too face plant in said excrement.
The thing about a shit sandwich is: the more bread you’ve got, the less shit you have to eat. So Romney’s okay.
Willard (“Mitt”) Romney is going to have to revisit his “47 percent” remarks and his partisan reaction to Libya in the first presidential debate, too.
It’s rare for a major party candidate to concede defeat in a national election before Election Day, but in effect Romney has by saying he won’t even try to get the votes of seniors, students, the unemployed, the working poor, and military service members.
Here’s a rather evenhanded response.
http://www.gotquestions.org/Republican-Democrat.html
easy — you accept jesus christ as your personal savior and that means you will go to heaven. end of the story.
So Romney honestly expresses the opinion of the 1% in.re. the 99% and he is rightly vilified, while Obama lies to cover for his policies that disenfranchise, impoverish, and destroy the freedoms of the 99% to the benefit of the plutocrats. It’s becoming rather apparent that Romney was recruited to act as Obama’s foil and guarantee Bankster Obama a second term.
Or a Democrat. Though shall not have a kill list and policies that enrich the 1% at a faster rate than Dubya.
People, people, people, you are missing the elephants in the room: Caging, Purging and Pot.
The Pennsylvania Secretary of the State SAID that his voter purging will elect RMoney.
Voter Purging/caging in Ohio will elect RMoney and a Rethuglican Senator.
Pot legalization will elect RMoney in New Mexico and Colorado (because Gary Johnson will deduct just enough votes from Obomber to elect RMoney).
Care to guess how RMoney wins Wisconsin (hint: the Rethuglican supervisor of elections waits until all of the ballots are counted and then find enough RMoney votes to move the election into the RMoney camp).
In response to Alan1tx:
Why is there a reference to capitalism in the website you refer to. I see no mention of that in the Bible. Also, why does the website quote the Old testament. Do you really believe that stoning to death will solve social problems?
Um, probably, but I’m not an expert. :-)
I do wish that Obama would get caught-out, for doing the bidding of Wall Street. Alas, he is more careful than Romney about his admissions. Also, the Secret-Service-cavity-search probably prevents anyone from bringing recording devices into Obama’s fundraisers.
He’s to busy plucking caked camel dung from his eyebrows and repetitive gargling with scope to kill the foul taste of camel’s dung pile into which he planted face, to be concerned about bread. When you have lots of bread you take it for granted, until mold sets in and bread is no longer edible? ;’)
Yeah, if it can work for the Mafia, it can work for Republicans or Democrats.
LOL. I read the comment @30 first (meaning I had not seen the earlier ones yet), and I had a major “WTF moment”. Good stuff.
As the linked site states:
“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
I’ve compared this election to winning a new ’12 Turbo Porsche 911 (valued at $174,000). Nice to win the car but now you gotta pay tax and insurance.
I’m of the same mind. It seems that if we are not headed to Third World status,at least we will be in the middle of the pack with a host of other industrialized nations. Fine by me. With Willard and company that change will be dramatic and destroy too many lives, while with Barack, the landing will be softer.
I guess you haven’t been around very long.