The Race: Meltdown for Romney (Part 1)

Something unprecedented is happening to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. At the very moment his campaign seemed poised to take off – with every objective factor going in its favor, Romney blew it up himself.

Consider what has happened in less than three weeks since the Republican National Convention ended in Tampa, Florida:

First, Romney’s key note speech in Tampa fizzled with independent voters. He got zero bounce from it at the polls, or from his choice of Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate.

Is Romney his worse enemy? The more he talks the more Obama pulls ahead. (Public Domain)

Second, 26 million people watched former President Bill Clinton give one of the classic performances of his career blasting the Republicans at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC. And all the 16-inch big gun Democrats speaking there – the president, the First Lady, Vice President Joe Biden and likely next Secretary of State John Kerry, were in equally top form.

The effect on the Republicans was like the old Japanese battleship Kirishima when it was caught in a blizzard of 16-inch shells from the USS Washington in the Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942. The Dems got the bounce from their convention that the Republicans so manifestly failed to get from theirs. Given the miserable economic record of the past four years, this was an extraordinary missed opportunity for Romney and the GOP.

Romney’s campaign is sinking like the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kirishima, which sank in the second battle of Guadalcanal.  From Robert D. Ballard’ book The Lost Ships of GuadalCanal.

Third, Romney made the huge mistake of issuing a series of crowd-pleasing pledges on the economy right after his convention that were clearly self-contradictory and impossible to fulfill.

He pledged to maintain his tax cuts for the rich, not to raise taxes on the middle class, to carry out his commitment to slash the budget deficit and then pledged not to cut a cent from the bloated and distorted defense budget as well.

GOP true believers appear to take this kind of snake oil medicine in  stride. However, independents and swing voters were not convinced. They responded by shifting perceptibly to President Obama.

This really was a self-inflicted mortal wound and Romney had no one to blame but himself.

For President Obama’s economic record is truly pathetic, and the irresponsibility of his current policies are appalling.

Obama has unleashed Ben Bernanke to pump the economic system full of yet another round of frenzied monetary expansion – QE III is now well underway. This has led to a short term easing of credit and peripheral job hiring across the Heartland states, especially in absolutely crucial Ohio. And as jobless figures have crept down in the Battleground states, the president’s lead over Romney has slowly but steadily increased.

But this cannot last, Obama and Bernanke are gambling recklessly with the specter of hyper-inflation after the election.

Romney, as the business turnaround wizard that he truly was should have stood his ground, kept his nerve and repeatedly, forcefully pointed out the risks the president and his economic witch doctors were running for the entire American economy. But he lacked the steady nerve and the simple good sense to do it. Instead, he made one ridiculous pitch after another to pander to his own party’s most simplistic elements, and to the Lowest Common Denominator brains that he –wrongly – imagined the independent and swing-centrist voters to have. And now he’s paying the price.

On foreign policy and national security – Romney’s self-inflicted bungles are even worse.

In Part 2: The Meltdown Gets Worse

 

One thought on “The Race: Meltdown for Romney (Part 1)

  • September 18, 2012 at 9:44 PM
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    This is a ground-shaking day for Mr. Romney. I can not believe he blew it like this.
    I am really shaking my head. I know today is a historical moment in politics. With the incidences that are plaguing the world prayerfully this negative mind frame can make all people reevaluate their civil, political, and moral priorities.

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