Throughout the GOP primary, the conventional wisdom said that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney would become the Republican presidential nominee, in part because he came across as the “adult in the room.”Since 2009, the rise of the Tea Party meant that Republicans were playing more toward the base, moving further right and attacking President Barack Obama on a number of things that had nothing to do with policy. He was derided as a socialist, a foreigner, and an illegitimate president who didn’t understand America. While Republicans rode a wave of economic frustration to a House of Representatives takeover in the mid-term election of 2010, the longer they allowed these base elements to dominate the conversation, the more out of touch they appeared with mainstream America. Romney was going to change all of that.The former Bain Capital CEO became the presumptive nominee because the 2012 election was going to be all about the issue of economics and how to get America back to work after a deep recession. With his decades of business experience, Romney was seen as the most competent in this field. But throughout the primary, he met different challengers, each taking a turn as front-runner, in part because Romney could never truly satisfy the Tea Party base that held resentment toward Obama not only because of his policies, but because of who he is as a person and what he represents.Romney’s pivot toward the middle in the general election meant that we had left the other business behind.That was until he actually started campaigning. For a while, Romney wanted to run on his record as a businessman, but brutal attacks that had begun during the primary about the devastating effects his venture capital firm had on the lives of American workers, added to his evasiveness in releasing his tax returns, made it nearly impossible to make this a single issue election. In order to win, and distract from his own shortcomings, Romney would have to play the game.
the man has no self conviction, no moral center, just a go along to get along.
He started by repeating that the president “doesn’t understand America,” a phrase that had been unpacked for its racial undertones long ago. He embraced the endorsement of Donald Trump, the ringleader of the “birther” movement that is still not satisfied by the release of Obama’s birth certificate showing he was indeed born in the United States. And while the two campaigned and raised money together, Romney insisted he did not share Trump’s views on the birth certificate non-issue.
but that was who he in Palin's words decided to "pal around with" birds of a feather?
is he running a racialized campaign? no he is not, his party is and he moves with the strings they pull, he's their puppet. why else would they push a candidate they claim they have to hold their noes to vote for, sometimes 2 + 2 equals 4.
