What a loser Mitt Romney is. Quoting a Joe Klein post in its entirety, because it’s dead-on:
Profile in Cowardice: Mitt Romney Rejects the Debt Deal
Mitt Romney demonstrates, yet again, why he lacks the character for higher office:“As President, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table. President Obama’s leadership failure has pushed the economy to the brink at the eleventh hour and 59th minute. While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican Members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal.”
This graceless kow-tow to the Tea Party makes sense politically. But it is a lie. His “plan” could never have passed. Furthermore, by releasing this crap this morning, he hasn’t made Boehner’s task any easier in gathering votes for this dreadful-but-less-dreadful-than-any-other-votable alternative. Yecch.
IMHO, however, stunts like this do not help him with the tea partiers, who (like most voters) can smell a phony a mile away. All they can do is make him look both extreme and cowardly – not exactly a vote magnet for independents.
Romney is likely still the odds-on favorite for the GOP nomination, mostly by default. But that could easily change, especially if Rick Perry smells enough blood in the water to jump in. Self-inflicted wounds like this one only make that more likely.
I think he thinks that the key to leadership is having a Presidential looking haircut.
I agree with most of your post, and thanks for exposing me to the Beltway Joe Klein comments, which I would not have seen otherwise, but this: …the tea partiers, who (like most voters) can smell a phony a mile away is not a good assessment of “most voters” acumen. See 2008 and 2010, or 2000 and 2004, for that matter. Phonies win elections all the time. Not every time, but with depressing frequency.
that Tea Partiers will scarcely for vote anything *less* than a *total* charlatan. And maybe that’s Mitt’s problem.