Mitt Romney’s speech to the CPAC convention shows that the greatest danger to the Republic is not from some hyper-ideological tea-partier, but from a hyper-ambitious arrogant technocrat. Romney’s failure to mention-even once-the issue of health care or his central role in crafting the Massachusetts health reform was hubris at its most intense.
You really should read economist Brad DeLong [ on what would be different if Romney, rather than Obama, had won the election in 2008. It’s brilliant. The key graf is:
All Republicans except a small grumbling fringe would be crowing about how ObamaCare — oops! I mean RomneyCare — is the golden mean between continued tolerance of a dysfunctional system and rash experimentation with overregulation. All would be saying that Republicans were able to get things done because they were not overambitious or free-market-phobic.
The single most important move that Massachusetts progressives can make as the 2012 presidential race forms up is to let no one forget that Romney was the person most responsible for the Massachusetts Health Care Reform. For pete’s sake, his family foundation made a grant to the Heritage Foundation to support the two guys who drafted the original legislation. The individual mandate was rendered, “personal responsibility.”
This guy really thinks he can blank out his key role in creating the Massachusetts health care changes and get elected president. Despite his laughable showing in 2008, I see Romney as a bigger threat in 2012. Although, if you agree with Brad DeLong, a Romney presidency might not be that different from an Obama second term. With the huge exception of appointments to the Supreme Court, I tend to agree with DeLong. But Romney is taking this over the edge. What are the best ways to get the message out about this compound hypocrisy?
If the primary message is that Obama’s singular ly most important piece of legislation would have happened under Romney too, doesn’t that make it easier to vote for Romney in the general?
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p>Get the message out in the primary, but not because it’s a “compound hypocrisy,” rather because hypocritical and/or hyperpartisan Republican primary voters will vote against Romney in the primary, helping Obama not have to face him in the general (where the first paragraph applies).
that Romney thinks that the system we have in MA should be federalized rather than left up to individual states.
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p>Romney has never explicitly nor implicitly said that is his belief.
has Romney recently defended a mandate even at the state level.
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p>This issue is going to destroy his candidacy unless he figures out a way to deal with it other than pretending it’s not there.
in the equivocation of policy is apparently no vice.
I am pretty confident Romney will be exposed for his naked political hypocrisy about health care and other political issues and politically undermined by Tea Party activists, libertarians, and his own GOP primary opponents.
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p>In addition, Romney has yet to make the sale with southern Christian fundamentalists who fundamentally distrust his Mormonism. This will hurt him in key southern GOP primaries including Florida’s key Super Tuesday primary.
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p>I still believe brother Jeb is going to make a run at the nomination if none of the current crop of candidates emerges as a front-runner by the fall of 2011.