Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

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  5. I have to say that I’m intrigued by the thought of Mitt running on an anti-poverty platform. Would love to see what that looks like. Pass the popcorn!

    • He’s running for the GOP.

      The “anti-poverty program” will be to deport the poor.

        • “Import the poor”?

          Hmmm. Is that the way you would characterize what we did at Ellis Island?

          It seems to me that providing a beacon of opportunity for the world is reasonably central to the American Dream.

          • What could possibly be more American than Convenience and Expedience?

            There was some debate by the famous slave owning powdered wig guys that Convenience and Expedience would be protected in the Bill of Rights but common sense won the day when all agreed that convenience and expedience are so deeply ingrained in the unique and entitled specialness that wafts from rich white men with head lice issues.

            • And I gotta wonder if they’ll pull the same nonsense and pretend it isn’t important once they had their shot at hogging and avarice?

              The distribution of cravenness along the east coast during colony formation was a bit more involved than using Georgia as a dumping ground for an overload of Nottingham hog thieves. There were many levels of exploitation sure to warm of every dedicated plutocrat.

              The mid state places had a buffet of indentured servitude and slavery. And ouah beloved New England slopped its hogs with a mix of religion and ideology that faintly lingers in the moth eaten drivel shoring up the regions commendably craven GOP.

              Let “I’ve got mine… Fuck you and yours..” ring from every mountaintop.

            • My wife is a resident alien with an Austrian citizenship. Well more than half of our friends and colleagues are either new citizens themselves are resident aliens like my wife.

              Several of my children are in the restaurant business. Their kitchens are filled with legal immigrants who work their butts off, FAR harder than their blue-blooded American counterparts. The contractors who work on our property routinely hire legal immigrants. They report the same experience. The Boston area is full of first- and second-generation Americans from Italy, Ireland, Portugual, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, and elsewhere. The attitude of your comment demeans all of them.

              The GOP meme of “importing the poor” — as if “the poor” are parasites who suck the resources of hard-working (white male) Americans — is insulting, racist, and pervasive.

              Sorry, but that comment is the epitome of the “I’ve got mine so f*ck you” attitude that characterizes the GOP policy on immigration.

              • I for one am thrilled we have this robust mix of new arrivals because the alternative is some loathsome social and cultural atrophy.

                The actual parasites can usually be found whining about regulations that impair their hare brained and overly optimistic small biz schemes.

  6. usually banish their presidential losers to the wastelands for a couple of cycles, and Romney, with an embarrassing run for his loss, should qualify for this exile.

    • McCain and Dole remained respected party leaders, just maybe too old to run again. The first President Bush was also up there and not likely to repeat Cleveland’s non-consecutive trick. President Ford almost became President Reagan’s running mate in 1980.

  7. Fehrnstrom had the ludicrous example that Ronald Reagan ‘ran twice before he won the presidency in 1980’.

    An absurd premise since the Reagan run in 1968 was during the convention era, and not the modern primary process, not a serious run, and more of a last ditch effort by California conservatives and Goldwater cronies to stall Nixon. It didn’t work, but he did adopt a ‘law and order’ platform, while concluding ‘Agnew is the more useful idiot’ when it came to Veep selection,

    The 76′ run was against an incumbent President, and if a charismatic candidate beloved by a base couldn’t beat a milquetoast incumbent in 1976 on the GOP side-Teddy shoulda saw the tea leaves and skipped it in 1980.

    So really his only real run for an open nomination was 1980, which he won, and then won the Presidency.

    Mitt lost an open nomination, won a nomination and lost a general election, and is now asking to run again-something almost entirely unprecedented. The best example might be Thomas Dewey, who lost at the 1940 convention, won the nomination in 44′ but lost to Roosevelt, and then got renominated in 48′ and lost in an upset to Truman. If Thomas Dewey is your closest corollary, might be time to reconsider.

  8. Do I have my doubts about him as a candidate, yes. Did he run a good campaign last time, no. Is he ever going to be a great retail politician, no. Do I like the guy, of course not. However, the negatives are out there and have been for a long time. Romney is battle tested both in primaries and the general. He can raise money. I do not discount the possibility of a Republican governor emerging as the best candidate–Walker, Kasich, others–but Romney is the safe bet for the Republicans and I think in the right environment he can win. Paul, Rubio, Cruz–no chance. Bush has never been tested in either primaries or a general, and he comes with substantial risk of Bush “organ transplant rejection.”

    • My bet is Kasich and Pence stay put, ditto Jindal. Those three have no national fundraising network to speak of. I suspect Rubio and Perry stay out too since Jeb just froze their money. Christie only has NY money and that will now be reduced by 2/3rds since Jeb and Mitt will be receiving it too.

      Only Mitt and Jeb have national networks, but if they prematurely neuter one another Walker has a national base (Koch has been a longtime fan), a base in the Midwest (IL Republicans love him). He is an evangelical, an IA neighbor, and would have a real shot at IA and SC. Unlike the similar Pawlenty whom I overrated last cycle as the only candidate able to unite the party-he has been tested three times now and loves campaigning. No one works a room harder than him. How much traction Huckabee has beyond IA is an open question.

      But Walker could win by being everyone’s second choice if Jeb v Mitt gets ugly. It would really take a perfect storm for Mitt to get renominated.

        • at all if Walker wins the nomination. He is conservative enough to make it through the primaries, and he has been able to win state wide several times in a Blue state. We’ll have to see how he is as a presidential candidate. I think that Walker will surprise people with his ability to raise money. The Kochs love him. There are a lot of voters out there who can’t stand the whole Bush/Clinton/Bush thing, and this could play into Walker’s hands.

          • Nominating Walker is a sure way to make unions work the hardest they have in a long time for the Dem nominee it would seem.

            • But he’s won twice state wide in Wisconsin since then. Although the unions detest him, I think that his anti-union politics motivates a substantial portion of his base of support. There are huge chunks of the country and blocks of voters who do not like unions.

              • …but the GOP always comes around to someone reasonably electable and the unions have institutionalized organization.

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