Obama's lucky GOP picked Romney as opponent

Mitt Romney pays for a sandwich as he visits a WaWa gas station in Quakertown, Pa., June 16, 2012. / AFP/Getty Images

(The New Republic) The new Bloomberg poll showing Barack Obama up 13 points over Mitt Romney is an obvious outlier. But it is prodding me again to a question that has been nagging at me the past few weeks: how is that Obama is not in truly serious trouble? All the talk recently has been of Obama's prospects slipping, with him now only a couple points ahead of Romney, at best, in most polls. But he should be slipping! The economy, after showing signs of a solid recovery just a few months ago, is gasping for air again, and there may be worse on the way. This should be disastrous for the incumbent. Yet he's very much in this thing. Part of this surely has to do with the dynamic that Team Obama is dearly banking on: many voters still blame Obama's predecessor for the hard times. Part of it also has to do with Obama's personal likability (which defies the deathless Beltway caricature of him as distant and aloof.)

But there's no getting around it: a huge part of it must have to do with his lackluster opposition. Ask yourself: if the other side had settled on a truly generic Republican -- that is, a moderately conservative fellow, a senator or governor or former governor who came without the trappings of Bain Capital and car elevators and dressage tax deductions and Romneycare and the serial flip-flopping and "America the Beautiful," how would that candidate be faring right now? I say, purely on gut instinct, that he'd be up two, three, four points. Who do I have in mind? Gosh, just about anybody: John Thune, Mitch Daniels, heck, even poor Tim Pawlenty. Instead, we have this:

At the breakfast, Mr. Romney introduced two of his sons, Matt and Craig, in a slightly unusual fashion. "I love them," Mr. Romney said. "I love them like they're my own. And they are! Craig!"

With that, Craig Romney rescued the microphone from his father.

And this:

At a Wawa, one in a convenience store chain in the mid-Atlantic, Mr. Romney was dazzled by the touch-screen computers from which he ordered his meatball hoagie on Saturday in Quakertown, Pa. Later in the day, he tried to engage the crowd in Cornwall, Pa., by asking it about its favorite local sandwich shop.

"By the way, where do you get your hoagies here?" he asked. "Do you get them at Wawas? Is that where you get them? No? Do you get them at Sheetz? Where do you get them?"

As the crowd began to boo, shouting out names of neighborhood joints, Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania tried to help out: "Delis!" he called out. "The delis!"

But after bungling the name of the Wawa several times -- calling the store "Wawas" -- Mr. Romney forged ahead.

"Ah, you get them at the delis, is that what you're saying?" he asked. "Well, I went to a place today called Wawas. You ever been to Wawas? Anybody been there?" As the crowd continued to jeer, he added, "I'm sorry, I know there's a very big state divide."

And this:

The next day, Mr. Romney appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation," where he briefly talked about the expensive dressage horses his wife, Ann, owns and rides -- a subject that clashes with his attempt to present himself as an average guy who understands the concerns of middle-class Americans.

"I joke that I'm going to send her to Betty Ford for addiction to horses," he told Bob Schieffer, the show's host.

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I'm not getting into the whole question of what Romney did or didn't say about the sandwich-ordering gizmo at the Wawa. I agree that we have better things to be writing about. I'm just making the obvious, but oddly overlooked point, that Republicans would be in a far stronger position right now -- a possibly dominant, breezing-to-victory one -- if they had managed to get a few other guys to step forward, guys who would not be, as Romney is in the Bloomberg cross-tabs, branded as far more out of touch than the half-Kenyan elitist intellectual he is running against. It will remain forever a mystery to me why Republicans did not manage to get those other guys.

Alec MacGillis is a senior editor at The New Republic. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

[myth1958]

Alec MacGillis will be a sore loser come November. If it isn't the quirky fate of a down economy not knocking off a popular president, or the general feeling that Obama has made lots of lemonade from the awful lemons he inherited, then it must be the lackluster bloke the Right wing put up against him. Surely, it couldn't be that this is one of our finest chief executives in history, or that he managed to rescue the American auto industry, banking industry and political commentator industry single-handedly? Guys like MacGillis will never approve: they'd complain if Obama rescued babies from a burning orphanage: "Hey! Why couldn't you save the building, you Socialist!" Cripes. Obama will beat Romney because the Democrat is better in many, many ways - and isn't a panderer to Big Business, as the Republicans all are (including MacGillis). The people vote - not companies - so we'll be treated to another four of the best leadership we've seen in our lifetimes. Choke it down, Alec. Try some of that imported water.

[fastdraw2]

Hey Alec, you mean that after the lying to get us into Iraq and then totally screwing up the occupation of same, and then letting the financial industry do whatever the hell it wanted to the point of almost bankrupting the country that you haven't figured out by now that Republicans are incompetent? If not downright stupid?

[hk100]

My thoughts turn to the following Bible passage in Daniel 4:17 "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. "

[raptor-022]

"The next day, Mr. Romney appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation," where he briefly talked about the expensive dressage horses his wife, Ann, owns and rides -- a subject that clashes with his attempt to present himself as an average guy who understands the concerns of middle-class Americans."



LOL! Fact is, mannequin mitt will never be able to connect with the average middle class American, and the more people learn about him and his lifestyle, the more they are turned off and disgusted!

[FormerUSMCSergeant]

by LtSmily June 22, 2012 3:53 PM EDT
That is patently ridiculous. The Liberal elite wanted someone like Huntsman because he is one of them.
---
That is patently ridiculous.

Liberals are Independents or Dems, not repubs.

The GOP offers nothing for one with a liberal mindset.

[r9119111]

I am prepared to move FORWARD into the unknown with President Obama.

[Atlanticum]

Good one. I agree.

[occupy_cbs]

"The survey shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has yet to repair the damage done to his image during the Republican primary. Thirty-nine percent of Americans view him favorably, about the same as when he announced his presidential candidacy last June, while 48 percent see him unfavorably.

A majority of likely voters, 55 percent, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36 percent who say the president is more out of touch."

[occupy_cbs]

Actually, the plastic man -- mannequin mitt -- believes that mormons do indeed come from another planet, Kolob, and that men like him become gods according to the book of mormon.


=====
by bileven: "actually that belief is not found in the Book of Mormons".
=====




Mormon leaders have taught that men become Gods in the same manner as previous Mormon Gods have. Joseph Smith stated the following:

"Here, then, is eternal life -- to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you,... To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God.... " (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 346, 347)

Mormons believe they originally were transported from Kolob to Earth.

"And thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet above another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of the Lord's time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all those planets which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest." (Book of Abraham Translation by Prophet Joseph Smith)

[tryhonesty]

RepubliCON Ruinme Mr. Etch-a-Sketch, No Core, Flip-Flopper (this is what RepubliCONs tell us about Willard!). RepubliCONs support only the Very Rich. PERIOD. If Ruinme is so great, why didn't you (Greedy OLD Party) nominate him four years ago to lead your party??? Hmm.

[1stlttightwad]

My such vitreole....Romney has you scared to death, doesn't he. Obama has lost the millenials living at home that voted for him. He has lost the black and white evangelicals with his stand on gay marriage..Obama has lost.

[Hollif50]

Republicans will lose this presidential election all by themselves. The American voter has a longer memory than politicians would wish... Yes, we remember the "cause" of our current economic malaise; regardless of how much Republican politicians downplay this inconvenient "little fact"....We have watched as Republican party perennials and the party's moderate "faithful" were overthrown and driven off in a "coup"; and we've watched as right-wing extremists gained control of the House. Very little has been done in that legislative body since; with the exceptions of orchestrated day-to-day legislative obstruction and occasionally passing obscure legislation; which has little chance of becoming law and in many cases is to make a obscure political point. The public has watched as a parade of presidential candidate "hopefuls" debated til' ad nauseum; bringing up half-cocked ideas that always benefited the ruling classes, flew in the face of common sense and became more and more "extreme right" oriented as the debates raged on.. Finally the Republican party decided on a stand-bearer. A man who has greatly coveted the presidency and campaigned for it for the past six years.....A man totally out of touch with the public and it's everyday lifestyle, a man prone to change his position at "the drop of a hat" and a man I suspect as being a agent of Republican subterfuge; who if elected will dance heartily on the puppet strings of his ideologically calcified and hugely monied masters...Plus: Mr Romney is not a likeable man....So there you have it: My take on these poll numbers. The Republican party should have chosen Jon Huntsman, a man of unimpeachable integrity; who I feel would have given President Obama a real run for his money....PS: It doesn't help the Republican case any that they have spent the past several years "not" helping the country out of our continuing recession; instead obstructing most everything proposed by the opposing party and the President. An old Army adage says: "How can you lead if you can't follow?"

[LtSmily]

That is patently ridiculous. The Liberal elite wanted someone like Huntsman because he is one of them. While Romney is not my first or even 150th pick for President, what we currently have is obviously not working, at least for Middle America. These money masters you speak of have the Democrat Party in its left pocket and the Republican Party in the right. While President Obama hobnobs with elitist movie stars at $40,000 per plate Mitt makes completely inane jokes. He should stay on course and "act" Presidential. Obama has not acted as much like a President as he has a petulant child, so Romney seems to be the only hope to slow down the complete disintegration of our Country. It's funny, the very freedoms that give this country the capability to produce the disease of progressivism are what progressives fight against the hardest. I did not want to vote for any of the jokers on the Republican ticket, but America is stuck with the "GOP" choice, and that is what I will vote for because I would be perpetrating a severe disservice to the blood sweat and tears of all who came before me if I voted for the incumbant this year. As far as likeability, I don't really care if I like the President, I just want him to do his job effectively, and to do it within the confines of the Rule of Law, which President Obama seems incapable of doing. As far as Moderates go, people need to vote for who represents their position the most, otherwise why vote in the first place. I don't vote for middle of the road wishy washy politics, I want decisive action, even if it is on the losing team, a losing principled stand is much more respectable than giving up your position entirely to placate a voting base.