The GOP's Kamikaze Candidate-"Republicans have selected the worst candidate in recent memory"

[kpete]

The GOP's Kamikaze Candidate

STEVE ERICKSON AUGUST 8, 2012
In their desperation to oust President Obama, Republicans have selected the worst presidential candidate in recent memory.




Whatever else was true of him, no one doubted Richard Nixon was a man of ability. Whatever else was true of him, no one doubted Barry Goldwater was a man of conviction. No one doubted that Gerald Ford was a man of integrity, or that Ronald Reagan was a man of eloquence, or that George Herbert Walker Bush was a man of experience, or that Robert Dole was a man of legislative accomplishment, or that George W. Bush was a man of crusty charisma, or that John McCain was a man of heroism. Nothing we’ve seen of him so far indicates that Mitt Romney shares a single one of these qualities. Craven, arrogant, empty, dull, opportunistic—he’s a man of only ambition and acquisition, his distinctions the antitheses of all the attributes that have commended others to his party in the past. As such he reflects what the party has become: a political body so obsessed with defeating the president as to nominate a man known for but a single thing, which is that the name those mysterious tax records bear is not “Barack Obama.”




http://prospect.org/article/gops-kamikaze-candidate

[Marymarg]

1. Right on

Could not agree more.

[CatWoman]

2. and their nominees get progressively WORSE

I thought Bush Jr. was the most arrogant idiot in the GOP.

Romney is Chimpy on steroids.

[mwb970]

26. This is what gets me.

How low can they GO? Is there no bottom to this barrel?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Watching the 4-year head explosion

in slow motion. Up close and personal.

[unblock]

4. wait, mr. sure-i'll-pardon-a-criminal-for-the-presidency was a man in integrity?

and shrub was a man of ZERO charisma, crusty or otherwise.
mountains of media cash poured to burnish his image couldn't help him.

saying he had charisma doesn't make it so. eventually even the media gave up on claiming he had any charisma.
what he had was intense partisan loyalty. republicans found that a desireable trait, democrats loathed it.
but that's not charisma, unless democrats don't get a vote.

and as for mclame, well, a lot of people think he was just someone who spilled the beans to the enemy, so calling that heroism depends on your point of view i suppose.

[dballance]

5. Mitt does not want the job. He just wants the "win" and the title. /eom

[CatWoman]

7. I felt the same about Chimpy

[ProSense]

13. And Romney

would be Bush on steroids.

This is why team Bush is all in. It's the reason Cheney smacked down McCain, who blew it.

There are a lot of crooked and unethical assholes (foreign and domestic) who have a stake in Romney winning. He would gladly oblige when they call in favors.

[dballance]

15. At least George W Chimpy pretended to be President

I am not a fan of G. W. Bush but I have minimal respect for him. I think he actually knew what he was getting himself into by becoming President. Not that he was in any way qualified for the job.

I don't think Romney has any conception of what he's getting himself into. I sincerely believe he just wants to win a new title.

[A Simple Game]

18. G. W. was very good at what he did.

He just was not the President for the 99%, that's not what he wanted to be. He was very successful getting what he wanted. The only big failure I can think of was his failure to privatize Social Security.

He was not a good President for the majority but he was good at getting what he wanted.

[ProSense]

6. Republicans

were going for the kill. Mitt is the perfect soulless bastard to carry out their coup. He's gotten by on money. He's rich and he has the backing of the wealthy class of predators.

This transition from democracy to plutocracy is the broader context of our times and of the current Presidential campaign. Now comes Mitt Romney, a very rich man, who became so rich by engaging in business activities whose ethics are at best questionable, and, at worst, disloyal to the broader interests of almost all American employees of whatever class, and he says to us, I largely refuse to disclose my tax returns to you, the American public, because I don't think it would be good for me to give the Press and yourselves a chance to evaluate them and draw your own conclusions about my business and political activities based on what they reveal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021087307

[lame54]

8. But they picked the best of the lot

[progressivebydesign]

9. Romney was simply the least offensive, and limped into winning because he seemed more electable.

This is a huge mistake, of course. Falling into that 'electable' nonsense is bound for failure. Romney seemed like a safe choice, because frankly the primary field was atrocious. If the Republicans had ANY decent candidates, they were not in the final 5 or 6. For all our talk of underhanded dealings and corruption, when I see the people that were the front runners, I have to ask if the GOP/RNC really is as fucked up as they seem.

Perry? Santorum? Gingrich? Bachman, and Romney? The best of the best? I remember when Romney clinched the nomination, it was a non-event. Like coming in 245th in your age group, by walking in a 5k race. there was no enthusiasm for Romney, no crowds, no momentum. He won by default, because people didn't actually know him. They said "looks good in a suit, and doesn't seem too crazy."

I think this is the FIRSt time I've witnessed the GOP faithful not circling the wagons for their candidate. He's a disaster.

[Caretha]

14. You forgot "Pizza Man"

Cain

[stubtoe]

21. Cain at least has a personality.

I wonder how this election season would have gone, had he been the candidate.

[caseymoz]

10. lol: He's the best they have!

Who would have been better than Romney? Cain? Perry? Bachmann? Gingrich?

Remember the Repubs did their best to find somebody better than Romney, one by one, the candidates didn't measure up to the high standards Romney had set?

It's not that they've chosen a terrible candidate. They've chosen a terrible ideology and should ask themselves why it's leading proponents are liars, corrupt, batshit crazy, egomaniacal, dumber than an earthworm with a lobotomy, or more than one of the above. Really, if the people getting ahead under Conservatism, the ones who desire more power, all look like the GOP presidential field this year, it should be a warning to Conservatives to reconsider their core beliefs.

[Zoeisright]

11. "Crusty charisma"???

That's the best they could do? I guess it's better than "incompetent drug addict", which is more accurate.

[rocktivity]

12. I doubted Gerry Ford was a man of integrity

when pardoned Nixon as his first act as his replacement.


rocktivity

[Octafish]

23. That and the other thing he did on the Warren Commission.

Gerald Ford: Warren Commission skeptics "no problem"

[PCIntern]

31. Ed Zachary what I was thinking. Nt

[MinM]

42. On this day in history, August 8, 1974

Gerald Ford watched on his television in his suburban Virginia home, as Richard Nixon handed the presidency over to him, his vice president of the past 10 months. Nixon became the first Chief Executive in U.S. history to resign the presidency.

After Nixon's brief address announcing his resignation, cheers could be heard throughout the nation's capital, as well as chants of "Jail to the Chief."

The end of Nixon's years in the White House came when he released secret tapes showing his involvement on the Watergate cover-up on June 3, 1972, one week after the break in of the democratic national headquarters. Congress' support for its leader eventually evaporated in his bursts of outrage over the prospects of impeachment.

On April 22, 1994, nearly two decades after the incident, Nixon died in his home state of California at the age of 81. The 4,000-plus mourners present, including every living American president and dozens of other world leaders, remembered Richard M. Nixon for his efforts to improve relations with Moscow, for opening the door to China and for finding an end to the Vietnam War.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/221293/70/This-day-in-history-President-Richard-Nixon-resigns

[MinM]

43. Ironically(?), Nixon's first choice for VP to replace Agnew was John Connally...

"His favorite, I had long ago known, was John Connally. As early as October 6, four days before my resignation, the President had asked the former treasury secretary to accept the vice presidency. Both men knew it would give Connally a clear track to the White House in 1976. Connally wanted it, but he backed away when his enemies in both parties threatened to block his confirmation by the House and Senate and to drag the hearings on for many months. He was too new a boy in school to muster support from the Republicans in Congress, and his recent defection from the Democratic party did not endear him to those on the other side of the aisle.

By choosing Connally, Nixon would have become embroiled in another vicious partisan dispute, exactly the thing he was trying to avoid. So, with reluctance, he had to drop his favorite. He feared controversy would also rage if he chose Nelson Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan, or Barry Goldwater, all of whom were being strongly recommended by their friends. So he quickly settled on Gerald Ford, the amiable Michigan congressman who had acheived popularity, if not great distinction, as the House minority leader" ...


http://www.amazon.com/Go-Quietly-Else-Spiro-Agnew/dp/0688036686

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=19363

[Raster]

46. Integrity is NOT the first thing that comes to mind with Ford.

[grantcart]

16. Romney is a man of 'whiteness'. His color is the right shade.

[edhopper]

17. And yet

he is tied in the polls and has an even chance of getting elected.

[NNN0LHI]

19. Truth is the Republicans didn't pick Romney as their candidate

The Obama campaign picked him. Because they knew he was the easiest to beat. That was obvious from the beginning.



Don

[stubtoe]

20. Just goes to show that all the money in the world

still can't buy you a good candidate.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. I don't know...

It might buy them a win for a bad candidate (one who might not otherwise win).

Apart from the electability issue, he's a great candidate for the GOP.

Not for us!

But great for the ones putting up all that money.

[vlyons]

24. Santorum was right

Romney is a terrible candidate. I cannot think of one single redeeming personal quality. I would say that I can't think of 1 policy proposal either, except he hasn't offered any policy proposals, just a bushel of banal blather. Romney's god is money, the acquisition of it, and greedy hanging on to it. You gotta know that the established GOP must vomit everytime they go out and campaign for him.
The Republican brand is totally bankrupt. Tell your friends.

[Quantess]

41. Santorum would have been a better candidate.

Not that he would have won. But the few followers he had, were loyal for the right reasons, because they liked his principles (as fucked up as his principles are). Santorum stood for something, at least. What he stood for was despicable, but in christian conservative crazytown, he stood for their values. Santorum is not as big of a sellout as Romney, and he is not a flip flopper like Romney.

[libodem]

25. He's the best money could buy

And you can't buy integrity. He is the epitome of a human equating to a corporation. All the love and compassion of a cold steel structure out to make a profit.

[Flatpicker]

27. I'm convinced

That somewhere in the Romney org, there are closet Democrats working to topple the Republican party.

How else can his advisers explain the lapse in communications?

[riverbendviewgal]

28. He would be the worst president for 99 percent of Americans

He would serve only himself and his billionaire friends. It is in his brain...and his upbringing and in his faith.

I found this link very enlightening...The founder of Mormonism great granddaughter makes the case...
read the link.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/07/1117755/-Mormon-Insider-Reveals-Insights-on-Romney

Emmett says Romney was a bishop, “a position where everyone defers to you. What a bishop says goes. People come to them to receive blessings.” He then became a stake president, she says, which means he presided over several congregations, and at that point bishops deferred to him.
“Mitt has had people defer to him and not challenge him his entire life,” says Emmett. “In the Mormon church if you challenge your priesthood leaders it’s a very bad thing to do, especially for women. As the world can now see, Mitt has a very hard time with being questioned and criticized; he’s had so little of this in his life."

[mike_c]

29. McCain/Palin set that bar exceedingly high...

...er, low? Anyway, it takes real genius to pick a worse candidate than they picked last time around. The bottom of the barrel must be squeaky clean by now!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. "opportunistic" says it all in a nutshell. This is the 1% going for broke.

The way they look at it, Obama will most likely win so they needed a disposable candidate. However, if by some fluke that candidate actually won they wanted one that would give them their heart's desire.

[Ineeda]

35. I agree with this ^^

and I think the prize they really have their eyes on is 2016. We'd better start gearing up on November 7, 2012, either way.

[Flatpicker]

34. You have to wonder

If this is a schism in the party.
It's possible that the Goldwater Republicans are allowing the religious right to fracture the party in order to create a 3rd party that will take the fundies and baggers.

Then they can strengthen their Republican party while closing down the religious influence that has caused them so much trouble.

[Vox Moi]

33. On the contrary, Mitt does have qualities

Mitt is the very best 1% candidate the Republicans could have put up.
Yes, the campaign itself is inept but the candidate is still their man.
He is all business - in the worst way - and is a poster boy for the only virtue the 1% embrace: Return on Investment.
He has the ability appeal to people who have already made up their minds, which is a hefty percentage of the electorate.
This may be preaching to the choir but you still gotta make 'em sing. Romney knows enough drag out the usual suspects for the decline of American greatness: welfare cheats, abortion, taxes and government itself. Romney will get enough votes to get near striking range if he does not alienate his base, and he hasn't.
These two virtues make Romney a dangerous candidate. He has a ton of money and a solid base to work from.
Maybe he'll get a break. It's possible.
As much a I love seeing the Republicans implode, I keep in mind that this man could still win the election.

[Flatpicker]

37. Say for a moment

That Mitt wins?

The deals that he has made to get there have to be paid back. How does he actually make the 1%ers and the Teabaggers and the Fundies happy?

They all have diametrically opposing views once you boil down their noise into actual policy.

The 1% really don't give a Mitt about the religious aspects, and they would just as soon create new markets in Gay Marriage materials (Brides for the Modern man? Gay Marriage dresses and suits, etc etc. If they can commoditize it, they will)
Same with abortion services, if the 1% can make money on disposal (as Mitt did) they have no interest in stifling that income source.

Teabaggers don't want to offshore American jobs. That's opposed to the 1% plans.

How does he run a country when his coalition is way too diverse and none of them believe in compromise?

[Vox Moi]

40. That is true ...

.... but I think that the teabaggers will be dumped along with the rest of us if Romney wins.

[xxenderwigginxx]

45. So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984)

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."

[Raine]

36. He was the default candidate over Bachmann, "ops" Perry,

"child laborer" Gingrinch etc etc. This is what happens when a party is left scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

[dogknob]

38. "Kamikaze" implies actual damage done to the enemy, not yourself.

I would say that that term is more appropriately used to describe those one-term Tea Party shills who get in and do the maximum amount of damage with no regard for re-election.

But it's still a good piece.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

39. However, he, like Styrofoam, is white and lightweight.

[nichomachus]

47. Romney has all the qualities

of a urinal brush with no bristles and a broken handle.