Guardian UK: Radical right threatens to blow Mitt Romney off course as Republicans gather in Tampa

[marmar]

Radical right threatens to blow Mitt Romney off course as Republicans gather in Tampa
Mitt Romney wants his party convention to attract moderates, but a show of strength by the Tea Party puts that hope at risk

Paul Harris in Tampa, Florida
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 August 2012 07.22 EDT


Some of them believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Others want to force raped women who become pregnant to have their child. There are those who vilify Obama as a socialist and want to do away with most of the federal government. A fair few doubt the theory of evolution or hold that gays can be "cured".

As Mitt Romney arrives at the Republican national convention in Tampa, Florida, where he will be nominated to run for president, he faces the difficult task of dealing with a party base that has become one of the most radical in recent American history.

Convulsed by the rise of the anti-government Tea Party and dominated by socially conservative Christians, the Republican party has continued to move right in recent years. That means the carefully laid plans for a Tampa convention aimed at introducing a voter-friendly version of Romney could easily be upset by the party's more extreme elements.

"They don't want anyone to look behind the curtain," said Professor Shaun Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California, Riverside. "You want the party base to turn up, give money and keep quiet. But it is hard to keep them quiet." However, the curtain has already been lifted to some degree. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/25/republican-convention-romney-radical-right

[cali]

1. really good article

we'll see if the romney team can orchestrate a faux moderate image at the convention. Personally, I doubt it. The teabaggers are so vociferous and control so much of the party that the romney team has an uphill battle.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

2. Thank you.

It is a good article. I always enjoy the comments section with the Guardian articles. One poster asks, "Has voting ever been compulsory in the USA? If it were to be made so, would this benefit the Republicans or the Democrats?" I suspect it would be whichever party promised to change the law which had made voting compulsory.

Another poster protests the use of "radical" to describe the RW movements. It seems to me that "extremist" might be better.

[leeroysphitz]

3. I hope this article is correct. I'm starting to get nervous about our chances in November.

Things appear to be going well for our side right now but Rmoney has barely even BEGUN to spend and like it or not we can see that money affects elections.