"...the main man is the least popular presidential nominee in nearly 30 years"

[babylonsister]

Paul Ryan sets out Romney stall but no one is buying

The running-mate had rousing words for the RNC but the main man is the least popular presidential nominee in nearly 30 years

Gary Younge
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 29 August 2012 23.57 EDT


For a party that has gone to extraordinary lengths to stress its links to small business, Republicans are terrible salespeople. They have had just one task this week: to market Mitt Romney. The trouble is no one's buying it.

At first sight the problem seems to be presentational. The contributions from the stage are wooden; the jokes flat; signs of oratorical flare rare. Time and again with just a handful of exceptions, a speaker came to the podium to great cheers only to dampen the enthusiasm with their actual speech.

Yet the sense you get from the floor is of a party barely going through the motions. Missing their cues to clap and boo, they respond as though they're watching vaudeville by satellite – it's as though they're not even there. Spend an hour on the convention floor in Tampa and you'd be forgiven for thinking the Tea party has switched to decaf.

But as time goes on it's clear that the issue is not presentation but the product. Last night the primary task fell to Romney's vice-presidential pick, Paul Ryan. The public is reserving judgment on Ryan. When Americans are asked what single word best describes Ryan, the four most frequent responses were conservative, intelligent, young and unknown; four years ago the same question with Sarah Palin prompted the word inexperienced.

snip//

The trouble is Romney is proving just too tough a sell. A poll released on the day he was nominated revealed that Romney is the least popular nominee of a major party in almost 30 years. So tough in fact that even when the Republicans do buy it they won't wear it. A poll last month showed a significant enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in three swing states – Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania – found supporters who "strongly favoured" Romney trailing Obama supporters who "strongly favoured" the president by double digits.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/30/paul-ryan-romney-stall-buying

[speedoo]

1. Only 30 years?

I think it's closer to 100.

[sofa king]

2. I'm not sure I've ever seen a flatline "convention bounce."

Nate Silver suggests that Romney's stock rose slightly, but not outside of his own margin of error. I suppose today is the one day where pollsters can get something close to an accurate measurement.

And then next week, the dead-cat bounce will disappear.

Having said all that, I want all of you to notice a couple of things, and remember them:

* Romney's business career was largely based upon his group coming in and removing major decisions and oversight from corporate boards and shareholders, then awarding the profits of any success (and any loss) to himself.

* Romney lost the primary process in 2008. So he inserted his people into the planning process for the next set of primaries and deliberately set them up so that he would gain early momentum, and even had a "safety net" set up with Utah--and all of its delegates--being the last primary.

* Romney had no problem ramming through a rule change that would silence and disenfranchise Ron Paul's delegates at the convention--duly elected delegates, I might add.

But rather than change his infinitely malleable positions to be more appealing to voters, Romney doubled down on evil, racism, hostility, and dishonesty. Exactly like he doesn't give a shit what the people think.

So now we're in the final stage of this endless, disgusting slog through the manure fields of political dishonesty, and what we should all be asking ourselves is this:

What is Mitt Romney going to do to take this decision away from the American people?

I am not kidding about this at all. The entire shape of Romney's campaign has been flowing around one giant rock in the middle of the channel: President Obama.

Romney's only hope of navigating that channel is to remove the rock. Ask yourself how he's going to do that, without the American people intervening.

[babylonsister]

4. That's pretty darned scary.

Maybe he's hoping someone will do something for him to remove the rock. Or maybe just running is enough for him? Or, he recognizes the apathy in this country; that, combined with the rethug dirty tricks, might swing it his way.

I pray not.

[bemildred]

5. Yep, you can bet they are not going to just give it up and let the people vote. nt

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Nearly 30 years ago was 1984

Walter Mondale was less popular than Romney? The alternative would be Reagan.