The fat guy did it!

This is pathetic, the problem is not the Republican Party or Mitt himself but the campaign strategies of his staff, an alteration in tactics would have yielded better results - what a bunch of horse shit!  Romney’s campaign was hardly perfect, which no campaign ever is, but the Republican Party needs to do a hard and honest self-examination - that is where the problem is.  Beating up Mitt, his staff, hurricane Sandy, Chris Christie, or the dog that ate my fucking game plan is not gonna put you in the win column in 4 years.  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/life-after-defeat-for-mitt-romney-public-praise-private-questions/2012/11/07/4db3bc38-2916-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story_1.html

Time for Republican introspection not recriminations

As I have said often this season, if you have a Republican friend be sure to thank them for 4 more years of Obama.  It could not have been planned better if the Romney campaign actually hired David Axlerod as an advisor. 

Amid all the mewing about Chris Christie and “super-storm” Sandy, Governor Romney actually ran a fairly good campaign given that he was an intrinsically weak candidate to start with.  As I have discussed, a primary plank of his platform was the repeal of Obamacare, legislation of which he was the principal architect, add to this the dizzying velocity of flip-flops and you had quite a stinky stew.  I am rather stunned that he got as close as he did (I suspect the election would have been called even earlier in the evening if Obama had not slept thru that first debate).

It is now time for some serious soul-searching by the Republican Party, I think they have worked themselves into a position where they are going to be unable to successfully field a national candidate, and there are 3 things that need to happen:

1.     Figure out some reasonable solution to immigration.  We have millions of illegals in this county, they are not going to “self-deport” (to use Governor Romney’s laughable term).  John McCain (with Ted Kennedy) had a reasonable solution back in 2007 that practically ended his political career.  Whether conservatives are “right or wrong” it is obvious that their hardline position is not practical, figure it out, hold your nose and come to some resolution.  You are never going to get the growing Hispanic vote until you do.

2.     If you are serious about the deficit, you must understand that the solution HAS to include a less engaged, smaller, more efficient military.  The Republican equation that more money = better defense will simply make America the best armed country in the world bankruptcy court.  The right loves to mew about American exceptionalism, but bankrupting ourselves in the name of defense and homeland security is not a path to being “exceptional.”  You are never going to get the support of younger voters unless you stop the idiotic saber rattling and wasteful spending rampant in the defense department and homeland security.  

3.     Get out of the bedroom and STOP making personal issues of morality a federal matter.  This is both stupid and runs in direct opposition to the conservative values of smaller and less intrusive government.  You are alienating women and younger voters with these moronic discussions on contraception, rape, abortion and other matters.  It is not reasonable to lobby for the repeal of Roe vs. Wade, it has been the law of the land for almost 40 years there is no way modern women are going to move back into the alley for abortion treatments.  At this point it is a personal issue, if you don’t morally agree with abortions, don’t have one and work aggressively to offer alternatives so that women chose to not have them but further legislation on this front is futile, give it up!

History would seem to bear out that Governor Romney is probably a fairly centrist man, but he was hamstrung by the idiotic, right-wing Christian gauntlet that he had to run in the Republican primary.  This left Democrats with enough ammo for 5 campaigns.  If Republicans are smart, and the Governor is willing, Romney might be a wonderful resource for the party to start rebuilding.  Having gone thru what is no doubt a heartbreaking process coupled with his long career in analyzing problems and finding solutions he might be just the man to lead a rebuilding of the Republican Party into one more focused conservative economic values and move away from the angry, unreasonable and harsh social issues that are killing it.   

The Hangover Part III

Today there is little to celebrate, it is hard for me to imagine any thinking person being glad for 4 more years of President Obama (you may be happy to not look forward to a Romney Presidency but that’s different).  At this point in time we have to pray that President Obama seriously examines his legacy and decides that he needs to focus on 3 things; tax reform, entitlement reform and begin seriously addressing the deficit.