Why has Romney gone downhill so fast and so far?

[kentuck]

In my opinion, there are several reasons. Number one being that he thought he could keep his tax records secret from the American people and still run for the Presidency. Many people did not buy the pretense that it didn't really matter.

Also, I believe the speech that Bill Clinton gave at the Convention was devastating to Romney and to the Republican Party. The truth was laid bare and there was no escape.

Also, the 47% speech that was made public from a secret camera hurt him a lot but no one knows to what extent just yet. Many of that 47% had voted Republican in the last election. It was reported that over a third of them had voted Republican.

Generally speaking, the Republican Party could not have found a weaker candidate to run. With his hidden accounts in the Caymans and Switzerland and his tax evasion on untold wealth and his shipment of jobs overseas and his untimely remarks following the murder of our envoy in Libya, there are numerous reasons for Romney to be far behind. Fate has smiled on the Democratic Party, it seems.

[lovemydog]

1. he's offering the same policies

that caused the recession

[Trajan]

2. Dont forget the Embassy statement debacle ...

Poor Mitt was stuck by his lonesome defending it while the whole political world came down hard on Mittsey; even many stalwart fire breathers in the GOP ...

What else happened ? ... That whole 4 week period was full of boners and errors ..... One after another ....

To top it all off - He fell into that open manhole cover ....

I lied about that one ....

[jonthebru]

20. Some people say

he fell into an open manhole cover.

[gkhouston]

27. Can you believe it? I *had* forgotten that. There are so many Moments of Stupid

that it's hard to keep track of them all.

[Arugula Latte]

35. Heh heh. You said boners.

[dionysus]

3. +10000

[oswaldactedalone]

4. The bounce back

has already started. Election will be a tight one. Keep working.

[Ecumenist]

5. Who's bounce back? are you referring to Twit Robme? Surely you jest.....

[unblock]

6. frankly i think shrub is still working his magic from the political grave.

much as they try to ignore him, he's the big stinky elephant turd in the room.

they haven't exorcised that demon and they're paying the price.


it doesn't help that rmoney easily appears to embody only the worst aspects of the rich, of ceos.
but his real problem is that the entire republican agenda now embodies only the worst aspects of the interests of the rich, or ceos.


a better candidate would help, but these things are not unrelated. he's a lousy candidate in large part BECAUSE the product he's pushing sucks and everyone knows it.

if everyone liked the republican agenda, we'd be talking about the way obama sighs, or the color of his sweaters, or how he looks in a tank helmet, or how he lied in some misquote.

[HooptieWagon]

7. Several reasons.

Firstly, the GOPs war on women has hurt them badly. Polls strongly suggest this, and I think post-election analysis will confirm it. Secondly, voters aren't buying the GOP's platform of tax cuts for the wealthy and austerity for the rest. Occupy has done a good job of defining the debate. Also, it can't be ignored that Williard simply isn't likeable. The better voters get to know him, the less they like him... which is a death knell for a political candidate. I hope this also rubs off on fraud Ryan.

[liberalmuse]

8. He was their best shot

Well, for a party completely taken over by the minority tea party and rendered completely insane. Actually, Huntsman would've been their best shot, but he didn't even have a prayer.

[lib2DaBone]

9. ALL of G.W. Bush goons are standing by.. waiting to get back in....

Pick a Neocon.. any Neocon.. they are all waiting in the wings.. ready to pick up where G.W. Bush left off.

[TheKentuckian]

10. More people paying attention.

Unbelievably horrible on any an all foreign policy situations.

Infinitely out of touch.

Dishonest, shifty, and transient. The taxes highlight this.

Says something stupid seemingly daily that spin cannot overcome before the next debacle.

Bad VP choice that feeds his existing negatives.

Nothing to offer and worse, refuses to offer anything but the occasional bit of horridness.

Shunned the troops at the convention to tie into point two.

[Skittles]

11. because he is playing a role, forced on him by teabaggers

[Major Hogwash]

38. Mitt's "47% fundraising speech" in May wasn't forced on him. That was Mitt, unzipped.

The one that Ann told us we would see later.

[Skittles]

39. well that is republicans, unzipped

but his stances on healthcare and choice, for example - total teabaggery

[flyguyjake]

12. But we pay attention

What about those few undecided voters that aren't following the news like we do. What if they didn't watch the debate and are only going off emails from friends, facebook posts, or everyday interactions in society. Certain towns, cities and states spew such lies and hatred towards the Democrats and our President.

I still get emails that Obama was born in Kenya.

I still get emails that Obama is a Muslim.

I still get emails that Obama is a socialist.

I still get emails that Obama is costing us 1.4 Billion.

These chain emails are like the plague. I can't help but think that they are sticking with those poor unfortunately narrow minded individuals that just happen to receive them. I'm worried with all of this voter fraud popping up in key swing states. I'm worried with the fact that Romney's campaign is sitting on their pile of cash. Don't you think they have a grand plan for it?

I'm not holding my breath. Let's see how Wednesday's debate goes before we celebrate victory!

[Th1onein]

22. Break the chains.

I answer every single addressee in the email, when I get them. I rebut every claim that they make and back it up with links from good sources. The really rabid Rethugs get PISSED and tell me to never write to them again. I like to think that everyone else listens.

[Tx4obama]

13. :)

[K8-EEE]

14. Disagree that the GOP couldn't have found a weaker candidate

That stuffed clown car of 2012 GOP candidates, uuuf! They were SO BAD that he is actually the best of that bunch. Now that is amazing that they could have found so many more ridiculous than Mittens but today's GOP is just a total cesspool, they got nobody and nuthin to run on.

[Bake]

37. The stronger candidates (Jeb Bush, e.g.) didn't want to run against Pres. Obama.

I think they knew with all the teabaggery in the GOP, 2012 was going to be a loser for them.

Bake

[mindwalker_i]

15. Cuz he sux

And they could have found weaker candidates to run - Santorum, Gingrich, Palin...

Romney was the best they had to offer,
And he sux

The rest sux worser.

[AllyCat]

16. And don't forget, President Obama has done a lot for the 98%

A good candidate and President against a weak candidate.

[Demonaut]

17. more than that...he's unable or incapable of connecting to the average American

I truly think he believes as Anne said "it's his turn now"
like some spoiled kid demanding his time on the seesaw

on edit, I've "friends" on FB that "liked" Ryan when it was announced he was the running mate..and only now these past few days are those same friends "liking" Romney...its a forced acceptance

[Festivito]

18. Attacks on SS and MC. Learning who comprises 47%.

That privatizing/voucherizing scares people into focusing.

It's not the 47% comment itself, it's that people focused for a moment on statistical facts in general seeing how misleading this one is.

[andym]

19. He's losing, but if he really went far downhill, he'd take the GOP congress with him

and so far that hasn't happened. There's still time though....

For me, the polls are still too close for comfort-- of course I wouldn't be happy unless Obama turned all those red states blue. Winning (or even leading in) Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee would calm my nerves.

[silvershadow]

23. I just don't know what to think...my inner hopefulness about this election is weighed

down by my well-placed cynicism. I predict large turnouts. Any thievery most likely is that which we have already seen with the new laws, the purges, the registration fraud etc. All that said, I don't trust these electronic voting machines, at all. These are just ways for outside contractors and vendors to control something that used to be local. Now local means nothing, as they really have there hands totally around the most important pieces. It MUST be addressed after this election, and dismantled. No way I want the mafia from Texas, or Florida, or anywhere else in charge of elections all over this country, from huge metros to little tiny podunk places. It just cannot be over-emphasized.

[Norrin Radd]

21. Also, the opening windows on a commercial jetliner remark.

Last edited Mon Oct 1, 2012, 03:37 AM - Edit history (1)

To add to what everyone else has posted so far.

[Populist_Prole]

24. Some really good answers so far: It's all been said. I'll add:

The Democratic party and the Obama campaign finally stopped the rope-a-dope and bipartisanship nonsense and are hitting back often and very hard. That they're pummeling the shit out of Mitt when he's at his weakest moments ( and as we've seen, there's plenty of them ) which only makes the effect more dramatic.

[DollarBillHines]

25. I think it has something to do with the gravitational pull of Kolub

Them planets can pull some weird shit.

Nome sayin?
DBH

[Gal Friday]

26. He's a lousy Excuse of a candidate

Even by GOP standards!

[cali]

28. In my opinion, it's still a very close election

And of course they could have found a weaker candidate. Do you really believe that Mitt is a weaker candidate than Michele Bachmann or Newt or Santorum or Cain?

[Bucky]

29. I disagree. They had a number of weaker candidates. Mitt was actually the strongest.

Since they're all ideologically fixated on enacting a tax cut policy that makes no sense, any one of them would be falling apart right about now--although perhaps without Romney's panache. But he actually was the one best poised to pivot to the center and make a play for the undecided 10%.

[loyalsister]

30. Until now he had never faced a constituency this diverse

In Mass, he honed his image for to bring it into a one that kept him from appearing threatening to liberals. His next experience running for office was\is playing to a reasonably friendly crowd in primaries.
Other than that his entire existence has been one where he was sheltered from criticism. He was boss who liked to fire people.
Now he faces people he has never dealt with before in his sheltered little life. I think large numbers of people who disagree with him freak him out. He can't handle a national campaign let alone the presidency.

[Iggy]

31. Because Voters Started Paying Attention

It's been totally hilarious watching David Brooks squirm on the PBS Newshour show the past
few weeks--

back in June/july he was confidently predicting Rmoney's numbers would go wayyyyy up, "once
we get closer to the election and people actually start looking at the candidates; it's too early
now".

well?

Mr Shields pointed out last Friday: "Romney is doing worse in every swing state he has
recently campaigned in"-- a little glance over at Brooks to drive home the point..

in other words, Romney sucks. he's so utterly bad and phony-- now that voters are paying
attention, they don't like what they see/hear.

[nichomachus]

32. Easy. He was never "uphill"

The fact is that in the primaries, he was surrounded by buffoons and cranks and outright crazies. By comparison, he looked good. He wasn't. Had he been in a field populated by people like Obama, Clinton (Bill and Hill), or Gore, he would have been laughed off the stage the first day.

[randome]

33. Demographics have changed to favor Democrats.

Palin was a sign of things to come. Romney is another nail in the GOP coffin. The times they are a'changing.

[porphyrian]

34. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

The republican bullshit machine has been the last straw for a bunch of people this time.

[k2qb3]

36. I really don't think it's Romney per se that's collapsing...

The Republican party has been in serious trouble for a decade now, it was just somewhat masked by the national PTSD of 9/11. When W left office his approval rating was in the low 20's and the 2008 election results reflected that. The GOP base thought the mid-term results were an endorsement of Bush-era policies rather than the reactionary protest of the entire political landscape it was. They refused to rebrand or reform, what we're seeing now is the result of the republican party failing to adapt.

The really big story this cycle isn't Clinton's speech or Romney's gaffes, it's the complete collapse of republican affiliation since the RNC. There are a lot of people out there who naturally fall into the republican sphere, people who want fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, small, focused government and so on. There is a much, much smaller population of people who're willing to get on board with the current GOPs platform in exchange for pure lip-service to those ideals. They've lost credibility with too many people. Their media has likewise lost credibility, FOX/talk radio is now only playing to the birther types and they're not nearly numerous enough to win elections.

Romney collapsed because he ceased to be a generic republican nominee who could embody whatever ideals people happened to hold and became Mitt Romney, and the Republican party likewise went from being a empty vessel that could appeal to people who liked Ike, Goldwater or Ron Paul and became the party that was on display at the RNC.

It isn't that Romney is a bad candidate, he's actually a very good representative of today's GOP, and THAT is the real problem. Things are going to get even nastier going forward because they're starting to realise the party is dying.