The real reason Mitt Romney is never going to get to be President Updated

[grantcart]

Last edited Mon Jul 30, 2012, 11:18 AM - Edit history (1)

Edited to add Newsweek's article on the same subject, Romney is a wimp

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/29/michael-tomasky-a-candidate-with-a-serious-wimp-problem.html



He is a coward.

His flip flopping isn't simply a sign of ambition and the need to be confirmed, it is fundamentally a confirmation of
one of the biggest cowards to ever run for President not simply taking popular positions but running away from tough ones.

He was for Vietnam, even as his father expressed doubts, he protested for it and took the cheap religious deferrment to France so that he wouldn't have to face bullets.

His choice of France was also an act of cowardice. Unlike the large number of Mormon boys who take an adventure to a third world country Romney hid out in one of the safest countries in Europe.

His choice of occupation meant that he could use his father's credentials to open doors for him. He avoided medicine or law where he would have to stand up make a decision and take the consequences for it.

And of course Gingrich's caddish behavior is nauseating and he is repulsive on many levels but Gingrich takes risks. Romney doesn't have the guts to go outside of the tracks that have been plowed for him. If it was the norm for him to have 2 wives or 3 then he would follow that course.

Santorum and Paul take bold positions that are going to be unpopular with someone and face the music.

Mitt Romney isn't just going to the left in MA and to the right in the primaries because he is calculating and tough, like Nixon, he is doing because he is supremely risk adverse.

Mitt Romney has never stood up and took an unpopular stance that would put him into conflict with his desired constituency because he doesn't have the guts to do so.

He didn't stand up for civil rights and fair treatment of gays. He doesn't stand up for the children of undocumented workers. He doesn't stand up for diplomacy or reason.

He won't stand up for science and even though he says 'golly gee' instead of 'fuck you' he won't really stand up to civility.

His idea of a bold position is to say that he likes the Star Spangled Banner.

Except those words were about a bunch of guys in Maryland who got bombed by the British at point blank range and despite a massive shelling refused to give up.

Republicans sense this cowardice. They sense that if he got a real call at 3:00 in the morning with conflicting advice he would convene another committee. He is running his campaign as he did his business, use overwhelming capital to get a strategic advantage and push your advantage. So even in the face of three of the worst candidates and the weakest fields ever assembled by a major party they can hardly bring themselves to give him a vote of confidence and stop the terminal fraticide.

Mitt Romney's problem isn't that he doesn't connect with real people.

Mitt Romney's real problem is that he doesn't have the guts to show the people who he really is. That's because deep down inside Mitt Romney knows that if the people could see the real Mitt Romney they would see a man stripped of courage.

And I challenge any Romney supporter to show a single act of personal courage on the political stage, let alone a pattern that shows that he has what it takes to make tough unpopular choices facing huge risks on an almost minute by minute basis that the President makes.

McCain turned down a chance that the North Vietnamese to save his life and end the agony of his broken body subjected to the harsh realities of the Hanoi Hilton. Mitt Romney would, of course never get there, but if he had he would recreate the famous scene of George Costanza knocking down the women and children running out of the birthday party when someone yelled 'fire' on his way out of Hanoi.

Mitt Romney is a coward.

[SoapBox]

1. Real reason?

...he's a GOPathetic dirt bag?

Or is the Newton Leroy?

OH! It's both!

[flamingdem]

2. We can thank Gingrich for helping turn Romney

into a giant soft pretzel

What a wimp

[gopiscrap]

3. Interesting Post thanks!!!

[mike_c]

4. that's an interesting analysis....

Posts like yours are one of the reasons I love DU-- I generally avoid mainstream media, so I avoid most of the hype, and I've never actually seen or heard Romney speak (I'll bet everyone in Florida envies me right now!). Partly that's a matter of disinterest-- I take it as a given that I don't give a rat's buttocks what any potential republican candidate has to say, other than for comic relief. And I can read that here, or elsewhere online. Partly it's because I shun most major media, especially television.

I would likely never have encountered your analysis anywhere else, and I wouldn't likely pay attention to Romney closely enough to conclude it for myself. True or false-- thanks for more grist.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. He does have one strong suit....

It's his black Armani with a red tie. The problem is, he looks good in it, and that's enough reason to earn the votes of many Americans who will see it as a symbol of his business acumen.

I know, I know, Americans *aren't that dumb"
*cough gwbush cough*

[Hissyspit]

6. Oh, come on. It took a LOT of fortitude and sacrifice to strap himself to the top of that vehicle

endure constant wind and noise and sun and bugs in his teeth for hours and hours on end, all the time trying to maintain his bowel movements until he could stand the pain no more...

Oh, wait. That was the dog.

[Old and In the Way]

7. He's a man of great principal.

And it's parked in secret bank accounts all around the world.

I hope that someone at one of the debates with Obama will ask him 1 simple question. Why are you running for POTUS? And I'd like his answer given while he's hooked up to a lie detector.

[calimary]

8. And his sons are cowards. All five of them.

All tall, strong, healthy, vigorous, and of age. Quite fit to serve in the military, especially with their dad pounding it home that he's running for the #1 patriot of America. You'd think that, for appearances sake ALONE, one of them - even just one of them would be the "sacrificial lamb" trade in the pinstripes and monogrammed shirts and go enlist and do the time in basic training and then show off in the slick-looking oh-so-photogenic and all-American uniform. Not ONE of them has. Nice red-white-&-blue family, 'eh?

[Jim__]

9. His cowardice extends to Bain Capital too.

He was offered the job of CEO of the new company. Romney was afraid to take it. He didn't want to risk his current job and salary. When Bain guaranteed that he could get his old job back, including any raises that he would have gotten, Romney still refused. He was afraid that if it failed, it would hurt his reputation. Bain guaranteed not to allow any failure to affect Romney's reputation.

From CBS News:

And so [Bill] Bain made his pitch: Up to that point, Bain & Company could watch its clients prosper only from a distance, taking handsome fees but not directly sharing in profits. Bain's epiphany was that he would create a new enterprise that would invest in companies and share in their growth, rather than just advise them.

Starting almost immediately, Bain proposed, Romney would become the head of a new company to be called Bain Capital. With seed money from Bill Bain and other partners at the consulting firm, Bain Capital would raise tens of millions of dollars, invest in start-ups and troubled businesses, apply Bain's brand of management advice, and then resell the revitalized companies or sell their shares to the public at a profit. It sounded exciting, daring, new. It would be Romney's first chance to run his own firm and, potentially, to make a killing. It was an offer few young men in a hurry could refuse.

Yet Romney stunned his boss by doing just that. He explained to Bain that he didn't want to risk his position, earnings, and reputation on an experiment. He found the offer appealing but didn't want to make the decision in a "light or flippant manner." So Bain sweetened the pot. He guaranteed that if the experiment failed Romney would get his old job and salary back, plus any raises he would have earned during his absence. Still, Romney worried about the impact on his reputation if he proved unable to do the job. Again the pot was sweetened. Bain promised that, if necessary, he would craft a cover story saying that Romney's return to Bain & Company was needed due to his value as a consultant. "So," Bain explained, "there was no professional or financial risk." This time Romney said yes.

It makes you wonder how many things Romney has failed at that have been covered up.

[Major Hogwash]

12. That's because Romney has no brains. No ideas of his own. Nothing to offer.

Just refried crap from the failed Raygun policies of the past.

Mister 1% will definitely not be able to figure out a budget to offer without raising taxes on the wealthiest individuals in America.
I think that is why he rejected the Ryan budget plan, because it didn't make any sense.
It added to the debt, instead of reducing the debt.

Of course, now that the primaries have started, Mister Gutless says that he endorses the Ryan budget plan wholeheartedly.
But, wait another 3 months, and he will say something completely different.

[renate]

21. thanks for posting this

I know this is just one example, but it sounds like he's so risk averse that he wouldn't have taken the chance on attacking Osama bin Laden's compound, or... well, on confronting much of anything, really. What a pathetic leader of a nation he would be.

[grantcart]

22. he would wither within hours and only go with consensus decisions.

[DCBob]

10. Good post. Romney is a weak candidate getting weaker by the minute.

The term "empty suit" fits him like a glove. He will gets lots of anti-Obama votes but few pro-Romney votes. That why I think he might actually be the preferred candidate to face. He will inspire no one in the Republican party except maybe the banksters. He may not be as controversial as Gincrich but I think he is a bigger loser.

[DCBob]

11. Joe Scab: "Romney has nothing good to say about himself"

"and nothing good to say to conservatives." I think the conservatives may revolt if Romney is the nominee. They are royally pissed.

[Bluerthanblue]

13. thank you-

you really said this well and thought it through. I HOPE that your title proves to be true, though some people really don't vote with the best interests of anyone in mind.

happy to k&r this.

[riverwalker]

14. bravo

You nailed it.

[JNelson6563]

15. Well said!

Brilliant!

[Mira]

16. Well reasoned post. I do hope

his cowardice will be exposed and show where it counts when it counts.

[FrenchieCat]

17. And Romney walks like a coward too......

just check him out next chance you get.....

I cannot see the American people electing someone telegraphing that
there is a problem down below......like hemorrhoids or too tight underwear
or something!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. He's probably got a wedgie

in his magic underwear!

[DonCoquixote]

18. Ugly reality

America at this point is a nation of cowards, so they might want to elect one of their own, especially a dumb one.

[crazylikafox]

19. Great post. I never thought of him quite that way before.

Please repost this once a week after he gets the nomination!

[rocktivity]

23. Man cannot live by the fundie/wingnut vote alone

any more than a black man can live by the black vote alone.

Romney cannot pick up enough women, minorities, evangelicals, religious moderates, or independents to beat Obama -- which is pretty much what I also said about McCain.


rocktivity

[grantcart]

24. Kicking, now that Newsweek agrees with us.