Romney and the Repubs

John Boehner, Republican leader in the House, says that "Voters aren't going to fall in love with Mitt Romney."   But they'll vote for him, because they don't want Obama.  He went on to explain:   90% of the voters will decide their vote based on Obama -- either for him or against him.   So it isn't all that important that they won't fall in love with Romney.

It's all of a piece.   Boehner's counterpart in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, famously defined the GOP agenda as "making sure that Obama is a one-term president."    So that's their strategy.

But here's my take on it.   It doesn't really matter all that much whom the GOP nominates.   The conservative vote will be anti-Obama.   So all their really good candidates can afford to sit this one out -- just in case the Repubs lose, you know?

Well, they just might lose.   Romney just can't seem to get it right.   His jokes are lame and unfunny.    His statements fall over themselves in contradiction.   His wealth and life style (all those homes, garage elevators for cars, Swiss bank accounts) can't be spun as populist -- no way.   And the Dems are certainly trying to make him look like the robber baron he is in how he made his wealth at Bain Capital.

So why does it seem so close in the polls?   Even the state wide, electoral vote polls are not very comforting.   Oh, Obama still has the advantage, but the margins in the swing states are tightening -- and swing really means that.  They could swing -- one or all -- the other way.

This should be the year of an intense debate about basic beliefs in the function of government -- because the contrast is stark.   The two men couldn't be more different, either in political philosophy or in life style.

This past week was a good contrast -- both in style and in policy those styles embody.   Romney and his family (30 in all, with 5 sons, 5 daughters-in-law, and 18 grandkids) took a vacation from campaigning and played in one of their multi-million dollar vacation homes, the one on the waterfront in New Hampshire, complete with power boat big enough to hold 24 people.

The Obamas went on a bus trip through the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, eating lunch in diners, talking with working class voters, many of them out of work or with stories of lack of needed health care.   Obama talked with them about his own family's struggles when he was growing up.

So the Republican National Chairman, Reince Priebus, went on the talk shows this morning and said the president "acts like he's not living on Earth."   He was talking about policies, not life style -- but it's just as absurd for them to take that line of attack.   They're trying to scare people into believing that Obama wants to take away everything they know and love about their lives.  That's all they've got -- no economic policies or domestic policies that will help.  And a candidate that they don't love.  So all they can do is try to scare people and pass voter ID laws that will suppress the Democratic vote.

Pretty sad way to try to win an election.  But it could work.    They have obscene amounts of money to advertise their lies.

Ralph