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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAdvisor says Romney's public views don't reflect what he privately believes
Tell us more about Romneys private viewsBy E.J. Dionne Jr.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece on Thursday, the veteran conservative journalist Fred Barnes offered Mitt Romney some advice for improving his campaign, including the sensible (and one might also say humane) suggestion that on immigration, the presumptive nominee would be wise to move away from his harsh position in the primaries. Then Barnes included this fascinating sentence: According to a Romney adviser, his private view of immigration isnt as anti-immigrant as he often sounded.
What exactly does that mean? Does it mean Romney said things that he doesnt really believe? What are we supposed to make of a candidate who takes certain public positions to court one group of voters and then tries to reassure an entirely different group of voters by leaking the fact that he doesnt really believe what he said to win votes from the first group? ....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/tell-us-more-about-romneys-private-views/2012/04/13/gIQA0Jz5ET_blog.html
I wonder what other 'public statements' he plans to change after the republican nomination race is over.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)liberalmike27
(2,479 posts)We could get Republicans to stop pandering to the idiot, prejudiced, bigoted voters in their party, we'd have so much better of a world. But then, too, if we got money out of politics it'd be better.
Skinner
(63,645 posts)The guy has lied, pandered, and changed positions so often that nobody knows what he actually believes on anything.
He's just an empty shell. The biggest phony in politics -- and that's saying something.
indepat
(20,899 posts)line, and sinker although facet thereof is known to be bad and a rotten stinkin' lie.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)If elected, which Romney do we get? Conservatives dont trust him, liberals dont trust him, and he lies whenever his lips are moving.
Volaris
(10,274 posts)Agree, or not?
Scuba
(53,475 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,273 posts)We have a winner.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)SemperEadem
(8,053 posts)and stand in THAT truth and take his ass whippin' for it, instead of flip flopping in order to achieve his political aims and ends.
He is the living embodiment of "bait and switch".
emulatorloo
(44,192 posts)told far to many FreeRepublic style lies about Obama. That is his truth now, do not care what he says tomorrow.
MineralMan
(146,336 posts)It's a new drawing every day with Romney.
enough
(13,262 posts)ancestors are at the top of the hierarchy. He simply does not have the instinct to even pretend that it matters what he says to the great mass of people below him. He is the rightful headman. Enough said. Of COURSE he has "private views" that are different from what he says outloud. It's all in our best interests. It is meant to be that way, for everybody's good.
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)now that he's running a national campaign he wants to be (all of a sudden) a conservative. I think it's his LDS indoctrination that makes him so malleable with the truth/facts.
canuckledragger
(1,670 posts)didn't they used to call this kind of thing lying?
DFW
(54,447 posts)He HAS no beliefs, other than that he believes he and his friends should have lots of money, and most others should not.
He says what he deems convenient. Other than that, he doesn't say anything.
Mz Pip
(27,453 posts)is backing him. If he can make it to the White House by appealing to people that don't pay attention then he will be a perfect President for them. He will sign any GOP bill that crosses his desk no matter how draconian. That's what the GOP wants; a lily livered weak assed yes man.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,273 posts)Just what his corporate overlords tell him.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)believe that money and suppression of votes will win the elections for them. Thats why Pres O needs to win by a large amount of votes, but then again, I still don't trust the GOP, they think that GAWD has choosen them to do whatever to the American people and the world.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)"Good evening, Governor Romeney!"
dkf
(37,305 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,445 posts)Last edited Sat Apr 14, 2012, 12:24 PM - Edit history (1)
what exactly are we supposed to believe are Romney's actual views on things? Aren't we, as citizens of a Democracy supposed to be able to know what our would-be leaders actually believe so that we can make a truly informed decision when we enter the voting booth? Or has it simply become acceptable to allow candidates seeking public office to hide/obfuscate their views until the election is concluded and they have been elected, in Romney's case, potentially to the highest office in the country?
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)the primary. But his problems don't end there, most primary winners do not need to
court their base after that win but Romney imo, will still be needing to spend time
and money on the base who still to this day do not trust him. Then he has the
Ron Paul crowd to worry about, I have no idea what Paul will do, if he runs as
an Independent/Third Party that will hurt Romney, if Paul urges his supporters
to vote for Romney, I will be very surprised.
Romney will be hard pressed to sell his far right rhetoric to Independents while
still courting the wacko crazies in his base.
Chan790
(20,176 posts)personally I don't think he should be allowed to claim to be a libertarian if he won't accept their nomination for public office. Ron Paul is a Republican albeit one who is embarrassed by other Republicans. Most people of integrity do what Linc Chaffee did when their party no longer holds their values and leave.
Everything Ron Paul says is suspect until he renounces the GOP and refuses to run for his House seat or the Presidency as a Republican because Ron Paul is not a man of integrity.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)I'm not confident that endorsement will come and if it did, I find it hard to believe the majority
of his base will vote for Romney.
True, he has said he will only run as the GOP nominee but has said recently
when asked, he'll wait until the end of the primary race to state anything
about it.
Ron Paul certainly does not desire to help Obama win, but he may do just that,
regardless.
Is there still time for Paul to run for re-election for Congress if he waits until
the Republican primary is over? I thought he had declared months ago he was
not running.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Botany
(70,594 posts)cindyperry2010
(846 posts)his soul for a nomination
EC
(12,287 posts)As long as it's to the right audience. They don't seem to have any qualms in admitting to only "playing to the audience" or doing "what sells". It's part of that "it's only business" culture.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)I expect a politician to publicly support or oppose an issue based on a lot more things than just "feelings"... science, proven theory, past success, and public opinion, for example.
But I also expect the politician to be reasonably consistent. If a politician that's pro-X see that being pro-X simply doesn't help or even harms his constituents and the American people at large, I expect him or her to say "I would like to be pro-X, but it simply doesn't work. I feel it should, I want it to, and I would love to see it work, but it just doesn't".
I don't want a politician that will decided whether or not to be pro-X based on his best chance for electoral success. And Romney is the current epitome of that kind of politician.
louis-t
(23,297 posts)Republicans have to sell their soul to become the nominee. Mc Cain seemed very bitter about this.
progressoid
(49,999 posts)He says/does whatever he thinks will get him elected. Sorry Mitty, people don't like to be hoodwinked.
Bonhomme Richard
(9,000 posts)a middle of the road guy. I heard my nephew say that he writes all the stuff Romney said during the primaries as just words he didn't mean.
It didn't seem to matter to him. He liked that he was a middle of the road business guy.
siligut
(12,272 posts)Mormonism is rigid and according to one Mormon on the board, Rmoney's campaign is weighing heavy on them, they don't like the attention. It makes me wonder, if this is really a statement from a Rmoney adviser, if it is meant to appease and mediate between his public persona and his supposedly strong Mormon faith.
shawn703
(2,702 posts)Once he starts sounding more "sensible" for the general election.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)Just shake it up and everything gets erased.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)And is drawing a new image for the general election. Will the mainstream media allow him to get away with this makeover? We know that Fox News will because Barnes already has. Perhaps a larger problem is the negatives Romney carries with the public and turning to his wife to bail him out doesn't display leadership. It is a shameless display of desperation.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)After repeated use and shaking, the original pictures are still there to be seen.
Ship of Fools
(1,453 posts)It's amazing that Rs are so upfront about this shit. Lying then or lying now, Mittens?
Jeebus--the bumper stickers just write themselves.
Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)Anything they can say to divert attention from that, works for them. They'll get in and (just like Walker) screw up whatever is left of fairness in the political structure, and loot whatever is left to get. Then they'll dump it in another Dem's lap again to clean up (sort of) in 4 or 8 years. It's what they always do.
It's the "say anything" strategy, and it works (as we have seen too many times before).
What they say or don't say doesn't make any difference. They don't have a "plan" for anything because all they're going to do is steal. That, and pass laws to enable more stealing. They'll disenfranchise and impoverish as many people as possible right off the bat - because while people are busy struggling to survive, they can't resist the attack on them very effectively.
Women, minorities, unions, and all 99% programs are going under the bus right away. That, and I'll bet the older SCOTUS will retire if Mittens wins - and the replacements will be young and even more deranged and corrupt than this bunch.
If the GOPers lose this time, they'll just keep laying their plans for doing it the next time. It's what they do. It's what they have always done, since Nixon at least (that's how long I've been following it).
What Romney and the rest of them, big and small, privately believe is: money, money, money, money, money... That's all they're about. And of course, money buys power, to get more money, and to legalize making people work for them for free, or if not then close to it. Any issue thought of in that light becomes crystal clear.
Every two or four years it's time to "befuddle the voters" into voting for them, so they can get back to their only interest in life... taking whatever they can from whoever they can.
cindyperry2010
(846 posts)Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)In other words, water is wet.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)are fence sitting because of the extreme policy demands of the right that Romney is really not that bad so it would be okay to vote for him in the general election. Romney is a Trojan horse for the GOP. They will try to get him through the gates and then proceed to open the trapdoor. This crap needs to be nipped in the bud.
Javaman
(62,534 posts)I don't think anyone knows what he believes, even himself.
agentS
(1,325 posts)Oh, Obama is going have a lot of fun with this in the debates...
Arkana
(24,347 posts)Even if it's been true of pretty much EVERY Presidential candidate ever, you don't SAY it. This just reinforces the "Etch-A-Sketch Candidate" meme. They really should know better.
Bake
(21,977 posts)Maddow tells it like it is; Mittens is a big fat liar.
Bake
CobaltBlue
(1,122 posts)Fred Barnes is a joke! He was a fool who, days before the 2008 U.S. presidential election (Nov. 4), compared on air predictions with a Faux News colleague. The colleague predicted Obama, comparatively to other pundits, while Barnes predicted McCain in the 270s. I dismissed Fred Barnes with that and, four years later, he's just as irrelevant.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,178 posts)Even a couple of months is a long time in politics, and he'll have plenty of time before the General Election to slowly move back towards the center in order to woo the independents and undecided.
Will it matter to traditional R voters if he contradicts his former self? Not really, they'll forgive him anything if it means getting rid of the socialist, marxist, Muslim, black man in the White House. You can bet FAUX News will be glossing over all his positions. But will the rest of the MSM let him get away with it? We'll see.