The election is two months away. Polling data, which has been remarkably accurate during the primaries, is showing a close popular vote, but the electoral map favors President Obama. A Republican must win Florida and Ohio, most likely, to win the presidency because California and New York are solidly Democratic. If Pennsylvania goes Democratic, which is likely according the polls, and Illinois is probably not in play, Florida and Ohio become absolutely crucial for the Republicans to put enough electoral votes on the board to win.
I thought Mitt Romney made an excellent speech to the Republican Convention, but it was too late at night to get a big audience. Viewership was down 30% from 2008. Marco Rubio of Florida made a superb nominating speech, but the talk after the event was about Clint Eastwood’s ad-libbed empty chair fiasco. The fireman from Medford, Massachusetts, who should have had the spotlight, not Eastwood, got little notice 90 minutes ahead of Mitt Romney.
In my opinion, the Republican Convention was a partial success. I give it a B- for effectiveness, because they did little to counteract Obama’s huge lead among Latino voters, about 70-30. If this holds, Romney probably loses Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico. Game almost over.
Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan was a good one, though it defied the popular wisdom that he needed Senator Rob Partman of Ohio to help him win the Buckeye state. The merit of choosing Ryan is that he gives the impression of a person who could be President, and he has a clear economic policy that can help define the waffling Romney campaign. But the Democrats are attempting to smear Ryan on his Medicare stance to push Florida seniors toward Obama.
But I do not think the election is a done deal. Obama’s popularity has slid considerably in four years.
His leadership has been weak. He has not sold his policies to the country. The high unemployment rate is still his albatross. The unforgiving negativity of Republicans in Congress has actually made Obama look good. I do not see the Affordable Heath Care Act (Obama Care) as a major issue in the election because nobody really understands its impact yet. Dodd-Frank, though important to banks, also has little visibility with voters.
What can still win the election for Romney is his performance in the Debates. Al Gore and John Kerry both lost the election in the Debates and McCain did not help himself.
Romney needs to impress America that he will be the leader to take the country to a better place economically or Obama must look cynical or ineffectual to change what appears to be a likely outcome today. Personally, I think Romney must do something stunning to change the 70-30 Latino advantage of Obama. Maybe if he spoke in Spanish to declare his support for the “Dream Act” he could change the election. I think if he plays it safe on immigration he loses the game. No Florida, Democrats win.
Question: What would you do if you were Mitt Romney?
32 Comments
It is sad how the Democrats continue to pander to special interest groups. They are spending us into an abyss (Dem. & Rep.). Romney must continue to state this election as it is … nanny state or free enterprise, pick one! Atlas is carrying a heavy burden. May he stay broad shouldered, and not shrug (thank you Ayn Rand)!
Bring on the burden! I never shrug! 🙂
If I was Mitt, I would sure as hell be pounding on Obama during the debates that Regan “inherited” the same degree of mess (but in some different areas like inflation and gas rationing) from Carter and not once did he blame Carter. He was well on his way to resolving the problem- using the same strategy as Ronmey and Ryan- by the end of his FIRST term. We saw PROGRESS using that formula which is something we have yet to see from Obama’s attempts.
Change his religion. Mormons are crazier than Christians!!! By his age he should be getting over fairy tales. Too many republicans don’t understand science.
Lloyd, Your question is timely. This is not a contest of personalities but a critical test of economic/societal systems. Obama proposes life based on the extortion of recycled wealth for a national life style. Romney, if he is true to his beliefs with propose a business climate that will encourage industry investment in all phases of our lives. In the case of Obama, all he has to offer is a dwindling source of wealth to carry on; while investment in productivity while be the means for sustaining growth. Right now, there is more than three trillion in the hand of industry awaiting an administration who really knows what it is to invest in Americans. Obama offer nothing for real independent life while Romney can offer unlimited opportunity, and he doesn’t have to borrow from China to make it happen.
Lloyd: In my excitement, I hit the wrong key. Excuse the miss spellings and the occasional gender bender. Ye I would like to break bread with you but age has its limitations. Thganks anyway. Jack
First order of business is to make Lloyd Graff my VP . But the real problem is best described with the following youtube link. The 2nd link is our gun control problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tm3AT543YE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRWqaYdxI_I
All Romney and Ryan must do is stick to the facts about what has happened to the country and economy! The Bureau of Labor Stats has just released a report that debunks the Liberals phony job numbers they have been touting for the last few years.
The Obama administration has not created any jobs…that means ZERO jobs and in fact there are over 300,000 less people working today than when the supposed “Genius” assumed office and those numbers are from the Government! So how can they claim 4.5 million jobs created when there are actually fewer jobs right now??
The 4.5 million number is absolute BS and Obama propaganda and campaign lies. So they can lie their way back into office but it will only mean the current Liberal/Obama induced “Euro-Comma” will extend another 4 disastrous years and only result in enslaving our next 4 generations to a mountain of debt that they had nothing to do with and turn America into Greece, Spain and Portugal combined!
So, should Obama win again I would suggest you who haven’t built your businesses (we all know who we are) start making preparations to retire while you can get something for what you have worked and sweated for because you can bet your ass none of us will qualify for any “stimulous” funds!!
While I agree that Obama has fallen short in several areas, I cannot convince myself that Mitt Romney is in any way the answer. This is not a zero-sum game. It’s more of a frying pan/fire choice. Given the massive problems that threaten this country in ADDITION to the economy, I don’t see either candidate as our salvation. I refer to systemic problems like out-of-control lobbying and unrestrained PAC spending – on both sides – that put public servants on an auction block, sold to the highest bidder. I refer to corporations treated as people. I refer to a life of government handouts that has become a cultural trait instead of a temporary lifeline. I refer to the widening gap between the Left and Right, the refusal to compromise, the radicalization of both sides, fueled by hatred and mistrust. Remember when we used to be just Americans?
I don’t see either of these men as the answer. Now what?
Had a chance to shake Mitt Romney’s hand the other day when he was in Jacksonville with just about as many people at the Landing as the Dems had in their convention hall.
He was genuine and gave one the impression that you’d known him for twenty years. A much warmer person than McCain whose mitt I also shook. (pun intended)
One thing I’d like to point out is the advertising inbalance between the two parties. The Dems have been campaining often with Obama and concurrent ads for months. The Repubs have been biden (pun intended) their time and adding to their war chest at an increased rate each month and I think the last month and a half the networks are going to be very profitable especially due to the Repubs.
Clinton is a good rabble rouser almost as good as the Ted K. but to his credit when he was in office he was smart enough to listen to the Repubs….of course since they controlled both houses and had the benefit of our Ben Franklin – Newt Gingrich he avoided the mess that Obama has made and will continue to make if re-elected. Remember LLoyd America always gets what it deserves and again I’m fond of Winston Churchill’s observation of Americans “America will always do the right thing after trying everything else first”. We’ve had enough platitudes now it’s time to get serious and the key is like the 3 R’s from when schools really taught something: Reagan, Romney, Ryan!
Oh I will not be able to join you at the convention as I will be home trying to keep my head above water until Nov.
Cheers…..Clayton Smith
I would come clean! I would admit that I actually thought the affordable healthcare act was a good idea and that’s why I proposed it in Massachusetts. i would acknowledge that the “cut Medicare” accusations are untrue, that it isn’t really a cut in benefits but a cut in costs and that my buddy Ryan is proposing the very same thing. I would admit that Republican Governors requested the flexibility to vary the welfare work regulations and the President agreed if they could deliver the same end results PLUS 20% which means I am disrespecting the American public by acting like the Administration is “gutting” the work requirement. I would cash out of the race now, head for the Cayman Islands where I could sit among the stacks of my money and bet my rich buddies $10K a pop on debate trivia while pretending that $375K per year “isn’t much money.”
How sad. The republicans used to be the party of God fearing and fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately they have now become worshipers and followers of that most Godless of atheists and greed, Ayne Rand. Only a party that is completely morally bankrupt would advocate tax breaks for the wealthy that continue to drive up the deficit our children will have to pay for.
Lloyd, you trying to get back in the good graces of the right wingers? A few months ago, you had them all ticked at you.
First of all, Romney has no transparency. Anybody that stuffs his money in overseas bank accounts is not credible. What’s he doing, betting against the U.S? Releasing his taxes would be a way to start.
But I am betting he can’t release them because he has plenty to hide. Chances are he paid nowhere close to 14% federal income taxes. You notice he never claims to have paid 14% income taxes, only says 14% taxes. For all we know, he only gets to 14% by adding all his taxes (state taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, social security, medicare, etc.)
Secondly, what the heck does Romney stand for? Best I can see the only thing he wants is to reduce the taxes for the rich. How’s he going to pay for that?
Romney’s been running for president for the past 6 years. You’d think he’d have a more plausible argument for being president than being the anti-Obama candidate.
And what of Paul Ryan? Now there’s an impressive candidate. But I have to wonder . . . if he was such a fiscal conservative, where was he when Bush was president? Must of been out running a marathon.
Problem is, republicans don’t have a lot of credibility. Whether you’re talking about Bush-Cheney or Romney-Ryan, seems like they all like to tell some pretty tall stories.
Eight years of Bush put us into a pretty deep hole. Obama has done pretty good getting us to where we are, especially considering the republicans were plotting against him from day one.
So, here’s a question for you. Manufacturing has been making a heck of a comeback the last few years. Do you think we would be doing this well if Obama hadn’t saved the auto industry? Or, to phrase it another way, would all you machinists still be working if Obama had listened to Romney and let Detroit go bankrupt?
I think the Republican party should have chosen a more competitive candidate.
I don’t hear too many comments about the upcoming debates.
The reality is that Romney is no match for Obama’s considerable oratorical skills
and the debates will only solidify the Democratic lead.
Mitt needs to come clean with the American voter. The very first thing he would do at Bain when buying a company is to take a hard look at their financials. DUE DILIGENCE. He wouldn’t touch a company that couldn’t provide him with detailed historical financials.
Yet, Mitt wants us all to “trust me, there’s nothing in those tax returns that’s illegal, we paid all the taxes we owed” Well, I for one, don’t trust him. When Ann Romney said “you people got all you’re going to get” that was just one more reinforcement that there’s something in those tax returns that Romney doesn’t want anyone to see.
Besides, when you’re making $20,000,000+ a year, is it really necessary to take a $77,000 deduction for the care of your HORSE? Really? You didn’t make enough to cover whatever tax break a measely $77,000 deduction would bring? And for YOUR HORSE?
And that doesn’t even mention why there are offshore bank accounts – Caymans, Bermuda, Switzerland? Really? Now what purpose could there possibly be other than tax avoidance to moving your money off shore? Don’t you trust America, Mitt?
Open the books, you want us to hire you as CEO of America, we want DUE DILIGENCE on the financials, just like YOU would do when buying a business. What’s the problem Mitt, do you have something to hide?
He can hope that Voter ID laws actually work to suppress voter turnout.
If I were Mitt I would take my hundreds of $$$ millions, and hide in Switzerland…
I would go home and suck on my thumb. Obama is good for manufacturing and Mit is not. Wake up! The jobs are coming back from overseas. Mitty boy will send them right back over there.
I’m not really for Mitt, but I am against Obama. He’s had 4 years and he still hasn’t produced anything that I can see. I am WORSE off now that I was in 2008. After 4 years to prove yourself, I think your job record and performance should speak for itself, and the need to rally for support shouldn’t be needed if good work was done. I really wish Ron Paul won the primary.
As for the off shore money, I don’t know anyone with large amounts of money that does not have some tied up in oversea accounts. The way the US tax system is set-up, I don’t blame them. These people still create more tax revenue that most combined away. I would do it too if I had millions.
I find if funny the Dems are requesting his tax records like Reps requested for a birth certificate 4 years ago.
Colin Powell for president! Least he’s had a job and I respect him more than these 2.
Is our attention span so short that we forget Romney was the reviled candidate for the first six months of 2012? The prosperity level of myself and the business which I work has done nothing but increase since 2008. In 2008 we were struggling to make business costs every month, today we are comfortable. All I need to know about Romney is he represents a party that despises compassion, where you hear shouts of “let him die” in primary debates and boos toward a soldier(See: A man willing to die for his country) for being a homosexual.
Mitt Romney is anti-immigrant, anti-welfare and anti-taxes. George Romney(his father) came here as a Mexican refugee(although technically an American citizen because his parents had fled to Mexico from the US with the rest of the Mormons). George spent his first years in the US on welfare relief from the US government, paid for by tax dollars. George was also awarded a $250.00 cash benefit which is the equivalent of $6000.00 today, paid for by tax dollars. His food/housing/education were all supported by the government. He invested that $250.00 to create his wealth, the wealth that paid for Mitt’s private schooling. I’d like to know how Mitt would respond to any of these programs were they suggested today, perhaps as a refugee relief program from the drug war. The US government had a huge hand in the success of the Romney family and it is a sentiment completely ignored by him today and by most of the electorate that he excites. Between open hypocrisy like this, his extremely rude treatment of Ron Paul in 2007/2008 and the fact that he believes corporations are people(they aren’t, currently they have all the rights and none of the responsibility) I just cannot put a vote in his ballot box.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean I’m voting for Obama either, for drastically different reasons(see: assassination of American citizens by drone strikes, NDAA: authorization for unlimited detention of American citizens) . However, I’m not going to blindly follow the Republican party out of some media inflated loathing of a president who has by and large been rather successful.
Lloyd, you ought to be pleased with yourself because you are the only liberal writer I tend to read on a regular basis.
When you say “polling data, which has been remarkably accurate” indicates this is leaning toward Obama just shows a few things. One, investigate the data and you will find that the percent of polled always favors registered democrats over republicans by a far greater amount than the difference in the poll. Remember, figures don’t lie but liars figure. Number two, where have you been for almost every important election since Obama. Uber liberal Mass votes for a Republican senator, also the liberal state of NJ votes for a Republican governor (admittedly they do this periodically to fix the major financial crisis the Dems put them in), and Scott Walker easily wins his recall election against the union thugs by more votes than he won in the original. If you listened to polling data ahead of each of these events as presented by the liberal media you would have thought otherwise. The election usually sides with the passion, there is no positive passion for Obama, but there is plenty on the side of making America great again.
Your comments on Clint Eastwood’s performance as a fiasco comes right out of the liberal media talking points. The repubs finally accept an artistic performance from one of the countries most beloved and influential people from Hollywood and the liberals call it a fiasco…obviously you just dont have the artistic understanding, but dont worry the government is there to help you.
Enough criticism, I ought to point out where you got it almost right, “Obama’s popularity has slid considerably in four years”. If by “slid” you meant dropped off a cliff, then you nailed it. Even the B list actors are afraid to put there name behind him, and, where is Oprah? He is not popular because he is totally ineffective as a leader and the most arrogant individual that has ever walked. I know, in your world arrogant can only be used for repubs or conservatives.
Now back to the criticism. What scares me the most about what you wrote was, “he has not sold his policies” all I can say is thank god. If you had an open mind and would investigate who he is, his policies are based in Marxism. From each according to their ability to pay, to each according to their need. Redistribution of wealth, ever hear of the concept as a capitalist one, no this is pure communism. Only in the pure communism the government hasn’t already turned 50% of the population into government dependents. The needy would be truly needy not just those who are 2nd and 3rd generation government dependents, totally void of the tools to function as individuals. Not that I am stumping for pure communism. Capitalism is the only way to get from the bottom to the top. Under Obama’s heartfelt policies, only those the government deems worthy will be allow to join the top. Not that there is no room for business people, remember Solyndra?
I will be at IMTS, but dont worry Lloyd, I’m usually a gentleman with all, afterall its not like I’m a union thug or Occupy Wallstreet type.
Focus on a plan for balanced budget and lower national debt and explain real truth why financial decisions by government must do to make this happen. Voters must accept we all elected the congress that made the budgets so npw we must all play a role in paying down the debt before it chokes all the life out pf this nation as we currently know it
Doug, for someone suggesting research your post sure contains a stark lack of content and a fair amount of rhetoric. I’m not sure you actually know what Marxism is. If redistribution of wealth is the signal of a Marxist both parties in this country must be reincarnations of the man himself because they sure haven’t opposed funneling wealth into the top tier of society for the past 30 years. Your turn to do some research, look at the median income over the past 30 years, it is flat while the share of income taken by the top earners goes up and up and up. When you account for the fact that 40 years ago that same income was provided by one earner per family and now comes from two these facts become even more cogent indicators of a societal problem. But I’m sure it’s just because all of us middle class machinists and manufacturers are lazy bums, right? It’s all the rage to blast the OWS crowd… problem is they actually have a point and the real thugs here are the cops spraying kids in the face with pepper spray for having a sit-in.
I just love it when Liberals start talking about offshore accounts and hiding income to dodge taxes to try and show Romney in a bad light. Well just who wrote and passed all those loop wholes that are being used by ALL wealthy people including Liberals?
If Democrats were so mad about that then why didn’t they change the tax code when they controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency during Obama’s first two years? They forced Obama-care down the throats of Americans without one single Republican vote so they sure as hell could have done the same with the tax code!
All this concern now is liberal campaign BS and hypocritical to the 10th power since they did NOTHING to change it when they had the chance! They didn’t even author, write and pass a budget for the last two years of the Bush administration when they controlled both houses of Congress and once failed in their consitutionally mandated duties once again during the first two years of the “Genius” assuming office….4 straight years of not doing their jobs and now some want 4 more years of that nonsense?
One more thing…when the Republicans took control of the house after the first two years of the Obama disaster Paul Ryan and the Republicans authored, wrote and passed a budget within 90 days of taking over the House of Representatives and that has sat in limbo in Harry Reids democrat controlled Senate since!
give up and let someone who needs the money have the job
As the parasitic head of Bain, maybe he should go back and wait for the final collapse, just think of all the companies that will available to snatch up for pennies on the dollar. Nickolas Kristoff was correct when he discribed the Rep. as sodomites, the hell with the sick, out of work and struggling. The, ” we got ours, to hell with the rest of the country ” attitude will end up destroying our country. Out of over 300 million people in the US, I would have hoped we could produce two indiviuals who only wanted what was best for the whole country, not just their party.
After reading some of these responses, maybe it is time for Atlas to shrug.
The economy umbrella covers all of us. The poor and those on fixed incomes (the elderly) will be hurt in the future by the same inflation being created on their behalf today. Mitt needs to make that point as often as possible.
I would vote for Obama if I were Mitt !
In response to Gary Goins comments about Republicans being heartless:
How much did Joe Biden give to charity last year? I think you’d be surprised.
Unfortunately many liberal politicians have big hearts when they are spending YOUR hard earned tax dollars…
I was at Imts . And the most repeated comment I herd was if Obama is defeated I wil invest in some of this new Technology.
As for Me I plan to add some of the fancy Japanese robots I saw . To some of my reliable older CNC machines. And Hopefully, I can lay off a dozen or so employees to avoid Obama care`s Cost. Yeah, We the Strong shops survived. But if Obama gets another four. I may just take the money and run.
How do I unsubscribe, because, I don’t have time to read a blog from someone who is undecided. How can anyone, who loves this country, its way of life, and their children, not know who to vote for in this election?
PITIFUL!