During the past three weeks, the dynamic of the 2012
presidential election has shifted, and President Obama has moved out to a
modest but significant lead against Mitt Romney. No developments in the economy
or the world can explain this shift. That leaves the campaigns themselves. And
during the past two weeks, Romney’s campaign has revealed itself to be impressively
incompetent. Romney’s challenge has always been to keep his distance from the
party he is leading—the Republican Party, after all, is farther ideologically
from the median voter than is the Democratic Party. And as recently as a few
months ago, Romney was in good position to do just that: While the public has
seen Barack Obama and his party as more or less vague, they have viewed Romney
as a moderate conservative within a highly conservative party. But, Only 26 percent of those who
listened to or watched the Republican convention said that it made them more
likely to vote for Romney, versus 46 percent less likely. Finally, Obama leads and he ends up winning,
the skeptics—of whom I have been one—will have to acknowledge that the Obama
team understands something important about twenty-first century politics that
we don’t. An Obama victory would suggest a more personalized,
identity-based brand of politics could trump traditional economic metrics, even
when times are tough. For their part, Republicans would have to acknowledge
that the current stance and demography of their party don’t provide the basis
for a lasting national majority. But then, that’s a lesson they should have
learned some time ago.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Blog 4 - Mitt Romney - Satire
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