Mitt Romney?

[BlueStateModerate]

This guy is one of the top Republican candidates, but I find myself knowing very little about him. At first glance, he seems somewhat less repulsive than McCain and Guiliani, although he's obviously far from ideal. He somehow strikes me as less of a panderer than many of the other candidates. Anyone from Massachusetts have any insight into this guy?

[Little Wing]

1. He's the one who finally agreed to a pay raise and contract

for the teachers and professors in the state, after they had been teaching with regressive salaries as nobody had been getting raises at all for years.

Then he eliminated funding for it, after celebrating cutting a deal with the unions. In other words, he signed a teaching contract, then diverted all the money.

[Bill McBlueState]

13. or was that Jane Swift?

I remember Swift being the one who vetoed funding for the contracts after signing them. But either way, Romney has no respect for the value of a contract. Seems funny, given that he runs on having good business sense, or whatever.

[Little Wing]

14. If that's true, they've both done it

[YOY]

2. Not from Mass but he seems to stray from the Pub mainline (to the left)

Regardless, even if they magically started to lean left there is a bottom line. He will never make the primaries: The pubs will never select a Mormon. The sheeple they scare to the polls include too Fundie based freaks these days. Fundies don't like Mormons (or Catholics...or mainstream Protestants, Jews, and especially Muslims.)

[endarkenment]

4. No he strays to wherever he can get elected.

To be governor of Mass he had to moderate his position on social issues to try to fit into the Bill Weld mold. As soon as he left office he renounced all those positions. He is a craven asshole.

[YOY]

5. That too, no shock there

My bottom line still stands. The fundies won't come in droves for a Mormon...and they claim to not be bigots.

Not to defend such political maneuvering, I can think of some folks on our side that do the same (to fit a populist mold).

No names given.

[Breeze54]

26. Romney is

a flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect hair.

He sucks! I'm a MA voter. Glad he's gone!

[Marrah_G]

3. He is a plastic candidate

He changes his views with the wind. He also spent very little time in Mass, choosing instead to travel the country campaigning for president. He despises the people of Massachusetts and we are well aware he lied his way into office just to use us as a stepping stone for the presidential run. While in office he did jack shit except to try and repeal the gay marriage laws.

His record here is one of a do-nothing failure.

[TayTay]

18. Absolutely dead-on

Mitt Romney is a liar and has no discernable principles that can't be cast away in order to help him achieve his ambitions. He is a fundamentally dishonest man who is not to be trusted under any circumstances. He lies the way normal people breathe and is as slick as they come.

[Breeze54]

30. Well said!

I agree with all of what you stated! :thumbsup:

[MannyGoldstein]

6. The MittFlopper is Very, Very, Very Dangerous

I'm a Mass resident. He was slick enough to get a bunch of Dems to vote for him - then he changed position on everything. EVERYTHING.

He's as evil as Bush, but 20 times smarter. Beware.

[WI_DEM]

11. I agree--he may well be the one who would give dems the hardest time.

[Hamlette]

20. he will come off as a "compassionate conservative" but my guess is

he's an empty suit...like someone said, a small shadow of his dad.

A tool for whoever wants to use him...big business...Cheney...religious right. It would be nice to have someone with principles for a change.

[Swamp Rat]

25. I agree

[Clark2008]

27. Why do people think he's good looking?

He looks like an Easter Island statue to me.

:shrug:

[Ignacio Upton]

28. Swamp Rat, could you do some 2008 Alien Lizard cartoons?

Especially of Mitt (Chiseled Chin) Romeny? Oh, did I forget Giuliani and McCain?

[Swamp Rat]

32. I've been hunting for photos of him for the past 15 minutes.

;)

[rurallib]

7. Much like Bush, he is but a shadow of his father

and his career was built on being his Dad's son.

[WI_DEM]

10. Actually I give him more credit for that.

Romney's dad George Romney was a former governor of Michigan in the 60's and presidential candidate in '68 where he had a reversal of fortune when he claimed he was "brain washed" on Vietnam and changed his position. He then went on to serve in Nixon's cabinet for a couple of years, and then pretty much disappeared. He died in 1995.

Mitt Romney has, unlike Junior Bush, been a successful businessman and organizer of the Olympics in Salt Lake City. He was able to win a term as Governor in a notoriously liberal state, and now he is one of the three top front runners for the GOP nomination--but he is doing it by pandering to the right and changing his positions on such things as choice and stem cell research. He is like McCain--a panderer.

[seaglass]

16. He was able to win in MA because he ran as a moderate

Repub - the only kind we elect for Governor. He deserves no credit for deceiving the voters of MA - unless we're now giving points for good liars?.

[WI_DEM]

19. the one thing which really makes me mad sometimes on DU is people who

either don't read the whole post or jump conclusions. Nobody is giving credit for good liars. The post was only to point out that he isn't just some "W" clone. It wasn't about his appalling change after he was in office. Obviously the fact that he didn't seek re-election is an admission that he probably couldn't have won a second term. I point out that he has changed his position on things such as abortion and stem cell research and that he is moving to the right. And actually he only became Governor because until recently the Dems in MA had not been able to field a really good candidate for Governor.

[seaglass]

22. Actually I read your entire post so no reason to be mad. On the

third reading it still sounds like you are giving him credit for winning in MA and only denigrating him for pandering in the presidential primary.

Not only did Romney know he couldn't win, he didn't want to be governor for a second term - he had more ambitious goals - which has been clear for a long time to MA. voters.

There were many reasons why Romney won, the candidate he ran against was but a minor part of it. I doubt even Deval Patrick would have won against Romney.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. Shit Romney

[skipos]

9. They call him "Multiple-choice Mitt" for a reason

he panders just as much as Rudy and McCain. Which is A LOT.

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Flip-flopper extraordinare, like a weather vane.

Joined the NRA last August to shore up his national RW base.

Flip-flopped on women's rights.

Big backer of Bush's Iraq war, but none of his five sons ever went near the military.

And on and on and on..............

[rox63]

15. Mitt Romney is a lying snake - with apologies to actual slithering reptiles everywhere

I am a Mass resident, and former constituent of his regime. Everything Mittens does is to advance his ambitions. He doesn't give a shit about the voters after they have been fooled into installing him into a position of power. He lauds the passage of the Mass health care bill, then vetoed the funding for it. He was supposedly pro-choice and pro-gay-rights when he was running. After he was elected, that all changed. He actually travelled around the country (while still in office) talking trash about Massachusetts and the people who live here. While governor, he spent more time travelling to support his intended presidential run than he spent in the state.

Beware Mittens!

[Forkboy]

17. One the slimiest of all the repubs I can think of

And I can think of a lot.He is truly the most unadulterated panderer that I think I've ever seen.He has zero shame,and will do and say anything to get elected King.I would actually be more afraid of him than Bush if Romney had that power.Seriously.

[freethought]

21. A rundown on "Willard" Mitt Romney

"Willard" is his real first name.

Mitt was able to reach the Mass state house by marketing himself as a fiscal reformer. Anyone who knows Massachusetts state politics know that the state legislature is known as "all democrat all the time". The voters are aware of this and have in the past voted for republican governors. One is William Weld who was actually an OK guy, and if you go back far enough you see people like John Volpe and Saltonstall. So it is not totally unheard of that the Mass voters will elect a Repug governor to balance the Dem legislature.

When Mitt took office, it was typical high hopes for his term. But it didn't take long for the voters to figure out what Mitt-the-shit was all about. He ran for Mass governor for the sole purpose of running for president. I do not think he really gives one iota about what happens in Massachusetts, its all about him being able to say to voters "I was a conservative elected in one of the bluest of the blue states! Vote for me!!!" You will see him flip flop like a fish on deck. You could almost sense what was going through his head-"OK Mitt, you only have to serve 4 years in wack-job state. Yeah, that's it. One day at a time! You can do it! Each day I spend in the governor's office brings me one day closer to my real ambition! Running for President!! Just gotta keep it together until then. After that I can tell all these Mass liberals to eat s__t!"

He is also a vain man. A neat little story I read in a local Mass paper confirmed this. Some time ago Mitt was due to meet with the public along with Boston Mayor Tom Menino, I believe somewhere just north of Boston, a community gathering. Menino likes to mix and mingle with the locals, Mitt on the other hand has a different approach. When Mitt's motorcade showed up to this little gathering, he wouldn't get out of his car. An aide went into the gathering and began to request that people move their cars so the governor could arrive. This request went over strangely at this meeting. Why did Mitt ask for people to move their cars? So the on-site cameras for the local press could get his better side as he came out of his limo. Needless to say this did not go over well with the locals.

I am sure he probably choked on stem cell research for Mass. You see, Massachusetts, and especially the greater Boston are has become a major center for biomedical research. With the major universities in the area and the Longwood hospital/med school area to choke off stem cell research would have been a major blow to the Massachusetts economy and its reputation.

I am not calling the Mass legislature a group of angels, for they have been known for a number of downright questionable hijinks. A few notables, like former speaker Tom Finneran, have been downright assholes, but Mitt Romney has never been about whats good for Massachusetts. He's only about what's good for him and his own ambitions.

[Colobo]

23. Mitt Romney is the lost brother of this creepy guy

[Quixote1818]

24. So, which Romney is the real Romney?

The one who was Gov. of Mass. or the one we see now?

[Bluebear]

29. A flip-flopping carpetbagger. nt

[AzDar]

31. Mitt's a Morbot (as is most of my Hubby's family). Magic underwear

and hocus-pocus nonsense that would make Aleister Crowley blush.
Anyone who subscribes to that shit CANNOT be taken seriously.

[Generator]

33. What the hell kind of name is "Mitt"?

This is the only thing I ever think when I hear this name. Elizabeth the Bush licker LOVES him on the View on ABC and is pushing him hard. Me I know nothing and am staying away because I finally came to the conclusion it's 100% fricking meaningless who is president, the country is dead.

SO..what I really what to know is what the hell kind of name is Mitt???