. . . how can he hope to govern after running such a campaign?
Should the Democrat prevail, he is likely to face a Republican House, if not a Republican — at least a more Republican & more conservative — Senate. Not to mention all those Democratic Senators from “red” states whose seats will be up in 2014 and will be wary of running for reelection with an unpopular incumbent from their party in the White House.
You may say that if he wins, he won’t be unpopular, but the point of this post is that should he win, he will have done so by demonizing his opponent rather than improving his public image. His negatives will remain high, his approval low.
To go a bit off-topic… Although I am probably going to vote for Willard Mittens, I must confess to some serious mixed feelings about it.
The next President will face a U.S. sovereign debt crisis… think “Greece times 100”. For the last 8 decades, both parties have created the U.S. debt problem, to the extent that each has adopted the philosophy of Big Government, i.e. continually expanding domestic spending.
In other words, Democrats did a little more to create the problem. In other words, Obama will be slightly more deserving as the guy to inherit the full crisis and have his presidency destroyed by it.
Of course, my real interest is to see the problem get solved (regardless of who created it). And my concern is that Willard Mittens, being a Big Government guy at heart, and will propose all the wrong things to “solve” it, much like Bushes 41 and 43 did.
None of it will work – no more for Willard Mittens, than for Obama in the same situation. Since Willard Mittens is a Republican, though, and the media hates him: he would take all the blame. Thus we would repeat the situation of the Great Depression, where small government solutions were discredited – after they had ACTUALLY NOT BEEN TRIED.
My nightmare is that, in the depths of the crisis, Willard Mittens as a Big Government guy will sign the orders for wage and price controls, gold confiscation, etc… and that, since he is nominally a Republican, conservatives will be too divided and confused to stop him. If such orders are coming (just as the crisis itself is coming), it will be better to have Obama be the author.
I would trust Reagan to do the right things, in response to the coming crisis. Willard Mittens isn’t Reagan.
Long story short: given a choice between a wolf still trying to pose as a sheep (Obama), and a maybe-possible-wolf-posing-as-a-sheep (Willard Mittens), I will go with the latter… while hating the choice.
ILoveCapitalism, what do you think about Paul Ryan becoming the vice president? I know he isn’t as radical as what is needed, but I would say he is probably the best person to deal with the upcoming crisis (and he seems to know it’s coming, which is apparently more than can be said for anyone higher up than him). If Romney does pick him as his running mate, and wins the election, do you think maybe Paul Ryan will push Romney in the right direction? Even if the VP doesn’t actually have much power, I find it hard to believe Ryan would just sit back without doing anything about the crisis that he knows is coming. And I think it would better than not to have someone in the executive branch that a) has well-established connections to Congress as a basis for dialogue (just in case Romney himself isn’t in sync with the more conservative Congress, which he almost certainly won’t be) and b) has some idea of what is at stake.
It would be an encouraging sign, for the reasons you just suggested. I like Ryan. That he understands budget issues, just makes him hotter 😉
Jindal might also be a good pick. “Personnel is policy”, as they say, and Govs. Jindal, Perry and Walker have all refused to implement Obamacare in their respective States.
Is it not true that when the Presidency and the Congress are divided along party lines and caught up in petty politics, our economy tends to do better–and our freedoms and liberties a lot safer?
Divided government tends not to grow as rapidly. From a libertarian standpoint, gridlook is good.
That should be “gridlock is good.”
I don’t know what gridlook is. Sounds like what a prison inmate sees when he looks through the bars.
heh 🙂
I don’t think Obama or his followers care about governing; just winning.
I thought gridlook was one of the transformers?
And yes it is the devil we know vs the devil who may be as bad.
Obama will rule by executive orders & ignore Congress. America dies. Obama is poison & persona non-grata for 20 years regardless.
Rattlesnake and ILC:
The best-case scenario is Jindal for VP. As much as I adore Paul Ryan and his dreamy blue eyes…er, ummm.. his insanely bright mind, Jindal is a good policy wonk and would do well as Mitt’s attack dog. Much better than “Plugs” Biden. But Paul Ryan is much too valuable in the House, and as much as I love him, I think that’s where he can do the most for the tea party/conservative cause and for bringing some long overdue fiscal discipline to Congress.
Just my $.02 worth. Discuss.
I agree that Bobby Jindal would be a fine choice as well. I hope it is either Jindal or Ryan, but I doubt it will be. It’ll probably be Rob Portman or something…
I’m sensing a pattern here…
I admit, part of the reason I want Romney to pick Paul Ryan is so I get to look at him more. But that is really a very small part of it (I swear). 🙂