I think reports of discord within Romney's camp is disinformation

[ChairmanAgnostic]

First of all, I have to admit that if they were true, the many reports (Think Progress, Politico, Huff&PuffPo, NYT) suggesting that there be discord within the highest leaches within Team Romney would be pleasing, amusing, and energizing.

But I cannot believe it. The unemployment rate is high, and ever so slightly decreasing. Gas prices are high, and ever so slightly decreasing, now that all reformulations for Winter are complete. Food prices will be high, given this one in a century drought. People are hurting, the jobs market sucks, and companies are hoarding trillions, without hiring new workers. If it were the fault of Obama, he would be 20-30 points down. Instead, people rightfully blame the person who destroyed our economy, our military, and our reputation globally, one George W. Bush.

I cannot believe that Romney, a guy who has run for this office for six straight years, could concoct a lame, ridiculed, and laughable convention. I would have expected it to be ship shape, tightly organized, and convincing as any Reagan promo piece.

I cannot believe that Romney, a guy who has so many contacts with former US jobs abroad, given that he sent them there, would blow such a lay-up of foreign meat 'n great, to England, to Poland, and to Israel (where is classmate is now Prime Minister). It has to be a set up job, pretending to be inept, incapable, tone-deaf, and insulting to his several hosts.

I cannot believe that a guy who has run for this office for 6 years, didn't figure out a way to clean up his taxes, to deal with his foreign investments in the Caymens and the Swiss banks. I cannot believe that he didn't plan out, to the most incredible detail and degree, proposed tax, regulatory, and spending plans, with information sheets, press briefings, and detailed, factual arguments to support his candidacy.

I cannot believe that a guy who has strived for the presidency for 6 long years, did not spend any time considering which VP nominee would offer him the best benefit across the nation, making a natural match, and exciting the base!

Could it be that Romney is deliberately making like an idiot, attempting to make Obama and his team overconfident, lazy, and smug? COuld this all be a master plan, intending to spring some October surprise on the unsuspecting US voting population, and snatching victory out of the jaws of certain defeat?

Or his is truly such a walking cluster fuck that nothing he does or says can convince people to vote for him.

[global1]

1. I Think You Better Start Believing.....nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. believe me, I was smirking like a chimp when I wrote this.

The billionaires behind Mitt must be getting the dry heaves right about now.

[11 Bravo]

24. It's beginning to sink in that they are pissing away their money on a ...

walking, talking, clusterfuck.

[regnaD kciN]

28. You shouldn't...

However much of a farce his campaign has been so far, the unpleasant truth is that Mittens, even after all this, is only a handful of points behind the President, with almost two months to go. Any significant change -- a monthly jobs report below 50K, turmoil in the Middle East that spikes gas prices, or even just a better GOTV effort by Republicans -- could result in him eking out a narrow victory. The fact is, a campaign run like Robme's should be trailing by double-digits. The fact that it's still so close suggests to me that we'd be better off working for the campaign, and leaving off the pre-mortem post-mortems until Rmoney, politically speaking, is not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead.

[Jennicut]

2. Romney cannot run a campaign very well.

Obama makes it look easy.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. not just "not very well," but

much like the Bears offensive line against Green Bay.

[EC]

23. Obama was a community organizer.

This is what a community organizer does.

[bluestate10]

35. Community Organizers make lasting change out of nothing.

Republicans deride Obama being a community organizer. What republicans don't say is that Obama had choices and chose the harder, nobler path of building other people's lives. Obama's community organizing is a strong advantage, Obama understands how to make something out of absolutely nothing, understands that a person seldom get everything that person wants and understands what true accomplishment is.

[Vincardog]

5. He is truly such a walking cluster fuck that nothing he does or says can convince people to vote for

Him or his failed policies.

[ProSense]

6. Romney Camp Won’t Offer Specifics On New Pledge To Provide Specifics

Romney Camp Won’t Offer Specifics On New Pledge To Provide Specifics

Evan McMorris-Santoro-

Mitt Romney’s campaign promised to unveil more specifics on Romney’s campaign proposals during a conference call with reporters Monday, pushing back on bipartisan criticism that the Republican has yet to say clearly what he’d actually do in office.

But the campaign’s pledge for specifics was lacking new specifics itself — campaign officials instead listed a litany of policy proposals Romney’s already discussed on the campaign trail.


“We are looking forward to this new emphasis and renewed emphasis on why it is electing Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan would result in better, higher take-home pay an more jobs in our economy,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said on the call. He promised new specifics will come in “events and remarks and background papers, surrogate efforts and paid advertising.”

Gillespie pointed to Romney’s scheduled speech at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Monday as evidence of the new focus on specific policy details. In excerpts from the speech, Romney points to several broad policy plans he’s outlined before.

- more -

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/romney-camp-promises-more-specifics-while-offering-no-more-specifics.php

Re-re-re-re-re-re-introducing Mitt Romney. Again. Some more.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/17/1132825/-Re-re-re-re-re-re-introducing-Mitt-Romney-Again-Some-more

Mitt's campaign is flailing.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. Re-re-re-re-re- - and then some more. And he still ends up where he started.

[nc4bo]

13. The new, improved Mitt Romney speaking at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is not to be missed.

Heard a part of it before MSNBC pulled the plug.

Back to his 5-step program for America. We got up to #3. Lots of lies and bullshit, loads actually.

[hifiguy]

7. The Rmoney paople, starting with Mittwit, are incapable

of organizing a two-car funeral on a one-way street even if you spot them the hearse.

They are epic piles of fk up. The Peter Principle at work in all its brutal glory.

[PCIntern]

40. Pretty good...

I hadn't heard that one before.

[immoderate]

8. I vote clusterfuck!

Romney is stupid.*

*A word with no particular meaning, but indicates a fuckup.

--imm

[Blue Meany]

9. Here's the thing, though...

Romney is running the show, and by all accounts doesn't listen to his advisors, except those in his inner circle who have been with him for years and don't know much about political campaigns. He is the fatal flaw of the campaign; all the major screw ups have been his decision.

If you are one of his advisors you have your own career to worry about and you do not want to get blamed for his lousy campaign. I think that is why we are hearing so much about internal conflict: it's between the inner circle and those who know what they are doing (who are doing the leaking).

[Silent3]

10. Even if you have a great "October Surprise" up your sleeve...

...it would be better to launch that surprise from a position of relatively higher strength. It wouldn't make your surprise look better, nor would it make it harder for your opponent to respond to that surprise, to have purposely made yourself look weak and ridiculous before revealing the surprise.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation is probably the correct one.

Which means Mittens' campaign is, indeed, a clusterfuck.

I believe that, because (a) there is little to be gained and much to be lost by disseminating disinformation that the campaign is in disarray. Hasn't his whole premise been that he's a successful businessman who knows how to run things? How could it possibly help him to put out information suggesting otherwise? And anyhow, Obama's team is much too smart to be taken in - they know it could be close and they are not going to get complacent, regardless.

And (b): it is entirely credible that Mittens' campaign really has turned into a goat rodeo because Mittens doesn't understand the difference between running for office and putting together a business, just as he doesn't understand the difference between managing a government and managing a business. Mittens is accustomed to a top-down organization where he's the boss; he knows everything, nobody questions him, and everybody kisses his ass. He doesn't know what to do when outside forces are stronger than he is and he has to answer questions about what he's doing. He's just a big fat wad of ego and entitlement. It was almost inevitable that the campaign would fall apart.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. from your lips to the

ballot box.

[sofa king]

21. Occam didn't work with GWB.

They also were a clusterfuck on the campaign trail, but when it came down to what they really wanted to do, start wars and haul off the accumulated treasure of the middle class, they succeeded perfectly.

They were only incompetent on the issues to which they were indifferent, which admittedly was most of them. But a cabal of idiots wouldn't have been able to make off with everything that we once had. They were evil geniuses at the same time that they were total buffoons.

[Bake]

27. Dubya, at least, was a good campaigner

He came across as a decent person, not a rich elitist snob. His wife was popular and likeable.

Rmoney ... not so much ... on all counts.

Bake

[ChairmanAgnostic]

30. must agree.

I some video of him running in Texas. He was friendly, warm, convincing, funny in a self-depracating way, and he actually seemed informed on the issues he discussed. He was a good campaigner, even though he was clearly lazy and too willing to allow aides (like cheney) take control.

That said, he was a disaster. Romney would be even worse, and I think people know that instinctively.

[hifiguy]

39. The Chimp could make fun of himself

which is possibly the only good thing that can be said about him. Deep down he knew he wasn't very bright. Willard is convinced, deep down, that he is Kolob's gift to the peons and couldn't laugh at himself under any conceivable circumstance.

[WilliamPitt]

15. Believe it.

In no way does this mean the election is in the bag for Obama, but for a campaign as dysfunctional and contradictory as Romney's, I'm actually surprised it took this long for stories like these to start coming out. Only eight Tuesdays until the election.

[thelordofhell]

16. Children of wealth are allowed to fail upwards

And their privileged way of life makes them think they are succeeding

[KansDem]

17. I wondered the same thing...briefly.

Perhaps all this cluster-folly was a shrewd plan to "throw" Obama supporters off kilter. Then, spring a daring campaign strategy that would have them in tatters.

But, then I thought, they aren't smart enough to do this. Besides, they have angered their base and have shown nothing that could be remotely attractive about Romney. We all have seen Romney and we all know "there's no there there."

There are less than two months to go and even FOX News won't be able to save this one. Having said that, let's GOTV!!!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

19. what you said.

[nc4bo]

22. How much can they actually throw us off though?

We've been on top of their lies and bs since day 1 and haven't let up on fact checking and countering their garbage yet.

We've got a heel right on their neck and push down and back every single time they try to rise up. Even our surrogates are on point this time around.

So what else can they possibly do that hasn't been tried already?

[ProSense]

29. That's not shrewd

"Perhaps all this cluster-folly was a shrewd plan to "throw" Obama supporters off kilter."

That's idiotic. Why would Obama supporters who would only exploit such a message, as is currently being done, be thrown "off kilter"?

Mitt hasn't solidfied the Republican base, and that's a fact. He's pandering to wingnuts, and independents aren't out there saying, "you know, this is 'shrewd.'"

Portraying a campaign in disarray is not a smart strategy by any stretch. It's really time to let go of that kind of thinking.

[sofa king]

18. It can be both.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mitt Romney's true expertise is in removing important decisions from the people and awarding those decisions to himself. He's not bound by ethics or conscience, either, so there is no reason to expect him to work within the law.

We would be foolish to have watched Mitt steal the nomination, steal the voice of dissent from the moRons at the convention, and lie about every single important thing in this campaign, and not expect him to have a plan to steal the election itself. That, quite clearly, is his plan. We have only yet to see the details reveal themselves.

But it is equally obvious that Mitt is totally incompetent in a great many ways. He is pathologically dishonest, totally inept at diplomacy, unfamiliar with the details of virtually any issue one cares to name--or unwilling to disclose his familiarity because he wishes to do damaging things. He expresses total indifference to issues which are unprofitable or otherwise not self-rewarding.

In other words, Mitt Romney is exactly like the future Bush Administration was at this point in their own coup: vague, dishonest, unrevealing, dangerously ignorant about the things which they don't care about, and relentlessly intent on pursuing a secret agenda which has no relevance whatsoever to what they're saying and doing on the campaign trail. Then in practice they turned out to be a disastrous combination of stupid and evil all at once.

The results will be the same, too, should disaster befall us this time.

[EC]

20. Or maybe Rmoney never was a competent business man

maybe he made his money on his name and that is all there is to him?

[tjdee]

31. He didn't BUILD companies, he destroyed them.

Heard that on MSNBC today, someone was saying he wasn't a good businessman. He made a lot of money and put deals together. He didn't build companies, he took them apart.

[bluestate10]

36. Romney.

Started Bain Capital only after Bain promised a cover story if Romney failed and that Romney would be taken back at full pay, same position and back pay for the years that Romney would be gone. How many every day people get deals like that in life? Romney was given the best minds from the best schools to do his foot work, Romney had nothing to do but say ok to proposals. Romney, for the first time in his life is dealing with real uncertainty, that isn't working out well for Romney.

[ananda]

25. I can very well believe it.

nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. salon did a nice job of describing the mess that is Team RMoney

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/romney_in_panic_mode/

[DonCoquixote]

32. Here is hoping that the GOP did nto read Sun Tzu

http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/11130

"Appear strong when you are weak, and appear weak when you are strong."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

34. ah, hah! you caught the point behind my post!

[bluestate10]

37. The Obama people should not let down their defenses.

The way to defeat the weak that are trying to look strong or the strong that are trying to look weak is to pound them relentlessly until they surrender.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

38. You make a good point. If you don't kill this snake, it only comes back stronger.

I thought the Neocons were dead. Except they came back as Tea Baggers. Now, I think the Tea Baggers are dead, and would hate for them to be reincarnated as some new and improved GOP.

[bluestate10]

33. Romney is not competent.

When a person is born at the 50 meter marker and has sprinters pushing him to the finish, it is easy for that person to finish well. Romney made lots of money due to family connections, a rich mentor that literally gave Romney a business and top business schools grads that came to work for the money that could be made. With the support that Romney had all his life, success is a given, but not necessarily earned. One has to do nothing more than Romney open his mouth to talk about complex subjects to understand that Romney is nothing but an empty suit.