Top Republicans say Romney didn't offer specifics

[Rob H.]

Source: PHILIP ELLIOTT | Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Top Republicans meeting for the first time since Election Day say the party lost its bid to unseat President Barack Obama because nominee Mitt Romney did not respond to criticism strongly enough or outline a specific agenda with a broad appeal.

In conversations at the Republican Governors Association confab in Las Vegas, a half dozen party leaders predicted the GOP will lose again if it keeps running the same playbook based on platitudes in place of detailed policies. Instead, they asserted, the party needs to learn the lessons from its loss, respect voters' savvy and put forward an agenda that appeals beyond the white, male voters who are its base.

...

&quot President Obama's) whole campaign was a fear-and-smear attack to make Romney unacceptable and to blame George Bush for anything that happened while Obama was president," Barbour said. "This was all personal: that Romney is a vulture capitalist who doesn't care about people like you, ships jobs overseas, is a quintessential plutocrat and is married to a known equestrian."

...

The Republican nominee didn't acknowledge any major missteps and said his team had run a superb campaign.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/top-republicans-romney-didnt-offer-specifics-080833236--election.html;_ylt=AjXPmpc_t_X0p85Wj0YEK7xtzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTNnZ2FvOWE4BG1pdAMEcGtnAzBiNzMzNjE5LWQzYmUtMzZmNi1iYTI2LWFkNDljY2U0NmYzNQRwb3MDMwRzZWMDbG5fUG9saXRpY3NfZ2FsBHZlcgM

---

Still blaming the Obama camp for casting Romney in a negative light--even though that's the one thing Mitt seemed able to do quite handily himself.

[jberryhill]

1. "a specific agenda with a broad appeal"

That phrase is awesome.

[heaven05]

9. 2014-2016

their message will be the lipstick and pig routine. They'll have a plan and promises that they think, minorities, women and interested others want to hear. If they win , I guarantee, what they learned from mittshit this election cycle is how they can lie and then flip as soon as they get the office. Guaranteed!

[jberryhill]

17. I must have Petraeus on the brain

I was thinking more along the lines of an appealing broad with a specific agenda.

[heaven05]

35. +100

[ashling]

36. Otherwise known as giving people stuff

lots of stuff







actually, he's the one shoveling [strike through]shit [/strike through], er ... [strike through]stuff [/strike through],er ... malarkey

[no_hypocrisy]

2. "I have a plan . . . . . "

I got so tired of hearing about a theoretical plan that I was sure didn't really exist.

[JHB]

30. Sure it existed. "Cut taxes and wave hands" is a plan...

...it just doesn't do what he tried to claim he intended to do.

[Angry Dragon]

3. It is a poor comment on this country

when pointing out lies and flaws is considered negative

[lalalu]

4. Barbour, Jindal, and Walker

is all they have? Just throw in Jeb Bush to make it more pathetic.

[speedoo]

13. Actually Jindal has been saying a lot of things I agree with.

He has been very specific in pointing out many Romney mistakes. Both in this article and elsewhere.

[lalalu]

15. Jindal is a joke and hypocrite.

His policies are as rightwing as he can get.

[SDjack]

21. Jeb was horrified by the beating that Mitt took. He will look carefully at the DEM

field of candidates before committing to making a run in 2016. Plus, the GOP may not have a base by then.

[denvine]

26. True, Jindal is very right wing.

Everything he does is calculated to set him up as a national candidate. I don't think people are too happy with him in La.

[geek tragedy]

5. Truth stings:

This was all personal: that Romney is a vulture capitalist who doesn't care about people like you, ships jobs overseas, is a quintessential plutocrat and is married to a known equestrian."

\

All proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Rob H.]

16. That's what kills me

They're acting as if the Obama camp was making those things up out of whole cloth when everything Barbour's bent out of shape about is true. The fact that Ann Romney was a "known equestrian" doesn't matter one whit to most people, either, but her attitudes toward others did. It also didn't help matters any that she said, "It’s Mitt’s time. It’s our turn now," among other things.

[SDjack]

22. Is it true that his wife is "a known equestrian"? Does she actually train and ride?

Or, does she just hire-and-fire?

[reformist2]

6. It is true that Romney acted like royalty, expecting to be just handed the crown.

Explain himself? Only the *little* people ever have to explain themselves...

[KansDem]

11. Welcome to DU, BlueManFan!

You've summed up Romney's specifics rather nicely!



[font size="1"](would that be the "Blue Man Group?&quot

[demwing]

28. I agtree, too bad some took offense to the language /nt

[KansDem]

8. So, "Top Republicans" join the majority of Americans...

Welcome to the club, TRs! I'll buy the first round!

[petesan]

10. David Frum summed up Romney's specifics perfectly:

Mitt Romney's message is:

I am going to take away Medicare from everybody under 55, I'm going to cut Medicaid for everybody but about a third, and I'm going to do that to finance a giant tax cut for me and my friends, and the reason I'm doing that is because half the country contribute nothing to the national endeavor.


With specifics like that, I can see why he'd be a little hesitant to trot them out.

[proReality]

12. They just don't get it yet, do they!

How anyone can walk around without brains is beyond me, but they're living proof it's possible.

[BeyondGeography]

14. He only made it closer when he stopped offering specifics

and ran away from all that lovely trickle down conservatism that he pretended to love un order to get the nomination. But, hey, keep thinking that what you're selling isn't shit on a stick to most people.

[DallasNE]

18. Obama Never Called Romney A "Vulture Capitalist"

Wasn't that Rick Perry that made that charge? Barbour should get his facts straight -- oops, he couldn't be a Republican if he did that. I will grant that it was voter savvy that saw through all of the lies Romney constantly made and the big one about Jeep moving all of there production to China turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back with those savvy voters.

[JHB]

31. It was Newt, who spent his congressional carreer protecting Cobb County GA...

...from The People's Republic of Escape From New York.


http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/762089/the_attack_on_romney's_vulture_capitalism%3A_has_newt_torn_a_rift_in_the_gop_universe

[NICO9000]

19. Well, duh!

First he had his 57-point plan that nobody bothered to look at. By the debates, he boiled it down to five "points" though they can barely even be called bullet points, merely topic headings with nothing following them.

I am so glad this asshole has to take his marbles and go home. I've never seen such a liar run for president and I remember Nixon! The one thing I'll give Mittens is that I'm really impressed how he put not one red cent of his money into his campaign. That's a special talent in and of itself.

[jerseyjack]

20. If he had offered specifics, he would have lost by a larger margin.

[FreeBC]

34. Exactly!!!

The problem for republicans is they can't talk specifically about their plans because their plans are horrible. They need to pretend that they are the party of fiscal sanity without exposing the fact that their economic philosophies don't work. They need to try and sell lofty generalizations because the devil is in the details.

[33Greeper]

23. He never showed us the

fugging tax returns, either.

[mikeytherat]

24. Apparently Mr. Barbour has confused President Obama with Newt Gingrich and Sheldon Adelson.

"This was all personal: that Romney is a vulture capitalist who doesn't care about people like you, ships jobs overseas..." All of these Bain "Mitt is a vulture capitalist" memes had been raised...by the GOP! You really should have watched the GOP primaries, Mr. Barbour - you could have witnessed amazing GOP unity. All of the candidates, except Romney, agreed on one thing - Mitt Romney is a dick and would mess up America if elected President. And Haley, you odious fuckstick, I dare you to Google "King of Bain" and watch the video. I double-dog, no, triple-dog dare you.

Yeah, that's what I thought, you coward.

mikey_the_rat

[graegoyle]

25. Everyone says Romney didn't offer specifics

And if he had gone anywhere near the truth with specfics it would have been much worse for him.

[Uben]

27. Hmm? Maybe they shouldn't have nominated a non-specific,vulture capitalist tax evader

Don't know why they're bitchin. They knew exactly what they had nominated. They just failed at selling the lie!

[RC]

29. I know what they need to do for the next election

"...and put forward an agenda that appeals beyond the white, male voters who are its base."
"Mitt Romney did not respond to criticism strongly enough or outline a specific agenda with a broad appeal."

Put Todd Akin in charge of filling in the details with specifics about women issues. He was clear and out spoken this past election.
I hear he is looking for a job now anyway.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. Republicans have to figure out how to talk specifically about issues ...

... without mentioning the word "vagina".

We will create more jobs, except jobs that deal with vaginas, or jobs for people who have a vagina.

We are all about health care, except where it involves vaginas.

etc, etc.

[noiretextatique]

33. keep insulting the voting public, republicons

that "war on women" strategy didn't work out to well, did it?