Why Isn’t Romney Winning?

Republican activists are asking an interesting question, “why isn’t Romney winning?”  One reason is the past history of failed Republican policies which led to the worst economic downturn and the lowest job creation record since the great depression.  While Republicans try to claim that if given a “do over” they will not make the same mistakes as before, all of their policy pronouncements continue to focus on the very things that turned the economy to shit.  Since 1979, the only group of people who have experienced growth in income or wealth has been the top 10%.  When the rich are able to win big tax cuts it leads to underinvestment in infrastructure, education and technology, impeding the engines of growth. Most economists agree on the need for stronger education, better matching of skills with job opportunities, and an effort to overhaul the nation's fiscal policy, including taxes.  The 10 percent, in spite of their wealth, cannot spend enough to create the demand needed to create jobs and turn around the economy.  While federal safety-net and social-insurance programs have helped to keep poverty lower than it would otherwise be. Some 21.4 million Americans would be in poverty were it not for Social Security income, including 14.5 million people over age 65 and others who are on disability insurance.  The share of Americans who don't have health insurance declined in 2011, in part because of rising enrollment in Medicaid, the federal-and-state program for the poor. Programs including food stamps (now known as the SNAP program) and the Earned Income Tax Credit have a significant impact also on keeping those who lost their jobs because of the failure of supply-side economics from living on the streets. Rick Santorum and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, at the Value Voters’ Summit,  used their speeches to paint the 2012 race as a transformational moment in the country's history and insist that the president is turning the nation into a place its founders wouldn't recognize.  In reality, it is Santorum, Cantor, and others on the right who have so bastardized the Founding Fathers that even Ben Franklin would not recognize the Republican re-write of their views. 

As for why Romney is losing, just ask the average woman how she feels about federal, state, and local legislators inserting themselves between a woman and her doctor.  Ask a minority how their interests are being represented by a party that wants to repeal the Dream Act if ever passed by Congress.  Ask African Americans how they feel about electing people who continue to accuse them of being lazy, living off of welfare checks, and imprisoning a significant percentage of their male population.  The Republican party has become a party of rich white men and Mitt Romney exemplifies that vision.  The real question is what reasons is Mitt and other Republicans offering to deserve the votes of Americans.  Not being Obama is not enough.  While it may energized the base, there are not enough voters in the base to win a national election.  Romney was able to buy his win as the Republican nominee, but those who voted for him to win the Republican nomination constitute less than 10% ot the total electorate.  In addition, the only thing Romney can say about winning the Republican nomination is that he was better than the reat of the candidates for the Presidential nomination.  That in itself is not saying much.  A four wheeled race car will usually beat a three wheeled car around the track.

Then there is the Ryan problem.  Americans are tired of being lied to and Ryan may have set a political convention record for the most untrue statements ever made in a single acceptance speech.  To make matters even worse, he lied about his marathon times as well as about being against the stimulus program while writing various agencies for stimulus money for his district.  His hypocrisy regarding Simpson/Bowles was guaranteed not to win him any votes as well.

Why isn’t Romney winning???  It is obvious.  The Romney/Ryan ticket is too fucked up to win a national election.  This has to be the weakest ticket which came from the weakest field of candidates in modern times. Even Rush thinks so!