Official Romney for President Exploratory Committee Thread

[LA Ute]

Romney interview on Today:

http://bit.ly/l1qstC

I think ox's criticisms of Mitt's latest reading were out of context.

[oxcoug]

Romney defectors.

Katie McBreen? Jill Latham?

[dabrockster]

Katie McBreen? Jill Latham?

I sure hope Romney can find equal or better replacements of those two...

[Surfah]

Romney bringing it pretty strong in his announcement. I liked it.

[San Juan Sun]

This certainly isn't my analysis, as I'v read it a few places recently, but Romney has a good chance at beating Obama if he gets the GOP nomination. The 2010 census switched 15 electoral votes to states that McCain won. Also, Obama will struggle to keep several of the purple states he won in 2008, for example Nevada and Florida. If Romney wins those (hello Rubio VP?) and wins only what McCain won in 2008, he'll be the next president.

It's the state polls that are huge in this race, not the national ones.

[oxcoug]

This certainly isn't my analysis, as I'v read it a few places recently, but Romney has a good chance at beating Obama if he gets the GOP nomination. The 2010 census switched 15 electoral votes to states that McCain won. Also, Obama will struggle to keep several of the purple states he won in 2008, for example Nevada and Florida. If Romney wins those (hello Rubio VP?) and wins only what McCain won in 2008, he'll be the next president.

It's the state polls that are huge in this race, not the national ones.

I totally buy that Romney cld win the general esp if the economy continues to suck.

I'm more bearish on his chances in the primary.

I also think that if he got out of the primary and could stop worrying and being insecure about sniping on his flanks in his own party that he'd get more comfortable in his role and the Romney that people close to him know and appreciate would surface more in public.

[San Juan Sun]

I'm more bearish on his chances in the primary.

I also think that if he got out of the primary and could stop worrying and being insecure about sniping on his flanks in his own party that he'd get more comfortable in his role and the Romney that people close to him know and appreciate would surface more in public.

He needs to do exactly what he did in today's speech: hammer Obama, focus on the economy (that's where he's credible), and ignore the other GOP candidates.

Oh, and he needs to quit reading/talking about reading Twilight books.

[Eddie]

He needs to do exactly what he did in today's speech: hammer Obama, focus on the economy (that's where he's credible), and ignore the other GOP candidates.

Oh, and he needs to quit reading/talking about reading Twilight books.

I talked to a couple of folks today who listened to his announcement. They were less than impressed - saying that they'd much rather he talk about what he would do differently to fix things rather than just saying Obama is bad.

Their opinion is that just saying Obama is bad, doesn't mean Romney would be good.

But take this with a grain of salt - these were Democrats talking.

From my own perspective - I get tired of the mudslinging myself and don't necessarily disagree with what they had to say. I get tired of the finger pointing and bad mouthing. Don't just tell me what a screwup the other guy is - tell me how you would fix his screwups.


Finally - I say talk all you want about Twighlight. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that more women vote than men - overall. If talking Twighlight gets you in their good graces - why not? It has a secondary bonus of being a book written by an LDS woman. So the women who are freaked out about the possibility of an LDS president can make the association with the book they like and reach the conclusion that maybe an LDS president wouldn't be all bad. After all - that one LDS woman wrote a great book.

All he needs to do next is tell everyone how much he loves and admires Oprah - and he's got the women vote wrapped up without ever having to kiss a baby.

[San Juan Sun]

I talked to a couple of folks today who listened to his announcement. They were less than impressed - saying that they'd much rather he talk about what he would do differently to fix things rather than just saying Obama is bad.

Their opinion is that just saying Obama is bad, doesn't mean Romney would be good.

But take this with a grain of salt - these were Democrats talking.

Bingo.

From my own perspective - I get tired of the mudslinging myself and don't necessarily disagree with what they had to say. I get tired of the finger pointing and bad mouthing. Don't just tell me what a screwup the other guy is - tell me how you would fix his screwups.

Did you listen to his entire speech? Repeal of ObamaCare? Balanced budget capped at 20% of GDP? If I gave the impression that all Romney did was talk about how bad Obama has been, I apologize, because that wasn't my intent.

I feel (like many others) that 2012 will be a referendum on Obama, and by focusing on that (and ignoring Palin/Paul/Cain/Bachman/Santorum etc.) he'll draw attention to his assets. He lost in 2008 because he tried to flank McCain to the right, and seemed insincere to social conservatives. His strategy to win didn't play to his strengths. Sort of like running up the middle three times with a minute an a half left while your frshman QB is throing the ball well against Utah. Romeny's FG got blocked because he go away from being Romney.

Finally - I say talk all you want about Twighlight. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that more women vote than men - overall. If talking Twighlight gets you in their good graces - why not? It has a secondary bonus of being a book written by an LDS woman. So the women who are freaked out about the possibility of an LDS president can make the association with the book they like and reach the conclusion that maybe an LDS president wouldn't be all bad. After all - that one LDS woman wrote a great book.

All he needs to do next is tell everyone how much he loves and admires Oprah - and he's got the women vote wrapped up without ever having to kiss a baby.

I don't think women will vote for him beause he read Twiglight. Pre-teen girls might, but they're too young to vote.

[Eddie]

Did you listen to his entire speech? Repeal of ObamaCare? Balanced budget capped at 20% of GDP? If I gave the impression that all Romney did was talk about how bad Obama has been, I apologize, because that wasn't my intent....

I didn't hear any of it. We happened to be at lunch and one of them - unsolicited - said she had heard the announcement and was disappointed that Romney focused so much on Obama instead of on what he would do. But she didn't give any details as you have.

Honestly - I don't mind some discussion on what Obama has done wrong so long as it is accompanied by what he would do to fix it. What will it take to make things right. I agree that the election will be about Obama. But just telling folks what a screwup he is could just make some folks who voted for him defensive. I tire of the political finger pointing of what the other side has done to screw up without any ideas for what to do instead.

I like the idea of pointing out the broken promises and screw ups - so long as they are accompanied by ideas.

I don't think women will vote for him beause he read Twiglight. Pre-teen girls might, but they're too young to vote.

I didn't think I needed to add TIC to this. Particularly when I made the LDS connection and added Oprah to the mix.

That said - I don't think it hurts a politician to be "regular" in some regards. Reading a "regular" novel now and then rather than just the NYT or WP.

[Shaka]

I've heard that there were differences in Romney's health care plan and what was ultimately passed. Can anyone point out what those are?

[LA Ute]

I don't think women will vote for him because he read Twilight. Pre-teen girls might, but they're too young to vote.

In the Today interview in question he named 3 books he's read in the last couple of months:

• The Rule of Nine (a Steve Martini detective novel he says he read for fun)
• Decision Points (the G.W. Bush memoir)
• Twilight (because of his granddaughter)

Romney did major in English at BYU, so we know he has a Stanford-Harvard-Yale level foundation in literature.

[LA Ute]

I've heard that there were differences in Romney's health care plan and what was ultimately passed. Can anyone point out what those are?

You'll learn more than you probably want to know here and here. (The New Yorker piece is subscriber-only.)

[Surfah]

Romney did major in English at BYU, so we know he has a Stanford-Harvard-Yale level foundation in literature.

Watch it bud.

[LA Ute]

Watch it bud.

Can't you take a compliment?