Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Romney Is A Fuck Up
Earlier this week, the buzz was about how Romney was going to "keep" some parts of health care reform: people were talking about how he would address people with pre-existing conditions to not lose their health insurance. His plan is dumb, but that's something good for him to talk about - it's something that could appeal to a broader demographic than hardcore Republicans. The rest of this week will be about how he's a fucking idiot. People don't care about foreign policy, but Romney's lack of details combined with terrible policies when he says something about them is pretty much the mirror image of his domestic policies. He's a joker when it comes to some of this stuff...
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Apparently, the big takeaway (and wrong) lesson from the 2008 Republican campaign was that foreign policy doesn't win elections. Now they are using any foreign policy situation as a chance to scare and appease the Republican base and completely ignoring moderate, independent voters. I look forward to the debates. I think it will become extremely clear to independents that Romney is completely unprepared and not suited for the Presidency.
ReplyDeleteR & R have the least amount of foreign policy on a presidential ticket going back a very long time.
ReplyDeleteNot sure it's wrong to think foreign policy doesn't matter much. Do you have some particular reason it matters to voters?
I think as a rule, foreign policy is very low on voters' minds. For the past two elections, I don't think that was true. Two of the biggest issues in the 2004 and 2008 elections were Iraq and Afghanistan (obviously, the 2008 economic downturn completely changed the face of that election, but that was late in the game). I believe their foreign policy experience played a large role in both Kerry' and McCain's nominations. It clearly wasn't the only factor or Wesley Clark would have performed much stronger in the primaries.
ReplyDeleteLack of foreign policy experience was also one of the biggest criticisms of Obama. If 9/11 had happened in 2000 instead of 2001, I don't think Bush would have been the party's nominee, as his main push was domestic policy.
"Two of the biggest issues..." I agree they were (and are!) big issues, but do we know how many voters these issues swayed? Foreign policy experience might play a role in getting to the big stage, but is there any proof it makes a sizable difference in general elections?
ReplyDeleteFor 2008, it's hard to tell. An article from February ranked foreign policy very high (http://www.gallup.com/poll/104320/iraq-economy-top-issues-voters.aspx), an article from November, after the election and after the economic downturn started, says foreign policy was a distant second (http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/04/news/economy/election_polls/index.htm). Had the economy taken a turn a few months later, I think the February article would have been more accurate.
ReplyDeleteI can't find data like that for the 2004 election. I've heard pundits say that Bush got a bump because people don't like to change Presidents in the middle of a war, but I don't know how well-founded that claim is. Bush definitely made terrorism a big issue and I'm sure scared voters into voting for him, but I can't find empirical evidence of that.
Finding out what the average voter REALLY votes on would probably be pretty scary...