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The GOP's inability to multitask on different needs of the nation's population is really starting to kill their hold on things.

"Boring, stuffy, old white guys" are all the GOP can put up while keeping their centrist constituency happy.

Their centrist constituency would vote for a short guy with a Charlie Chaplin mustache and delusions of grandeur so long as he had an R by his name. Same way most of the democrats core constituency would vote for Marx so long as he had that all important D. Huge chunks of the electorate are already sewn up before the election even starts. The whole fight is over that 10 to 15% in the middle. Leave your PACs to do the job of reminding your core that if the people who hate America elect the other guy he'll come eat your babies, rape your wives, and burn your houses down while a more electable and interesting candidate appeals to the middle.

Romney wasn't a washout for it, at least not right away. In fact, his being an aisle hopper could really have been helpful for the GOP

Possibly, but the problem is that they flat out ran from his history as govenor. They loved to talk about the Olympics, his business experience, and then just shut right up about his history as govenor in an effort to appeal to the "base" by swinging hard right. If they'd stayed the course and emphasized what he'd done with the right spin it could have defused a lot of accusations of flip flopping. Hell that was probably his greatest problem and one of the greatest problems Republicans have had as of late. Instead of trying to pull the party towards the center and attract that important 10 to 15% in the middle they run to the right as hard as the can to "shore up the base". When you do that with a centrist (how do you think a Republican got elected govenor in a blue state in the first place) it just looks like pandering, really blantant pandering.

Well, it was pandering - some of the "Obama" planks that Romney railed against were almost identical to programs which Romney had enacted - proudly, at the time - in Mass. Embracing that would have maybe not changed the outcome, but would have done better in making those undecideds think harder. Unfortunately, it would have run contrary to the Steele-Boehner-Kindjal-Limbaugh-era GOP policy of ignoring the merits of an actual platform, and simply basing a campaign on an anti-Obama strategy.

Oh I know that it was pandering. That's probably my biggest problem with Romney was that he had championed and put in place something very similar to Obamacare, then went on to tell us all how awful it was. Ok, then why did you do something just like it? And everyone knew it. Oddly enough most of the GOP supporters I know just sort of zoned out when I asked them about Romneycare.

I'd be rather afraid if any candidate for any party won an election after having run such a cynical campaign as Romney did.

Tyyr wrote:Oh I know that it was pandering. That's probably my biggest problem with Romney was that he had championed and put in place something very similar to Obamacare, then went on to tell us all how awful it was. Ok, then why did you do something just like it? And everyone knew it. Oddly enough most of the GOP supporters I know just sort of zoned out when I asked them about Romneycare.

The thing is, he didn't even attempt to fake an excuse as to his change of ideology. He quite literally said that oh, now that I'm running for pres and the farther right likes it, that's what ER's are for. Then to go on and say that eliminating capital gains tax will affect everyone equally just as income tax rate cuts would shows either a) an abundance of idiocy, or b) a complete disdain for every single person with two brain cells to rub together who could figure out that this "across the board" cut would heavily benefit the wealthy only.

I actually read a quote from his campaign along the lines of "Romneycare is good for a state because if people like it, they can just move somewhere else. But with Obamacare you don't have the option because it's nationwide."

All of which is to say, "It was good then because it was mine, but it's bad now because it's my opponent's."

Also points to the fact he seems to not realise the other 200 countries in the world.