Althouse: Romney wins 5 primaries.

April 24, 2012

Romney wins 5 primaries.

“To all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I’ve met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you, I have a simple message... Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.”

30 comments:

pm317 said...: “It’s still about the economy…and we’re not stupid”; 4/24/12, 9:05 PM
chickelit said...: It's mourning in the other America; 4/24/12, 9:08 PM
traditionalguy said...: Damn good speech.; 4/24/12, 9:11 PM
D. said...: mittens 2012: at least he's not a communist!; 4/24/12, 9:12 PM
Revenant said...: Ron Paul appears to have won Minnesota and Iowa.; 4/24/12, 9:15 PM
KCFleming said...: How divided are Minnesotans that one party chose libertarian Paul and the other picked socialist Obama?

No middle ground there.; 4/24/12, 9:20 PM
ricpic said...: Jon Lovitz of SNL fame, registered Democrat, just called Obama "a fucking asshole." Nope, ya can't snuff out freedom.; 4/24/12, 9:25 PM
Rose said...: There is HOPE after all.; 4/24/12, 9:31 PM
Robert J. said...: He doesn't have Reagan's delivery, but he's certainly been learning from Reagan's speech writers. Good on him.; 4/24/12, 9:35 PM
harrogate said...: Pogo,

But there's lots of potential middle ground being represented there. What I mean is, between the voters and the values held by those voters, who would support Obama and those who would support Paul in this climate.

We could assume for example that many facets of social conservatism are straight rejected across that ground. There are several other things come to mind.; 4/24/12, 9:35 PM
edutcher said...: Agree with tg and pm.

Very good speech. Nailed it in one place where he promises not to apologize for this country. That will leave a mark.

Love the WaPo trying their best to spread gloom and doom. Whistling past the graveyard is more like it.

He'll have about 900 delegates after tonight and have it wrapped up by the end of May.

PS Santorum finished last in all states, but PA where he's being beaten 3 to 1. Saw that coming.

PPS Hannity showed a clip of Ann Romney from earlier today getting very emotional speaking about the women who have wished her well in her fight against MS and how much she appreciates their thoughts.

She is going to be a grand First Lady.; 4/24/12, 9:41 PM
chickelit said...: @harrogate: it doesn't take a bellwether state to know which way the wind's blowing.; 4/24/12, 9:47 PM
pm317 said...: Turning tables on Obama's fairness argument:

"We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; we will stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next."; 4/24/12, 9:56 PM
Cedarford said...: 5 crushing victories for Romney.

I am also really liking Ann Romney and consider her as high potential to become a wonderful 1st Lady.

Romney is slowly growing into a fine candidate. He is very improved over 2008. His speeches have gotten better. Mitt Romney is a continuous learner.; 4/24/12, 9:56 PM
edutcher said...: On this we agree, Cedar.

Like him or not, the man is smart.; 4/24/12, 10:19 PM
Bender said...: OK, I'm just going to say it -- "Yawn."

No, Romney has not learned to read off the teleprompter any better than he has the last several months, even if whoever puts the words on the teleprompter has found a few better lines for him to read.

But Romney is in big trouble. He does not excite, except to the extent that people force themselves to be excited about him. And it could not come at a worse time.

Given the crap-hole that the country is in, 90 percent of the people should be raging to run Obama out of town on a rail. Even Dems should be ready in mass to dump him (especially if we buy into the argument that the Republicans needed to nominate a moderate like Romney to appeal to them). But, instead, Obama is largely holding on to his base, keeping firm at 50 percent and routinely beating Romney by several points.

That is a problem. It is a problem because it appears that for a large portion of the electorate, the crap-hole that we are in has become the new normal. Instead of outrage at four-dollar a gallon gas, we have mere annoyance. Ditto with unemployment, with sky-high public debt, and so on.

If there were a strong conservative to lead the outrage, it might be a different matter, but with Mild Mitt, Obama has successfully been able to define failure down and people are still willing to vote for him.; 4/24/12, 10:40 PM
Tim said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/24/12, 10:43 PM
Tim said...: For many on the right, he isn't ideal.

But that's no deal breaker (at least for me).

He's FAR better than the alternative.

If you vote for Obama in '12, you are immune to learning.

Or otherwise think multi-generational debt cannibalizing America's future is *exactly* what we need.

Because repealing the "Obama tax cuts for the rich" won't pay the bills.

Won't even come close.; 4/24/12, 10:44 PM
pm317 said...: Yawn! Yeah, this election is all about exciting the conservatives. What is wrong with these people?; 4/24/12, 10:45 PM
Palladian said...: The Benders among us won't be happy unless there's a big papal tiara hovering over the stage at the Republican convention, with San Torum beneath in his halo and hairshirt.; 4/24/12, 11:13 PM
Anonymous said...: He criticized The One, on all the salient points of his failures. He did not "McCain" it tonight.

Game on!; 4/24/12, 11:27 PM
Steve Koch said...: The "unfairness" arguments that Mitt said (as quoted by pm317) really resonate. People really hate to be treated unfairly.; 4/24/12, 11:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Me thinks that the Obama yes men (and unfairly underpaid yes women) are in for a rude awakening.

I'm not sure these youngsters have learned that it is fatal to inhale your own smoke.; 4/24/12, 11:57 PM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: Roy Arvik, formerly a health policy analyst at, you know, Bain Capital said of management consulting, “This is a client-oriented business, so you need to be client-oriented,” Roy explains, which means ensuring that the final product isn’t too upsetting. “You want them to be satisfied with the output.” Romney did that with the Republican electorate.

Perhaps the Chinese have already responded. I was concerned we were going to have a trade war given Romney's position on floating the yuan but the Chinese announced floating it further last week.; 4/25/12, 12:35 AM
FormerlyUnknown said...: Mitt Romney is by no means my ideal candidate. But when I watched Romney’s acceptance speech, the contrast of just hearing him talk without hectoring and scolding this or that segment of the country was downright refreshing.

I think that contrast is not going to do Obama any favors for the next 6 months. Because he has nothing to run on except pointing the finger and saying, “Resent those people over there!” Whether “those people” perhaps deserve some ire is beside the point, politically speaking. The optics are terrible, and the contrast striking.

And the jujitsu of turning the whole unfairness argument back on Obama is brilliant, I must say.; 4/25/12, 12:44 AM
Revenant said...: But Romney is in big trouble. He does not excite

He is, however, more interesting to listen to than your incessant whines about how unexciting he is.

You think he's boring? Fine. Vote for Obama and shut the fuck up.; 4/25/12, 1:44 AM
Palladian said...: Maybe it's just me, but I don't look to politicians for excitement.

I mean, do you really want an exciting president?; 4/25/12, 1:54 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: We could use a president who just fixes a few things and keeps his yap shut. I am tired of hearing about / from the president [I include Bush, Obama, Clinton etc] every stinking day of the year.

I don't need the media to report every time a president flies somewhere, gives a meaningless speech or takes a crap.; 4/25/12, 7:54 AM
Larry J said...: Maybe it's just me, but I don't look to politicians for excitement.

I mean, do you really want an exciting president?

An exciting president brings to mind the cliche ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

The press likes charismatic presidents like JFK, Clinton and Obama. It makes them feel they're part of the cool crowd. As a result, the press looks the other way over scandals and shady behavior. Personally, I prefer someone that the press doesn't trust so they'll actually do their job and report everything. Unfortunately, that only seems to happen when the president is a Republican.

Romney isn't my first choice but I'll gladly vote for him. I was concerned that he wouldn't attack Obama with the intensity he went after other Republicans. It looks like my concerns were groundless, which is good because there's so much about Obama's behavior that's worth attacking. When the Left tried to distract attention from Obama, Team Romney has proven quite adept at throwing it right back inside Team Obama's face. Good. Punch back twice as hard, and if you can get inside your opponent's OODA Loop, they'll be helpless to respond.; 4/25/12, 11:24 AM
Rose said...: Not smart enough to get a good haircut. He still has bad hair.

John Edwards had good hair, we can do without that.; 4/26/12, 12:34 AM