Various polls are now saying Willard "the Mitt" Romney is losing ground in the few critical up-for-grab states that are going to decide who will be our next President. Sure, there are numerous things that could turn his campaign around, but as I see it, they are all outside his control.
Brick Obama could have a brain fart during the debates, but I think he's too smart for that. Israel could turn Tehran into a smoking hole, causing them to close the Strait of Hormuz. Gas goes up to $8 a gallon, and Obama could be sending out resumes. Who knows? Unemployment could take a huge leap up, but with holiday hiring now kicking off, that doesn't seem likely.
So where did Romney go wrong? As I've said for months, most Americans don't want an "extreme" candidate from either end of the spectrum. Remember the extremely liberal Democratic Party of the 1980's? The Republican's ultra-conservative Tea Party of today is that far to the right. Many middle-class mature voters are turned off by those types. Why didn't Mitt move towards the center?
Instead he picked lightning rod Paul Ryan for a running mate, IMO a bad mistake. Seniors see him as the guy who's gonna mess with their Medicare and Social Security. Even though Ryan said nothing for them would change, seniors don't believe him. It's sort of like how, when one company buys another, they always say, "No operational changes are expected."
Yeah, right. Six months later divisions have been sold-off, pensions and health care have been overhauled for the worse, and a few more pink slips are passed out every Friday. That's how many seniors see Paul Ryan. And just coincidentally, battle-ground states Ohio and Florida are loaded with seniors.
And the "47%" quip, the "my wife has two Cadillacs", and the "I don't know anything about NASCAR but several of my friends own teams" hasn't exactly made folks want to invite Mitt and Ann over for hot dogs and a friendly game of backyard horse shoes. There's just no "warm fuzzy".
Nope, I don't think Mitt Romney has enough time left to distance himself from the Tea Party "Young Guns" and reinvent himself as a moderate (that he probably really is). I guess we can read the expert's election post mortem three months from now and see if my analysis was on target or not. One thing no one can argue with is this has been a ridiculously expensive, nasty election. Can you imagine the free-for-all in 2016?
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