A short history of Mitt Romney's "It's over-ness"

With today's news of a lower unemployment rate, more than a few pundits will spend this day pondering its newsy benefit to Obama, and some will predict that this one little number--7.8--has, probably, sealed Romney's fate. Some may even boldly declare, It's over.

It is, of course, over. But here's what most professional pundits have never been able to comprehend:

It was over when Romney chose the radically right, Randian Ryan as his running mate. It was over when Romney failed to reboot, to "re-etch," after the GOP primaries. It was over when Romney chased the nomination through farther and farther right-wing rhetoric during the primaries. It was over when Romney began his far-rightward drift, which soon became a far-rightward gush, after his 2008 meltdown. It was over when Romney determined he could run for the U.S. Senate as one man and run for the statehouse as another man and then run for the White House as yet another man. It was all over when the youthful Mitt Romney gazed self-adoringly into a mirror and said, "I'm going to be a success--a greater success than my father--no matter what it takes."

Comments

[japa21]

"It was all over when the youthful Mitt Romney gazed self-adoringly into a mirror and said, "I'm going to be a success--a greater success than my father--no matter what it takes." '

This is, quite simply, a mark of an individual who has no real confidence that who or what he genuinely is is good enough. Or has no real sense of who or what he is.

He, himself is not good enough to be a success. He must, instead, create images of himself to be good enough for others to accept him.

It isn't simply, that his core essence is that of a bullying, amoral individual. It is that, at some point in time, he looked at his core essence, realized that, in his mind, it wasn't good enough, and discarded it. In doing so, he gave away any real semblence of having a core essence and became, as we have discussed here in the past, a hollow man.

Whether or not he is, in fact, a sociopath, or has some other psychological illness (aspergers comes to mind) I am not in a position to judge, but it is possible that he realized early on that he could not ever, by being himself, match or better his father.

His ability to camoflage himself, which I believe he considers to be his strength, in fact is his weakness.

[Robert Lipscomb]

"... and gosh darn it, people like me."

[Dave P]

I feel confident that what we saw Wednesday was the beginning of a political version of the Battle of Cannae.

At Cannae in 216 B.C.E., Hannibal let eight Roman legions (about 40,000 soldiers) advance through the center of his lines. While the Romans deluded themselves into believing they had routed the Carthaginians, Hannibal's cavalry and infantry executed a perfect double envelopment around the flanks. Hannibal trapped the legions in such a tight encirclement that the Romans didn't even have room to swing their weapons.

At Wednesday's debate, Obama stepped aside and let Romney advance uncomprehendingly through the center of the forensic battlelines. Now Obama and his campaign team will close the pincers. Romney is trapped, with no room to maneuver. The next 30 days will be the equivalent of the Carthaginians slicing and dicing the Romans until the last man in the middle has expired.

Romney didn't just lie; he directly contradicted himself on issue after issue. Lies can be hard to discredit, but contradictions are easy to demonstrate. Romney gave Obama's campaign a month's worth of ammunition. He has no room to maneuver except to contradict himself yet again, which is another way of saying he has no room to maneuver.

The amped-up, frenetic, bullying huckster got punked by No Drama Obama.

[Turgidson]

^ I'm not sure Obama went into the debate with this plan in mind, but I do think he and his team are smart enough to realize that Romney's complete makeover gives them a chance to pound him, yet again, how much of a mendacious twit Romney is. And they already have ads on it, and Obama worked it into his stump speech the very next day.

At worst, they're making lemonade out of debate lemons. Which, considering how far ahead Obama was going in (and still appears to be on early returns), is probably enough.

[Robert Lipscomb]

Obama repeatedly challenged some of Romney's lies, only to have him stand there and repeat the lie.

My question to those who complain Obama was not forceful enough is, "What was he supposed to do? Pull ou a gun and pistol whip Romney into confessing the truth?"

Obama gave a rather weak performance, but it was just that - a performance. Some scream, "But he had 70 million people watching!" WTF? He has been presidentfor four years. people know who he is and what he is about and what he stands for and what he wants.

there are much better ways to prove Romney a friggin' liar than having the POTUS scream at him during a pissing contest - rather than presenting a reasonable alternative.

[shsavage]

Spot on, Dave P. It was a Rope-a-Dope.

[thecommodore]

I sure hope you all are right. While Obama has come out swinging since the debate, some polls sbow a bounce of some sort for Romney. Maybe the job numbers will help blunt any Romney surge, but Obama needs to stay on the offensive every day until Nov. 6.

Maybe I'm being melodramatic, but that Lebron James in the 2011.Finals impersonation
scared the hell out of me.