Bopp’s unseemly online tantrums cast unpleasant light on another Romney supporter, Prof. Mary Ann Glendon—how Romney is killing the pro-life movement

October 30, 2007 in 2008, campaign communications, campaign communiques, campaign literature, election 2008, Evangelicals, GOP, incompetence, media, mitt romney, policy, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abortion, american spectator, AmSpec, bishop o'malley, Brownback, hatred, james bopp, negative attacks, negative campaigning, negativity, out-of-control Romney supporters, outrage, pontifical academy for the sciences, pro-life, pro-life movement, Prof. Mary Ann Glendon, See of Rome, tantrum, tantrums, the prowler, Throne of St. Peter, U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, vatican, when Romney supporters attack

“Mitt Romney’s paid-for social conservative adviser James Bopp has been posting on conservative websites attempting to clarify his attacks on Sen. Sam Brownback after Brownback held a courtesy meeting with pro-choice Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani,” writes AmSpec’s Prowler in a post titled Bopp’s Blowup

We also vary and expand on the theme of Bopp’s blowup:

• eyeon08.com: “NRLC disavows Bopp’s Brownback statements”
• Romney’s James Bopp “lashes out at Brownback for Pro-Rudy comments,” promises to vote for Giuliani in the general election—say what?

Back to The Prowler:

… “If it were a one-time thing, you could understand, but Romney’s people have been attacking Brownback for months,” says the longtime pro-lifer. “And we kept hearing over the weekend that Jim [Bopp] and Brownback people were still going at it in private email exchanges. He should have just apologized to Brownback and moved on.”

Bopp’s blowup may also have the effect of putting an unpleasant spotlight on another Romney supporter, Prof. Mary Ann Glendon, who is expected to be nominated by President Bush as the next U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Glendon, who is currently the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University, serves as a legal adviser to Romney. She has long been considered one of the nation’s most impressive legal minds on life and scientific and medical ethics issues, as well as a high-profile pro-life feminist. She was appointed head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for the Sciences in 2004, a post she might have to step away from if she were confirmed.

However, Bopp’s attacks on Brownback have now raised questions about Glendon, her role with the Romney campaign and whether Glendon’s own bishop in Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, would be wholly supportive of her nomination.

Glendon was conspicuously absent from O’Malley’s Red Mass earlier this month, where Brownback was the keynote speaker, and where O’Malley announced, “There is no other presidential candidate in the U.S. today that more reflects Catholic social doctrine as you do.”

All of the infighting and ugliness has some wondering if there isn’t more at play here than mere politics. “The divisiveness and the way people are acting make you think there is something much darker afoot. Christians should not be doing this to each other, yet it seems that they will ruin decade-old friendships and tear people down,” says the longtime pro-life activist. “It’s almost Biblical” … etc., etc.

Conclusion: Romney’s grim negativity and constant attacks are taking their toll on friends and foes alike.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

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McLaughlin of Redstate on Romney: Americans hate phonies

October 10, 2007 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign literature, campaign management, centrism, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, republicans, rhetoric, romney, triumph of reason
Tags: Bill Clinton, Brownback, Dan McLaughlin, false, Giuliani, Huckabee, Jonah Goldberg, McCain, phoney, redstate

… “This is admittedly subjective, but Jonah Goldberg aptly summarized the way Romney often comes off in public by describing [Romney’s] demeanor as, ‘What Do I Have to Do To Put You In This BMW Today?'” writes the estimable Dan McLaughlin in a not-to-be-missed Redstate post titled The Trouble With Mitt Romney (Part 1 of 5)

I’ll discuss the specifics in more detail later, but the broader issue is that Romney seems unconvincing as the conservative he is running as; his calculations seem too close to the surface.

When the race kicked off, with Rudy and McCain as the frontrunners and the second tier filled with unknowns and/or candidates with their own issues with the base (e.g., Huckabee on taxes, Brownback to some extent on immigration), there was an opportunity for a candidate to build a market niche as the sane, electable conservative. Romney, to the credit of his business instincts, jumped on that opportunity like a starving man on a sandwich. The problem is that that posture is just not consistent with Romney’s history of campaigning and governing as a moderate, pragmatic, non-ideological Northeastern Republican, and specifically with numerous stands he has taken in the very recent past. Now, a good businessman, or even a candidate running principally as a competent technocrat, can get away with running on what the public wants today rather than on principles. But Romney is running a fundamentally ideological campaign, and he is doing so all too transparently as a businessman pursuing an underserved market rather than as a true believer.

Romney’s air of slickness and phoniness manifests itself in a number of specific ways I will get into later in this series, but the overall effect is an even more pronounced than usual (for a politician) tendency to leave people feeling like he will say anything to get elected. Democrats have, justly, suffered for that perception in the last two presidential elections, and they are almost certainly nominating a candidate who is legendarily calculating (Bill Clinton, by contrast, was a master at faking sincerity; but Romney, like so many others in politics, lacks Clinton’s talents in this regard and would do well not to try to imitate him). Republicans, having successfully and appropriately attacked Gore and Kerry and most likely Hillary as well on this basis, cannot afford to run a candidate who comes off as a phony … more [Emphasis ours]

Question: Does anyone like phonies?

Excellent metaphor: Romney as a “businessman pursuing an underserved market.”

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

FreeRepublicans.com: Romney flatly rejected by Evangelicals at Ames; Brownback and Huckabee’s collective totals exceed Romney’s

August 12, 2007 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign management, conservatism, election, election 2008, Iowa, mitt romney, polls, republicans, romney
Tags: Ames, Brownback, Huckabee

Writes the estimable author of FreeRepublican.com:

With Brownback and Huckabee being the obvious evangelical picks, it should be noted that their collective total is 4,779 – which exceeds Romney’s.

Most had wondered when the evangelicals would revolt against the Romney, Giuliani, McCain clan … more

We predicted this. Please see:

• Romney courts Dobson, fails miserably to persuade
• Romney will fool some, but not all
• Romney fails to persaude pro-life constituency

Conclusion from Ames: the Romney electoral von Schlieffen Plan is in tatters. Romney’s right flank remains woefully insecure.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Bandy: Romney not connecting with SC GOP voters

August 6, 2007 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign management, election, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, polls, republicans, romney, strategy, the dark soul of Mitt Romney
Tags: Brownback, Florida, South Carolina

“Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney holds a clear lead over his GOP rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire. But for some reason, Romney hasn’t been able to connect with S.C. voters — a key primary state in Romney’s bid to gain his party’s nomination,” reports the estimable Lee Bandy writing for The State.

The Palmetto Scoop reprises and rejoins the Bandy story adding:

And Romney could really suffer if rival Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) continues to chip away at him in South Carolina with the same veracity as in Iowa. With the crucial Ames straw poll less than a week away, the Kansas senator Monday stepped-up the attacks by releasing a YouTube video calling on the former-Mass. governor to “face the facts in the automated phone calls that Brownback’s campaign has made to Iowa voters.

If Brownback’s tactics work and he finishes second in the Ames straw poll – which is a strong possibility with both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain not taking part – he will be thrust into the “top-tier” and could bring the strategy to South Carolina where he would inflict similar damage … more

Please also see:

• Youngman: Romney campaign stalls in Fla
• Romney’s massive media expenditures less and less effective; more on Romney and the law of diminishing marginal returns on investment

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

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