Why Mitt Romney Will Prove To Be a Feeble Presidential Nominee [View all]

[DCBob]

From the Daily Beast..

This weekend, social conservative leaders from around the country are gathering in Texas (where else?) to see if they can coalesce around a Mitt Romney alternative. That will wrap up Saturday. The next day, the Tea Party groups of South Carolina will convene in Myrtle Beach to, uh, see if they can coalesce around a Mitt Romney alternative. A week ago, all these people seemed like cranky sore losers. They’re still probably cranky sore losers, but one thing has changed: now that Romney is known as the King of Bain, their reservations about his electability don’t seem quite as crazy. In fact, they’re not crazy at all, because Romney is a stunningly weak candidate.

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Romney’s argument, of course, is that he has the know-how to fix the economy and put people to work. But as more and more people learn about what Bain did in private equity—the story will fade a bit now, but return with a roar this summer and fall—more and more people will come to realize the truth of the matter, which is that Bain wasn’t about creating jobs, it was about making investors who were usually already rich even richer. Jobs were sometimes created as a side effect, and they were sometimes destroyed as a side effect. But jobs were an ancillary consideration. Profit—for shareholders, yes, but mostly for Bain—was the idea.

-snip-

Is this really the man to make the case to middle America that he is their rescuer? It’s a joke. What Romney is depending on—the only thing that can elect him, really, along with I suppose a terrorist attack or some unforeseeable revelation or scandal—is a lousy economy. That can maybe elect him.

But let me pose this question. What if the economy is in pretty decent shape by the fall? The creation of 200,000 private-sector jobs in December is nothing to scoff at. In fact, Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, emailed me Monday morning in response to my question about the unemployment rate in this election year to say: “Based on the growth in the adult population, employment levels in Dec. 2011, and a couple of alternative assumptions about how fast the labor force will grow over the next 10 months, it appears to me than employment growth will have to average 155,000 to 170,000 over the next 10 months to hit” a jobless rate by Election Day of 8 percent. He cautions that the labor force participation rate (LFPR, explained here) could affect that a bit, requiring a somewhat higher number. Fair enough. But Burtless also told me in an earlier conversation that the LFPR rose over the last quarter of 2011, meaning more people participated in the work force and looked for jobs—which in turn means that “yeah, but people are taking themselves out of the labor market” is slowly becoming a smaller and smaller asterisk.

more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/15/why-mitt-romney-will-prove-to-be-a-feeble-presidential-nominee.html.html

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I think Romney is clearly beatable if things stay about where they are today. Romney is predictable, consistent and boring. I am sure the Obama campaign already has a detailed batlle plan to defeat him. Even if the polls have Romney failrly high now.. that will go down as the campaign heats up and the focus goes on the two candidates and the attack ads start. Romney will likely buckle under the pressure and provide some juicy material for SNL skits. Cant wait for those!

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Added graph to show Romney's approval ratings vs Obama -- also from TDB..

As Republicans appear to settle on Mitt Romney as their standard-bearer, talk online about the presumptive nominee is becoming more negative.

more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/12/election-oracle-romney-trails-obama.html