From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself.Was it arrogance, life in a bubble? Why did Romney wait to write the concession speech till the last minute? He had to know it was possible he would lose in the last days of the campaign. The speech had to be one of the hardest thing he's ever done in his whole easy life.
Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.
"Fiscally conservative," sighed one aide the next day.
"I built it." Yeah, you built it, Mitt, and it all came tumbling down.
H/T to Charles Pierce.
"... his whole easy life" ... yes, Mr. Personal Responsibility and hard work makes everything good likely hasn't had many actually hard days, no minimum wage job leaving bruises and endlessly aching muscles, the every day wear and tear that makes getting to 65 to retire, maybe, an aspiration not a guarantee. The moment I knew for sure the happy couple didn't really know what difficulty is: when Mrs. Romney whined that running is "hard", hard to hear people call her knight a liar, hard to go to maybe one campaign event a day, hard to go to fancy dinners to beg for money ... disconnect from reality? I don't have a word for how extreme their disconnect actually is and their party is now blaming the storm for the loss - hey Pat Robertson folks seeing "signs" in the weather: maybe God doesn't like you, either ... think about it ... emphasis on the think part, please.
ReplyDeleteIf the storm put Obama over the top, perhaps God is trying to tell Pat Robertson and his ilk that she doesn't hate gays.
DeleteHe had to know it was possible he would lose in the last days of the campaign.
ReplyDeleteI disagree.
He surrounded himself with sycophants who all COULD NOT believe the MSM polls because they saw the enthusiastic crowds at the Romney/Ryan rallies those last days. They all drank the same Kool-Aid: They could not believe it was possible to lose.
Paul (A.), I agree. Romney's ignorance was willful, vincible, and...well...just plain stupid. Such arrogant confidence in the face of the reality of the poll numbers is stunning. If the Republican Party continues on the same path, they will die.
DeleteI hope Karl Rove's political consulting business never makes another dime after his colossal assholery during the campaign and his public breakdown on Faux News, but I realize that I'm likely in the realm of wishful thinking.
One difference between you, dear Grandmere, and the Rove's of the world: you KNOW when you're in the realm of wishful thinking - you don't mistake it for reality.
DeleteExactly. Thank you, Genette.
DeleteI am glad that a man with such a disconnect from objective reality is not president.
ReplyDeleteIT, I thought Obama would win, but I sweated until the outcome of the election was official. That's what I don't understand about the Romney people. Someone in the inner circle must have been sweating. Were they afraid to speak?
DeleteIt was The Emperor's New Clothes all over again, except it was the electorate that told the king he was naked whilst his courtiers were telling him what he wanted to hear.
DeleteThe electorate are not children, but they are, for the most part "the help". "The help" stuck it to Romney.
DeleteSometime in my nearly five decades in the business world, I discovered that the executive's principal job is employing people who do their jobs well, eliciting the truth from them on their work, and driving out their fear of reporting unpleasant truths when things go awry. These attributes are not dominant in Gov. Romney, a person too egocentric, even sociopathic, to recognize the value of his supporters. Obama gets emotional thanking his staff; Romney shuts off his staff's credit cards right after he concedes. How characteristic of each of these executives.
ReplyDeleteJust those two incidents are quite revealing of the character of the two men. I've thought borderline sociopath about Romney. Of course, I'm no mental health expert, but something is not quite right there.
Delete...and driving out their fear of reporting unpleasant truths when things go awry.
You were a wise boss Pfalz prophet.
"Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked."
ReplyDeleteOMG --I don't call that fiscally conservative.... that's a whole different name which I will politely call stingy.
Stingy was the word that came to my mind, too, margaret. Not even a ride home. Well, the workers didn't produce a win for Romney, so it was time to discard them as unproductive. How much soul-searching to consider what Romney, the candidate, might have done differently will take place? He was a disaster. It's still amazing to me that he got as many votes as he did. The election should have been a landslide for Obama.
Delete"I LIKE to fire people who provide me services!"
DeleteTHAT was their leader---why would they be in for "rude awakenings"? O_o
"How much soul-searching to consider what Romney, the candidate, might have done differently will take place?"
DeleteProbably very little. The impression I get is of a man who will blame his failures on those aroulnd him; in his head he didn't lose the election, his aides did. He's already proven that he will not tolerate failure by dint of his instant cull of those he sees as having failed him - a technique also favoured by both Hitler and Stalin, although with admittedly far more dire consequences for their Generals than just being cut from the payroll - rather than call everybody together for a de-brief and try to figure out they ALL could have done better.
Stingy is not strong enough. It's actually downright irresponsible along with ungrateful - they were only there for work; I'd think getting home would be covered. And you just can't do that to someone at that time of night. What if they didn't have another option? It's appalling.
DeleteJCF, Romney has made more statements that came back to bite him than any candidate for president in my memory.
DeleteAcolyte of Sagan, I don't see Romney taking any responsibility for his defeat. "The help" failed him.
DeleteAnd I see you've brought us to Godwin's Law.
Sarah, I read somewhere, and I can't remember where now, that some of Romney's lower-level staff members were frantically calling family for help after the credit cards were cancelled.
DeleteI think the reference to people bumped off subordinates who suffered a defeat should have been Hitler, Stalin, and Darth Vader. But at least Vader repented at last.
Delete--Porlock Junior
Et tu, Porlock? Godwin's Law once again applies.
DeleteAh, but Grandmere, Godwin's doesn't come into play when the comparison is a fair one, and since the topic is a power-hungry megalomaniac who demonises large swathes of the population, and drops people as soon as they're of no use to him then it would be intellectually dishonest not to make the comparison.
DeleteWhat's happening? Godwin's Law is supposed to end the thread, and I have two invocations of the law, and the thread goes on. :-)
DeleteThat last line should read "figure out how they..."
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't believe he ever recovered from the dog on the car roof revelation. And I'm only being partially tongue-in-cheek. That level of callous behavior was all I needed to know about the man...not an empathetic bone in his body and a tendency to see "lesser beings" a mere objects.
ReplyDeleteRenz, the dog on top of the car dogged Romney throughout the entire campaign. You may be more than tongue-in-cheek right. He doesn't think much of the 47% of humans either.
DeleteWell the campaign might have been superstitious. To write a concession speech would jinx the campaign.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly they do seem to have had plans to cancel all the credit cards if they lost (or perhaps they were planning to cancel them anyway for the little people)
Erp, I thought the same. Romney and crew feared that writing a concession speech might be akin to conceding defeat before the results were in. I still can't believe they were so confident of winning in the face of the polls that showed otherwise and so completely stunned by the defeat.
DeleteOr else, what it really means is that Mitt Romney doesn't have the class of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who wrote an exemplary and moving statement to be issued if the Normandy landings failed.
DeleteBut somehow no one will be suprised by this conclusion.
--Porlock Junior
Porlock, I've searched and searched, and I find no evidence at all that Romney has class. He's just not a classy guy.
Delete"All blow and show, but no bloody go", as my grandfather used to say about folk of Romney's ilk.
DeleteExactly.
Delete