why did the gop pick romney?
By lilwonders
@lilwonders456 (8214)
United States
September 24, 2012 11:10am CST
The gop keeps saying this is the most important election of our life time. That beating Obama in the general was their top concern. Well then I want to know who romney won the primary then. In the wide field of republican primary they picked one of the weakest candidates that was not likely to pull in swing votes or independents. The party needs those people to win...yet they picked one f the least appealing candidates to try to pull these votes in. It would seem to me if beating Obama was their top concern they would have picked a candidate that independents would have flocked to. Polls during the primary showed how each republican candidate would stack up to Obama, so its not like they did not know. Just my two cents. What is your take on it?
4 people like this
7 responses
@TheMetallion (1834)
• United States
24 Sep 12
In all fairness, they did pick the least terrible candidate they had.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
24 Sep 12
I disagree. I can think of a couple of them that would have been a more viable choice than Mittens.
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
11 Oct 12
To me he's the best pick for turning the u.s. economy around. He's not as small government minded as I'd like! But he's got very good business/economic sense and I think that's what's most needed. Perhaps the GOP is thinking along those lines..
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
11 Oct 12
Oh, I guess I already answered three weeks ago! I was thinking I hadn't seen you for a while, I'm really getting forgetful some days!
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
24 Sep 12
I know you're a big Ron Paul supporter, and I support him too in many of his positions. But not all of them. And although some of the positions he holds might draw some independents, some of his positions- like his foreign policy stances - would not appeal to the GOP base and in my opinion, could be dangerous to execute.
The other candidates were even more polarizing, I think. Romney is religious, but on social issues he is actually much more moderate than most of the rest of the pack that ran along with him. Huntsman was suspect simply because the left seemed to like him best. Santorum and Bachmann would have endured a worse onslaught from the media than Romney has.
On the other hand, Romney has been sounding more and more conservative since he discovered that it wasn't losing him votes.
The bottom line is that although he might not be everyone's ideal candidate, he does think of himself as an American and does believe in those core American values. Obama will turn the country into something unrecognizable while starting the third world war in the Middle East. We can't allow that. Defeating Obama is more important that differences on some issues with the GOP nominee. We need to stop the bleeding. Later, we can change the bandage if this one isn't as effective as we'd like it to be.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
24 Sep 12
This wasn't about the gop and its issue with unity. It is about independent votes and how the gop will pull those votes in. He is trailing Obama on independent voters by 11% right now.
@dark_joev (3034)
• United States
25 Sep 12
Because when given the Choice between Romney or Paul the establishment within the Republican Party hates Paul and everything he stands for so there was no way in Hell even if we had an Blue Moon or Cold day in hell they would let Ron Paul be their Candidate of choice.
I mean they can control Romney in the very off chance he wins. I mean he is getting killed by the internet right now and well everyone here should know you can't win when the Internet goes after you as hard as they are going after Romney.
The Establishment Picked him and the Delegates didn't get an say in it as the decision was scripted to say that the rule changes passed with more "Yays"han "Nays" so the Republican Members didn't actually pick him in that they took Ron Paul off the listing because they didn't want to risk Ron Paul actually winning or tying it up causing the Party to look like it wasn't pre unified behind an candidate. When you have to cheat to get to be the pick of the Party you are already going to doom yourself and the Party you represent to being the most likely to collapse which is the good news out of this the Republican Party isn't the GOP anymore they aren't united anymore they are going to be so divided by 2014 they will likely fade into being two different parties. Or it will fade into being an third party.
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
25 Sep 12
It's about more than Ron Paul. The GOP has a bigger problem than Ron Paul or Obama.
Their own viable as a party. There is no unity in the party. There are several different factions within the party and they all hate each other to differing degrees. The GOP needed to come out of the convention strong, excited and united. A lot in the GOP are tolerating Romney. They will vote for him. But they are not real thrilled with it. What the party needed was a candidate that could unite the party and energize it. McCain failed to do that and lost the election. Romney is losing ground in battle ground states and is going to have to come up with a game changer fast or he is going to lose this election. An energized united party translates into more campaign donations and volunteers. Volunteers willing to spend hours canvassing, find those undecided voters and turn them into romney votes. that doesnt happen in online chatrooms. that happens knocking on doors and talking to people face to face.
Let the GOP lose a couple more general elections and they face real viablility issues. They need someone to pull the party together and stop all the in-fighting.They need to go back to the big tent. But the neocons do not want a big tent.
For the record if Ron Paul has won the primary he would not have been the great uniter either for the gop. He would have had tons of volunteers from all his followers...but the neocons would never have embraced him. The party status quo had to much to lose (power and money) if ron paul won.
You are right about a split. I see a lot of the libertarian leaning republicans leaving the party. They have been treated like dirty by the GOP for years and they have made it very clear they don't want us in the party. Going as far as physical violence in some cases. Add to that breaking rules, changing rules and doing anything they could to force them out...well we have NO reason to stay or support the party. Which is dumb on the GOPs part. Like it or not a large part of the next generation is more libertarian leaning.Either the GOP can embrace them or lose them. If GOP doesnt give them a real seat at the table they will get fed up and leave the party for a third party or leave being politically active all together. Neither translates into votes for the GOP. The gop is imploding and they only have themselves to blame.
@prospectboy (754)
• United States
27 Sep 12
I've wondered the same thing myself. I'm not a Republican, nor am I a fan of Romney. However, I can say for sure that he is definitely a weak candidate. He is talking himself out of an already slim chance of winning the election. He portrays that out of touch image with some of his comments. People obviously don't trust him. Look how long it took him to release his tax forms. Besides Ron Paul, I think the entire field of Republicans were weak candidates. I know that many people think that Ron Paul is crazy with some of his views, but he makes a lot more sense than the average politician. The Republican party needs to change up their message, and look to find future candidates that people feel understand them.
@mariaperalta (19073)
• Mexico
25 Sep 12
Hes called the best of rest. Who would have been better?? As in the past elections the best candidates are running. Wit in 4 more years when Mrs Clinton runs for us president.
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
25 Sep 12
That is a good question. I think that it was a matter of the length of time that he was running for president, and the fact that no one else really challenged him. As we all remember during the primary, the base was going after everyone and anyone to run, but they were left with Mitt. He was basically the last guy standing, for better or worse.
