Friday, March 29, AD 2024 12:56am

When the Man is Right, He is Right

Gaius Gracchus proposed a grain law. The people were delighted with it because it provided an abundance of food without work. The good men, however, fought against it because they thought the masses would be attracted away from hard work and toward idleness, and they saw the state treasury would be exhausted.

Cicero, Speech in Defense of Publius Sestius

Faithful readers of this blog know that I am not a big fan of Romney aka the Weathervane, to say the least, but he is right on target here.  The ever broadening expectation of many in this country for “freebies” from Uncle Sucker is destroying American pride, self-respect and our economy.  Romney’s total rejection of this mentality, as exemplified by the heckler’s demand for “free” contraceptives, impresses me more due to it being impromptu and also being in front of a somewhat hostile college audience.  If he is the nominee, he will need many such moments to attract doubting conservatives to the polls.  Some, like my good friend Jay Anderson of Pro Ecclesia, will not vote for him under any circumstances.  Others can be persuaded.  He has a long way to go to assuage my many doubts about him, and to make my vote for him in November if he is the nominee something other than a purely anti-Obama vote, but this is a start.

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Paul Primavera
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 5:48am

Good response by Romney. Love the Cicero quote.

😀

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 8:18am

Bank on it: He’ll have a different answer once he safely has the nomination and the General Election gets into full swing.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 8:41am

“I’m Mitt Romney, and I approve this message–for the moment.”

Dale Price
Dale Price
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 8:47am

Ok, that was slightly flip. Yeah, it was a good answer, as far as it went. I’m not sure how far it will carry him in the general, which is why, with Jay, I’m skeptical of him taking even this tack after the convention.

It appears he’s going to run on purely economic issues, without acknowledging that we have reached this point because of a crisis of values. And I’m not necessarily referring to religious values, either. Mark Steyn made the point quite well yesterday.

http://www.steynonline.com/4867/weird-politics

Jerry Tidwell
Jerry Tidwell
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 11:03am

The reality is your choices will be stay at home and don’t vote; vote for Romney or vote for Obama. Santorum will not be the nominee. I believe it is incumbent on us to do everything within our power to defeat Obama, even if the nominee is Daffy Duck. This election is for keeps and the most important in our lifetimes.

Jeb Bush just endorsed Romney.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 12:02pm

I’m with JT.

Give the Republic the coup d’grace: stay home or vote third party.

Republican Rome survived about 100 years of “bread and circuses.”

How long will our Republic exist?

Paul D.
Paul D.
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 12:08pm

Careful, Don. A few more of these posts stringed together and you’ll be accused of being a full fledged Romney-ite!

Supporting Romney is kinda like taking out the trash, it stinks but you just gotta do it or you’ll regret it later.

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 12:26pm

“The reality is your choices will be stay at home and don’t vote; vote for Romney or vote for Obama.”

Actually, I’m doing none of the above. I’ll be voting for an acceptable 3rd party candidate, such as Virgil Goode should he win the Constitution Party nomination.

Vote for Mitt Romney and you’ll have proven to the GOP that, no matter what kind of RINO turd sandwich they serve you, you’ll eat it. We already proved that to some extent by voting for John McCain, which is why the GOP didn’t learn their lesson and has given us yet another RINO. But, whatever his numerous faults and departures from the conservative reservation, at least John McCain had an overall conservative record to point to. Romney has no such record, and only decided 5 years ago at the age of 60 that he was suddenly a “conservative”.

Keep voting that way, and keep telling yourself as you yet again have to hold your nose to pull the lever that “Next time, we’ll get a REAL conservative that shares my values as the nominee.” Yeah, good luck with that.

PM
PM
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 12:50pm

When the man is right, he is right. Campaigning is different from administrating. He wants administrate this very messy country back into some semblance of order and that is more than enough to do now. I believe the other branches will then be able to work.

Paul D.
Paul D.
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 12:54pm

Jay- Just out of curiosity who was the last Presidential candidate that ran on the Republican ticket that you could support in good conscience, since Romney with all his faults is apparently beyond the pale?

Jerry Tidwell
Jerry Tidwell
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 2:33pm

If you are against Obama’s re-election and you vote for a third party candidate, and not for Obama’s real opponent, Daf … er Romney, you are in effect voting for Obama.

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 2:42pm

“… who was the last Presidential candidate that ran on the Republican ticket that you could support in good conscience, since Romney with all his faults is apparently beyond the pale?”

George W. Bush. I had my differences with him, but overall, I believed he was as in tune with my values as any president in my lifetime. It was after 2004 that I saw him as going off the rails.

In 2008, I had made up my mind not to vote for McCain, and then he put Palin on the ticket. At that point, I was supporting Palin and that other guy. Wish I had stuck to my original conviction not to vote for him (not because I don’t still strongly support Palin – I do, but because McCain is just such a miserable piece of work).

As for Romney, he is easily the least conservative likely nominee since Gerald Ford. I wouldn’t have voted for Ford had I been old enough to vote, and I won’t vote for Romney.

Dante alighieri
Admin
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 3:07pm

Thank God Reagan didn’t put Ford on the ticket in 1980

Wow, was that actually contemplated?

Jay Anderson
Wednesday, March 21, AD 2012 4:04pm

Don, I was only 12 (almost 13) at the time of the GOP Convention in 1980, but I distinctly remember when the rumor was being floated by certain establishment types and their buddies in the media about a Ford “co-presidency”. Even at that tender age, I went into something of a panic. “Oh no, after all this, he’s going to blow it by putting Ford on the ticket?”

In retrospect, I’m not convinced that the Ford rumor wasn’t initially floated by some brilliant person in the Reagan inner circle to make the choice of George H.W. Bush more palatable to conservatives.

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Saturday, March 24, AD 2012 12:01pm

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