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Romney's team begins to implode

18 September 2012 | 7:35 | Source: Matt Hall, SBS

There are eight more weeks of this election to go and Mitt Romney has yet to jump out of his box and demonstrate exactly how and why he is a better alternative as President than Barack Obama.

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Any expected jump from the Republican convention never happened. Any expected flip following the Democratic convention didn’t gain traction. For states that Romney must win, he’s either tied or behind in polls. Similarly, voters claiming they will vote for Romney are doing so because they’re anti-Obama rather than pro-Romney.

It can be argued that any vote for Romney is a step toward the White House but it’s not a sentiment for enough change to win on November 6. The Romney campaign is now under immense pressure to deliver in the next eight weeks. Right on cue, out comes a story detailing his team’s internal implosion.

“Inside the Campaign: How Mitt Romney Stumbled” sees Romney’s chief strategist Stuart Stevens gets sliced and diced by others from the candidate’s team of insiders and advisers. They are now beginning to distance themselves from what appears an increasingly doomed campaign.

Romney appears to be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. He can beat a pretty big drum on the economy and knock Obama off any pedestal the incumbent tries to climb up on. If it really is “about the economy, stupid” then Romney is stupid for not making that the number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten issues.

But any opportunity to rise to a Presidential level and Romney stumbles. The latest move was last week’s dabble in foreign policy. This is an area where Romney appears so far out of his depth it’s a surprise he doesn’t take briefings wearing Floaties.

Telling the Brits on a visit to the UK that their Olympics were on the verge of disaster prompted the eloquent people at The Sun to call Romney “Mitt The Twit”. On the same trip, Romney then became the first person to ever pick a fight with both Palestinians and Israelis.

It was a real-life crisis last week, when the US consulate in Benghazi was attacked and four Americans were killed, that Romney had a chance to step up and behave like a President.

It was, instead, an embarrassing major fail.

“It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” Romney said in a statement that politicised the attack and subsequent four deaths in which the sensible consensus is that Obama and his administration handled the situation appropriately.

According to the New York Times, Romney “showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character by using the murders of the Americans in Libya as an excuse not just to attack Mr Obama, but to do so in a way that suggested either a dangerous ignorance of the facts or an equally dangerous willingness to twist them to his narrow partisan aims.”

That kind of criticism won’t end Romney’s White House ambition in isolation. But it’s no wonder there’s infighting within his campaign as his failure to make the most of opportunities to be Presidential descends into the mire.

The upcoming debates are the last roll of Romney’s dice.



 

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Your Comments

Mr.

John - from Austrlia, 44 years ago

I don't watch American's Fox news TV. They're the very bias media in this planet. Do they have American Value?

BoySharky

Mervyn Andrews - from Sutherland NSW, 44 years ago

Please America don't give us another Republican President, we're still getting over the last one.

MEMORY?

MACGREGOR - from SYDNEY, 44 years ago

It is amazing how a country with so many people with very poor memories. A country with so little health care and social services and a huge proportion out of work who winge when a monetry crisis occurs. A country where voting at elections is not compulsory. A country that allowed the Republicans to send the country bankrupt with their massive spending on war. Imagine a people who would rather spend money on arms rather than giving to needy with outstretched arms. Serves the Republicans right.

Matthew Hall IS in the US

sbshound - from Elizabeth Bay, 44 years ago

Hey snowtiger from the Blue Mountains. Matthew Hall is is this "other country" and is reporting from the campaign trail. He's not in Australia. And this is a blog, not a news piece. Big difference -- it's allowed to be one-sided.

Oh dear how they fall

JackMed - from Perth, 44 years ago

Romney is a money machine and that's why he wants to be President. His every word and stumble shows that. How you can say the to report Romney's stuff up is biased is just another way to hide the fact that the article is spot on. Romney is losing because he sees the USA through a slit in the fence , all he sees are $$$$ just like cheney/bush did through Halliburtons.

Romney

Poindexter - from Saurkraut, 44 years ago

Why can't Weeee's have a View and Opinion... Watching the Republican's in America is better than some of the Comedies on TV at present

Its all the media's fault

Michael - from newfarm, 44 years ago

Couldn't agree with snowtiger more. Ofcourse its all the media's fault Mitt is losing. So he doesn't pay his share of taxes? Why this obsession that he barely understands foreign policy? So what if he is disparaging of 1/2 the population? Who cares if he does not have an economic plan with any detail? Balanced reporting means focusing on each person's side of the story no matter how demented their position.

US election

snowtiger - from Blue Mountains, 44 years ago

Yet another one-sided story from someone not on the campaign trail and taking comments out of context. Obama's team have made some monumental blunders too. Haven';t seen you report on those. Perhaps you shouldn't report on the campaign in another country if you don't understand the complexities of the country and its people. Stick to Australian politics and try to keep that from being one-sided

Mitt Romney

Cecil H - from Mt Gambir, 44 years ago

And how is he going to handle the question of his tax returns and wealth ? Can he continue to hide these on the ground of protecting his and his wife's privacy ? Check out these questions and topics by Rachel Maddox and Chris Matthew on YouTube. They provide terrific insights into Mitt's handling of these topics when he ran for Governor of Mass.