The biggest problem with Romney's campaign is its utter incoherence, which stems from the fact that he had to romance a Republican primary electorate that is clearly demented. The root of the campaign's fundamental dishonesty, which is what has led to its incoherence in the first place, is the fact that the Republican primary electorate forced Romney to renounce the only real achievement he has as an elected politician — the Massachusetts health-care reform. Once you find you have to lie about all the good you did, what does the rest of it really matter?This is not an accident, though Pierce has the timeframe wrong. The GOP began to pivot to the "book-larnin' is bad" crowd in 1968, when Nixon realized that he could take the southern vote by dog-whistling to the segregation-forever crowd.
Still, Nixon and Reagan could get away with saying one thing to their crazies and then saying another thing to the general population, in that pre-Internet, pre-cable era. Reagan could kick off his campaign in a town best remembered for murdering civil rights workers and be largely ignored, if not forgotten.
Not any more. Generally, there are a lot more news outlets now. Stupid crap uttered by a candidate anywhere will be recorded by some spectator with a cell phone and then uploaded to YouTube or elsewhere, where it will be picked up and spread faster than an airborne disease. The age-old tactic of running to the base for the primary campaign and then pivoting to the center for the general campaign is harder to do when it is so easy to make a "he said that then, now he says this" clip.
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For the GOP, that is compounded by the fact that their base will not tolerate pivoting to the center. They demand adherence to their orthodoxy and, if a candidate doesn't do that, lava comes pouring down on him from the Right, a Right that has become crazier at a stunning rate. The GOP has gone from touting Romneycare as being a good idea to being a form of socialist tyranny. Their base will change their mind as to whether or not something is a good idea based solely on whose idea it is.
Not that Romney isn't absolved of being the author of his problem. He wants desperately to be President. Hell, like anyone with that particular fire in their belly, he wants to win any election. That's why he tried to run to the left of Teddy Kennedy in the early `90s in his Senate bid. That's why he touted himself as a pro-choice moderate in 2002 when he won election as the governor of Massachusetts. That's why he has repudiated everything he stood for in Massachusetts, moving more and more to the right over the last seven years as the GOP base has demanded of him. Romney's slogan might as well be: "Tell me which way my people are going, for I am their leader."
As a result, Romney is forced to run a vacuous campaign. And that is why, at least for now, he is sliding down in the tracking polls.
(H/T)
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