The Hill
It begins: Romney to take shot at “career politicians” in VFW speech today
Romney will also decry “career politicians,” a subtle shot at Perry, who’s held public office continuously since 1985.
“I am a conservative businessman. I have spent most of my life outside of politics, dealing with real problems in the real economy,” Romney will say, according to prepared remarks released by his campaign. “Career politicians got us into this mess and they simply don’t know how to get us out!”
Romney’s private sector résumé is emerging as one of the key ways Romney, the dethroned front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, is distinguishing himself from Perry, who’s ascended to front-runner status.
Blowback
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Ah, yes, Romney the outsider.
That’ll work.
alwaysfiredup on August 30, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Career Politican > Career Rino
William Amos on August 30, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Is Romney’s solution going to be to buyout the country and its debts at pennies on the dollar and then sell off all its assets to other countries so he can use that money to buyout a bigger country next time? Isn’t that about the extent of his private sector experience?
Kelligan on August 30, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Yeah, good luck with that, Mitt.
A guy who was groomed to be a politician by his politician father versus a guy who started out on a cotton farm and rose through the ranks of local politics? I’m not seeing a big “man of the people” angle for Mitt here.
And, for the record, I am willing to vote for Mitt as VP.
Stick with what you know, Mitt, and leave the populist schtick to people who are suited to it.
Y-not on August 30, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Romney the unemployed underdog outsider with only his authenticity to fall back on? Okay then…
abobo on August 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Gonna go out and tout those hedge fund credentials, are ya Mitt?
I’m sure you’ll do well with that one…
JohnGalt23 on August 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM
And Perry will respond with remarks about one-term losers and career office seekers.
Southernblogger on August 30, 2011 at 12:25 PM
Career politician versus career perpetual Presidential campaigner.
Knucklehead on August 30, 2011 at 12:26 PM
This is petunia’s favorite talking point.
fossten on August 30, 2011 at 12:27 PM
Perry to VFW: “We cannot concede the moral authority of our nation to multi-lateral debating societies.”
publiuspen on August 30, 2011 at 12:28 PM
I honestly do not think that those who run businesses make the best politicians if they forget that being president is not the same thing as being a CEO. They certainly understand markets and how to make a buck better than Harvard grads that spend their entire professional lives trying to reinvent the wheel. But they also have a paternalistic streak as well. Business owners do want to do good by their employees and so will often help them out in many generous ways. Unfortunately many business owners bring this same paternalistic vibe with them into politics.
Romney is incapable of distinguishing running a country from running a business. Macro scale economics does not play well with micro scale corporate management. People take care of each other best when government gets out of the way and lets us all determine for ourselves the best course of action.
NotCoach on August 30, 2011 at 12:33 PM
Perry is a career politician and has made plenty of decisions to bring up the voters ire. Except for fringe voters, those attacks haven’t worked. This one might.
cozmo on August 30, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Mitt’s obviously a hypocrite. With that said, is he wrong about Perry?
Notorious GOP on August 30, 2011 at 12:35 PM
someone’s gotta say it… all the perrybots crack me up
gatorboy on August 30, 2011 at 12:36 PM
I think Romney needs to be careful. Cain has a much more impressive business record than he does. Cain is a guy who dealt with real problems in the real economy. He turned around flagging businesses. From what I’ve read, Romney was more of an an opportunistic pirate.
flyfisher on August 30, 2011 at 12:39 PM
I think people have a much different view of local politicians than they do of national politicians. Local pols pay their dues making sure the streets are safe, listening to people in their communities, etc. National politicians don’t.
So you have a guy who paid his dues locally, became an extremely popular and successful governor of his state, and has been essentially drafted to national politics versus a guy who was groomed to jump straight to the governorship, checked off that box, then expected to jump right up to the highest office in the land.
I don’t think Mitt comes out as any less of a career politician than Perry. In fact, the case could be made that Perry, who is much more of a self-made man with a real natural base of constituents (compared to Romney who has something like three “home” states), is more grassroots than Romney is. Or at least he’s closer to his roots.
At the end of the day, it’s a stupid argument for anyone to make, but laughable coming from Romney. Mitt’s problem (and why he lost me) is that he has a dusty resume (does he even have a job now?) with a mixed record and, most importantly, he refuses to learn from his mistakes (Masscare, ethanol subsidies). I’d vote for him, but he’s low on my list.
Y-not on August 30, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Just curious… We’ve had enough leaders with mild to severe daddy issues lately. Does Perry have a good relationship with his father?
Fallon on August 30, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Romney’s Dad was a politician – so Romney grew up as the son of a politician.
The only thing Romney can run as an outsider on is military experience – he doesn’t have any, and neither does a single of his ancestors or living relatives.
How does that happen? The entire Apache Nation – which was at war with the US until 1890′s … has more Congressional Medal of Honor Winners than the Romney family has ever had go through boot camp.
WTF?
HondaV65 on August 30, 2011 at 12:51 PM
I don’t know if that’s a good question, or not. As far as I recall there are no “daddy” issues with Perry. His parents weren’t wealthy when Perry was young, but it was a nuclear family.
cozmo on August 30, 2011 at 12:55 PM
So Perry’s whole family was exposed to nuclear radiation?
That explains why he can’t think straight, and why he believes God talks to him about seceding Texas from America!/sarc
Brian1972 on August 30, 2011 at 12:59 PM
That’s pronounced nucular in these parts, Pardner!
honsy on August 30, 2011 at 12:59 PM
Ah, yes.
Mitt Romney: Political Outsider.
Governor for four years.
Presidential candidate for 2 years.
Senate candidate in 1994.
Son of a presidential candidate and cabinet official.
Why, this man is basically a political newbie!
amerpundit on August 30, 2011 at 12:59 PM
This time around Mittens is no better at what he’s doing …..
You would think he or his advisors would have LEARNed from previous experience.
Not good in a top executive.
Sir Napsalot on August 30, 2011 at 1:00 PM
A few weeks ago Gov. Perry invited some bloggers and new media types to go to the range with him. If you watch the video and read the stories, you can tell he’s been there before. But more even more importantly than his enthusiasm for the 2nd Amendment (which is a big deal to me), he’s a real guy who is comfortable in his own skin and he’s still in touch with regular Americans. Can you imagine any uncontrolled situation where Romney could mix and mingle with regular Americans? Has Romney ever been in touch with regular Americans?
I haven’t decided who I will support in the primaries yet, so I’m not a Perry shill. However, I do know I prefer him to Romney. I’ve seen and heard enough from Romney to know I will never support him.
flyfisher on August 30, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Careful, say anything not bad about Perry and you will be shuffled off to the Perry-cult club. Seriously.
cozmo on August 30, 2011 at 1:14 PM
That’s PerryKrishna/cultist/bot to you
gophergirl on August 30, 2011 at 1:19 PM
Indeed, hasn’t he been running for President for the last 10 years???
BigWyo on August 30, 2011 at 1:38 PM
A new PPP survey shows Rick Perry jumping out to a huge lead in South Carolina — that state which has often served as a tiebreaker in primary elections.
1. Rick Perry 36%
2. Mitt Romney 13%
3. Sarah Palin 10%
4. Herman Cain 9%
5. Michele Bachmann and Newt Gingrich 5%
favorables:
a. Rick Perry 65%/15% for +50%.
b. Herman Cain 46%/11% for +35%.
c. Sarah Palin 59%/33% for +26%.
d. Mitt Romney 52%/32% for +20%.
e. Newt Gingrich 42%/40% for +2%.
1. Head-to-heads.
If Rick Perry were matched straight up against Mitt Romney, the Texas gov would win by 31%. That’s impressive. More impressive? Even with a bunch of tea party candidates (e.g. Cain, Palin, Bachmann, Paul) in the mix, Perry holds a 23% lead over Romney.
Meanwhile, Romney would edge Bachmann by 5% in a head-to-head, which means this isn’t just an anyone-but-Romney phenomenon. Perry performs 36% better against Romney in a head-to-head than Bachmann.
For his part, Perry also crushes Bachmann by 43%, which shows, yet again, that Bachmann’s best day (straw poll in Iowa) was probably her worst (Perry officially gets in).
4. Palin’s Fade. Not only has she dropped from 16% to 10%, but there’s also a more troubling phenomenon at work.
Perry is killing her in favorability numbers. That’s always been Palin’s strong suit. Republican voters have always liked her, even though many haven’t wanted to vote for her. But check it out: her unfavorables are twice as big as Perry’s, and Perry’s favorables run higher than hers, even though she has better name ID.
http://gop12.thehill.com/
windansea on August 30, 2011 at 1:49 PM
‘Brilliant’
Schadenfreude on August 30, 2011 at 2:16 PM
At least Romney didn’t give instate tuition to illegal immigrants.
therightwinger on August 30, 2011 at 2:21 PM