What was Romney planning?
The evidence on this is both mixed and murky. One transition-team member tells me he was thrilled by the recommendations for his agency that were given a “green” light. “The people I worked with knew the importance of de-funding the Left. Sometimes when it looked like the Senate was going Republican, I felt we were going to get the third Reagan term we never got with Bush Senior — at least in my area.”
Another key transition-team member gave Politico a somewhat different impression. Romney wasn’t planning “an ideological crusade,” he said. “He wants to come across as a problem solver, primarily on the economic side.” Everything that was planned appeared to revolve around pragmatic, rather than ideological, goals: “bringing down barriers to economic growth and providing certainty to businesses.”
As for personnel, again the picture was mixed. Defense hawks would have been cheered by the fact that Mike Chertoff, former Bush Department of Homeland Security secretary, was a key player in the transition team and a leading candidate to become attorney general. Ditto with former Missouri senator Jim Talent, currently a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, who was one of three co-chairs of the Romney transition team for the Pentagon and a top candidate to become defense secretary. On the other hand, an overall coordinator of the national-security transition was former World Bank president Robert Zoellick, who has often drawn the ire of conservatives.
Blowback
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Woulda, coulda, shoulda all over again. Wake up. We lost.
Limerick on January 21, 2013 at 1:30 PM
He was planning to throw Grandma and Big Bird off a cliff.
forest on January 21, 2013 at 1:31 PM
It doesn’t matter, does it?
trigon on January 21, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Who cares?
ChrisL on January 21, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Yep, we lost, but what ever he had planned would have been better than what we are about to experience.
behiker on January 21, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Romney was planning to lose. He never intended to win anything past the primary. He was an Obama stalking horse…
astonerii on January 21, 2013 at 1:37 PM
And he was going to outlaw birth control.
forest on January 21, 2013 at 1:37 PM
And then get me fired and kill my wife.
forest on January 21, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Maybe he should’ve planned his campaign and used the period between election and inauguration to make adjustments to the plan for his presidency that he certainly has been working on since 2008.
Odysseus on January 21, 2013 at 1:39 PM
And strap my dog to the roof of his car.
forest on January 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM
Too little, too late
The nation is finished, thanks to Dems, RINOs, Class Envy, a corrupt Media and Affirmative Action bullcrap
TexasJew on January 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM
Whaterver Obama is planning, but just slower.
However, Romney is a decent and USA-loving man. Obama hates the US and will scroom her into an irrecoverable oblivion.
The land is in dire need of a real man, a true leader. There are none left in DC.
Schadenfreude on January 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM
The great tampon seizure of 2013, of course.
Dead Hand Control on January 21, 2013 at 1:41 PM
Mike Chertoff is that the guy that left DHS and went to work for the company that makes the x-ray scanners for the TSA? He then sold the DHS on all those scanners and no one anywhere saw a conflict of interest?
bannor on January 21, 2013 at 1:47 PM
So, the guy who didn’t lead before he ran, and doesn’t lead, now, after he ran, appears to maybe, possibly, have been a leader if he had won, according to some supporters’ opinions, though that’s questionable after looking at all of the opinions.
Why do I get the impression that the people offering their opinions on Romney’s transition plans are just looking for jobs.
Dusty on January 21, 2013 at 1:57 PM
Romney was at best going to try to staunch the bleeding.
He lost because he never hit Ogabe with half the glee he nailed his opponents in the GOP.
Romney is the living embodiement of the right’s conundrum, and frankly is the last candidate I will ever donate to from New England.
I donated 6500 this cycle, not one more step left or I am never donating again and will start preparing for the Scarlet revolution of America.
Ogabe is going to unleash the EPA and destroy energy, he is going to empower radical Islam further by more Malis and Benghazis.
You bought it America watch Choom king break it.
harlekwin15 on January 21, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Romney was planning on being the guy behind the full implementation of Obamacare, and the guy who could put another 2 Souters on the court.
Thankfully we get another shot in 4 years.
Stoic Patriot on January 21, 2013 at 2:18 PM
Giggles will probably get 1-3 Justices through, has a Senate that will kill the filibuster, and will executive order attacks on individual wealth and property rights.
I hope you enjoy the lessons we are about to be “taught.”
My worst fear is fiat Amnesty that maximizes the inflow and King Putt continuing to put Somali refugees on the fast track to US citizenship while freezing out EUropeans and Chinese.
The democrats are bringing in an impoverished client underclass and TruCons are thrilled.
I really loved our Constitutional Republic.
Wish Ron Paul cult had.
harlekwin15 on January 21, 2013 at 2:22 PM
This is why I would have preferred Rick Santorum be the nominee. Now we are forced to take the dangerous path. Best-case scenario, Obama gets no new SCOTUS picks. Worst case scenario, he replaces Ginsburg, and then three others: Kennedy, Thomas, and Scalia because they all drop dead due to age and health. The most likely scenario is that Obama gets to replace Ginsburg.
The future is fraught with peril, so it is crucial that next election we nominate a conservative and that we win.
Stoic Patriot on January 21, 2013 at 2:29 PM
No the most uimportant thing was holding our nose and keeping a closeted red Diaper baby who is a Marxist in all likelihood out of power.
Santorum would not have won because Ed Morrisey type “Republicans” would have sat out.
If “Conservatives” are so self-confident that Obama is not a problem that they will spoil the GOP’s chances and empower Chicago Jesus to coup’d'grace the Republic despite my being most allied with them in the party dynamic I will never donate another dime.
They are as big a threat to the whole at that point as Bill Ayers and Mocha Je$u$.
Temper tantrums are for 5 year olds and Chris Christy.
harlekwin15 on January 21, 2013 at 2:34 PM
Errrr… I find that difficult to believe given that Ed Morrisey endorsed Santorum.
Stoic Patriot on January 21, 2013 at 2:40 PM
FYI: http://hotair.com/archives/2012/02/05/my-choice-rick-santorum/
Stoic Patriot on January 21, 2013 at 2:41 PM
Thread winner.
batter on January 21, 2013 at 2:47 PM
“yeah” and he is saying “Obama is swell and by golly things didn’t go our way and jim dandy!’
Whatever.
AP would have had kittens.
I would have preferred a preferably unmedicated Perry but had made up my mind to hold my nose come hell or high water and support and donate to the winner of the primary unless it had been Rawn Pawl or Joisey Buddah.
Yes Romney was walking wounded because of Romneycare, but Mitt is so obviously a better manager and American than Obama the right should have crawled on broken glass and ideally the low information middle class should have switched.
The media convincing the public that either Benghazi was Romney’s fault or was a Jewish tailor named ben Ghazi over on main street is amazing.
I hope whatever nation is on this soil in 100 years laughs at their folly and our national stupidity.
harlekwin15 on January 21, 2013 at 2:48 PM
Correct, dead on.
“You evil GOPers are all like Tard Akin and want women in binders or something eleventy!1!”
Okay America have it your way.
harlekwin15 on January 21, 2013 at 2:49 PM
Yep.
SparkPlug on January 21, 2013 at 2:56 PM
Who cares – the longest 4 years of America’s life just started today.
gophergirl on January 21, 2013 at 3:41 PM
mittens is a loser…always was always will be…don’t care how much money he has
Pragmatic on January 21, 2013 at 3:51 PM