A blistering, and well-deserved, critique ~ ~ Sooz

It Gets Worse for Mitt Romney as He is Named the Least Influential Person of 2012
By: Jason Easley November 27th, 2012

Apparently, Mitt Romney hasn’t hit rock bottom yet. Romney has gone from being one of only two men vying to be president to being named the least influential person of 2012 by GQ.

Mitt Romney beat out such luminaries as Amanda Bynes, Jerry Sandusky’s lawyer, Lance Armstrong, Madonna, and George Zimmerman to win the title of GQ’s Least Influential Person of 2012.

Here is how GQ described Romney, “Was anyone inspired by Mitt Romney? Did anyone vote enthusiastically for Mitt Romney? Of course not. Voting for Romney is like hooking up with the last single person at the bar at 4 a.m. The only successful thing he did this year was embody every black stand-up comedian’s impression of a white person. Thank God the election’s over. No more endless photos of Mitt staring winsomely off-camera with that attempted smile on his face. No more glaring campaign mishaps week after week after week. No more labored media efforts to make him look like anything other than Sheldon Adelson’s pampered money Dumpster.”

At first, I wasn’t sure if I agreed with this reasoning. I mean Romney did manage to become one of the two finalists to be the next President of the United States of America. That has to make him more influential than Amanda Bynes, right?

Not really. Mitt Romney spent six years of his life running for president. In those six years can you name one original idea or policy proposal that he came up with? Just one. You can’t, because Mitt Romney spent nearly a decade planning and running for president without adding a single new idea to our national discourse. Some people called Romney an empty suit, but his problem was an empty mind.

Then, there were the gaffes. Mitt Romney’s self inflicted wounds were so severe that he made Sarah Palin look like Stephen Hawking.

Romney spent the entire 2012 campaign being the least popular nominee in modern American political history. Not only was Romney completely devoid of ideas, but people felt historic levels of dislike for him. One of the great oddities of Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign was that the more voters saw of Romney, the less they liked him. (At this point Republicans will point to the October public opinion polls as proof that Romney was liked, but as we found out on Election Day, the national polls were overestimating the Republican makeup of the electorate.) The writing was on the wall in state polls of places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Romney remained more disliked than liked.

Mitt Romney was such a turn off to voters that his political convention actually gave his opponent a bounce in the polls.

Romney’s lasting legacy isn’t that he was at the helm when the Republican Party finally crashed and burned on a national scale. This honestly wasn’t Romney’s fault. It doesn’t matter who the Republicans might have nominated, they would have lost in 2012. (Having a party platform that alienates women, African-Americans, Latinos, and young voters tends to have that sort of impact on the electoral bottom line.)

Mitt Romney’s lasting legacy is that he confirmed to the rest of America what it had long suspected. Those old, rich, conservative white guys who are looking to buy elections view the rest of the country with contempt. When these men say they want their country back, they really mean that they think they are entitled to run the show. Women belong in the kitchen. Young people should stop being lazy and get a job. African Americans are invisible, and Latinos are criminals who should be prosecuted and/or (self) deported.

Naming Mitt Romney the least influential person of 2012 isn’t kicking a man when he is down. It is telling the truth about a presidential nominee who had done so little, yet felt entitled to so much.

http://www.politicususa.com/worse-mitt-romney-named-influential-person-2012.html

Now I think they're just being mean-spirited.

I dunno, SciFi ~ we're only a couple weeks out from a national election ~ for me, the op hit all the salient points about Mitt personally, but I don't see anything in the op that I'd call "stretching" ~ Mitt and his campaign were truly a spectacular and epically expensive FAIL ~

Sooz

The wrong man at the wrong time for the wrong job.
An excellent OP.

Mitt Romney accomplished one thing - it takes more than money to win an election. You must have a candidate too.

oh man. that's gotta hurt.

Romney is invited for dinner at the WH. I think Obama just wants to rub in what could have been.

He'll order in some pizza.

That has to be awkward. Romney seemed to really take the loss hard. Six years of work and preparation,all for nothing. He shouldn't give up now. Isn't there some other place he could be President of?

If he were Pesident of, say, Goose Island, then he call this meeting with Obama a summit, save face.

If Romney actually goes we can call him a moocher, getting stuff, free food and lots of Dr. Pepper.

Romney's problem was he wasn't as good an actor as Bush. They were both noblesse oblige, but Bush built an elaborate country bumpkin persona that resonated with the red voters. Romney couldn't play the part. His supporting characters couldn't either. Ann didn't have the Texas Twang and her sense of style was really offputting. Laura mastered a salt of the earth persona. The sales team (Popeil marketeers) could not sell thekr product effectively.

Romney never GOT it either. He'd have been an awful Prez.

I guess I should feel sorry for Romney and his Queen Ann but I don't.

I don't agree that Romney is the least influential person of 2012. I think the homeless bum sleeping in my city park on the park bench is the least influential person.

Romney got about half the country to vote for him. That's rather influential, I think.

I'd say he got about half the country to vote AGAINST Obama. How many times did you hear/read about someone holding their nose when they went to vote for Romney? That they were actually voting against Obama, the lesser of 2 evils?

A bit arrogant, dontcha think?
A good number of those "homeless bums" are mentally disabled vets people like Romney want to toss onto the garbage heap since they've outlived their usefulness.

I don't agree that Romney is the least influential person of 2012. I think the homeless bum sleeping in my city park on the park bench is the least influential person.

Romney's disparaging remarks about that homeless bum and his running mate's wet dream of making it even tougher for that guy to survive is what cost them the election. Even though you may not know his name and he didn't make headlines day after day, I would suggest that makes the homeless bum more influential than Romney.

I would suggest that makes the homeless bum more influential than Romney.

Especially those who managed to vote.

Thanks Jim... I was about to say something along the same line. The homeless "bums" had the greater influence on the outcome of the election than the Super PAC's could ever hope for.

Besides that, those "homeless bums" are someone's son or daughter and maybe brother or sister, fatheror mother.

I'm surprised at your terminology SciFi. Today's homeless population is 41% families with children. Perhaps your "homeless bum" is sleeping on the park bench because there wasn't room at the shelter for the entire family.....or a million other scenarios that wouldn't fit the "bum" category.

Do you just walk by him/her with a feeling of disgust or have you actually maybe stopped and talked? Heard his/her story?

I think there may be a semantics issue at play here because to me a homeless person and a homeless bum mean exactly the same thing. A bum to me is someone without a home.

Anyway, I think Romney was highly influential. Maybe not to the country but to the product salesmen. They know now that their formula did not work and they will have to rebrand.

The homeless guy on the street has no power whatsoever. I hear a lot of stories in the hospital and generally they are very sad, roseanne. One of the primary reasons I didn't want Romney to have any more power than he has right now.

Here's what I think when I hear the word bum:

bum 1 (bm)
n.
1. A tramp; a vagrant.
2. A lazy or shiftless person, especially one who seeks to live solely by the support of others.
3. An incompetent, insignificant, or obnoxious person: The batter called the pitcher a bum.
4. One who is devoted to a particular activity or milieu: a beach bum.
v. bummed, bum·ming, bums
v.intr.
1. To live by begging and scavenging from place to place. Often used with around.
2. To loaf.
v.tr.
1. To acquire by begging; cadge. See Synonyms at cadge.
2. Slang To depress, dishearten, or dismay. Often used with out.
adj.
1. Inferior; worthless: gave me bum advice; did a bum job of fixing the car.
2. Disabled; malfunctioning: a bum shoulder.
3. Unfavorable or unfair: got a bum deal on my final grade for the course.
4. Unpleasant; lousy: had a bum time at the party.
Idiom:
on the bum
1. Living as a vagrant or tramp.
2. Out of order; broken.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bum

In the past, it has had a negative connotation.

You forgot "derriere".

Did you see the policeman in NYC getting boots and socks for the homeless guy on the street? It's actually kind of heartwarming. And that's sad on a level, too. Like why should it be heartwarming? We should help others in need, right?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... n/1734495/

It has a negative connotation but so does homelessness. There was a guy in the ER maybe a month ago. He was in for ETOH Abuse which has a negative connotation all its own. He was homeless and lived on the bay behind Circle Liquor store so he had easy access. I offered to send him to the Homeless Shelter or the Homeless Shelter in the next county. I asked if he had family to call and he stated that they are done with him. He refused to go to either homeless shelter. I am fairly sure he's still behind Circle Liquor on the bay, and it will be getting pretty cold soon.

Please, the acronyms. I don't know what you're saying half the time.