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People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Mitt Romney still the favorite to win election despite polls - If he can somehow humanize himself he has a huge shot

Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2012 at 09:51 AM

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Mitt Romney

Despite all the negative press and the furor over abortion and Medicare the presidential race is still Mitt Romney’s to lose.

The latest national polls are all within the margin of error and while Romney is behind in most of them a good convention and a good debate performance should certainly see him elected.

He should be ahead. The economy, the one measure that is uppermost in most minds, is still pretty lousy. Unemployment is too high and there will be no significant relief in sight by November.

This is a center-right country and Republicans are usually better positioned to win presidential races as a result.

It is amazing to consider how George Bush defeated Al Gore despite the fine economic times under Clinton. The country leans right as its default position.

Given all that, the landscape is pretty much settled and it is overwhelmingly one that favors a challenger.

A wise old GOP figure told me last week that this election will end up one of two ways — a narrow win for Obama or a landslide for Romney.

It is easy to see why. If the issue becomes the last four years and how the economy has performed, Obama will lose badly. If it becomes how flawed a candidate Romney is then it is likely that Obama will hang on narrowly.
Obama is currently somehow staying afloat despite the bad economy and is trading heavily on the perception of him as a decent man trying to do his best in tough times.

He connects better than Romney who seems incapable of real human emotion or appearing in the least vulnerable.

A recent US Today poll noted that a “majority of Americans, 54 percent, believe Obama is more likable, compared with 31 percent for Mitt Romney, giving the president a 23 percentage point advantage.”

All of Romney’s career choices have ended up well for him and he lives a gilded life – but that is not what plays with voters.

They want someone who has a life pretty much like their own, full of struggles and emotion and setbacks and triumphs. It doesn’t matter that they are rich, just that they are normal.

Normal is not what Romney has succeeded in showing us just yet. He has appeared either too perfect or too robotic, lacking warmth and empathy. But given the nature of this presidential year, which is still utterly unpredictable, the race is still his to lose given that the economic fundamentals are not going to get any better.

This race is at best for Obama a 50-50 toss-up.

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| Aug 25, 2012, 03:24 PM EDT

How can he humanize himself? He is anti poor. He is pro very rich. He is against abortion, yet he is in favor of people suffering and dying slowly by preventing them access to health care. He certainly is out for himself, promoting tax cuts for the very rich. (himself and his fellow Republicans) He want to put more money into the military. Haven't enough young Americans died already to protect the oil assets of the wealthy. He will probably enter another area of conflict to ensure his brothers in arms will make millions or even billions in military sales. All the good that Obama has done to reduce the loss of lives inflicted by the Republicans (Bush & cronies) will be undone. A large amount of the US budget is necessary to protect the USA from terrorists who retaliated against the US as a result of the US meddling in foreign countries for financial reasons. Perhaps if he really believed in and adopted all Christian principles he would be a choice candidate. I believe no matter what he says before the election, the camouflage will come off if he is elected president and then God help the poor and disadvantaged.

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allentown | Aug 25, 2012, 02:45 PM EDT

There is still a lot of campaigning left. The Romney-Ryan team can only get stronger. As I predicted, Gallop's Running Poll August 18-24 has Obama @ 46 and Romney @ 46. Therefore, after the Republican Convention Romney will be up by 5-6%.

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Pittsburghkid | Aug 25, 2012, 02:44 PM EDT

Obama has made too many bad choices. Of course the people are lying to the pollister, because they do not want to appear racist.

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wilhoef | Aug 25, 2012, 02:11 PM EDT

Aherlowglen - If you are a Catholic Priest, then I am St. Joseph!

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aherlowglen | Aug 25, 2012, 01:40 PM EDT

I feel that whoever wins the White House the Church should steer clear of PARTISAN involvement. Cardinal Dolan is playing a dangerous game. I hope Obama wins. I say that as a Catholic priest because every intolerant bigot seems to be against him. As a Church we seem to be endorsing Romney even though we deny it.

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JimmyJK | Aug 25, 2012, 01:26 PM EDT

How can you Vote for Romney / Ryan? They believe our economy will only improve by drastically reducing taxes on the top of the top earners. Their environmental record is Atrocius. Ryan does not believe in climate change !!!! Only 97% of all scientists believe it. They also want to open up any and all land for use by any corporation and/or energy co. They want to end Medicare Medicaid - that's nice for granny... Do Republican Americans know what Big Governmenf is? It includes the military by the way.... And police and teachers etc Stop the racist motivations and just come out and say you can't stand the poor leaches of society..,. Do you also have millions of dollars in offshore accounts ? Then vote for Romney.... Do you also hate all unions? Vote Ryan We all need to read all of true Facts not the lies They are anti woman's rights with their ultra conservative views on abortion

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MegK311 | Aug 25, 2012, 12:54 PM EDT

How could anyone want to live through 4 more years of Obama. It scares me to think what he would do if he had another 4 years. Neither Obama or Romney have a life like mine or most people I know. Actually we don't know enough about Obama because he has spent millions to have his records sealed. What could he be hiding? Look at all the radical people Obama has associated with over the years. Romney's lifestyle is very different from mine but of the 2 he offers the greater hope. I do think he has had a clean cut life and is honest. Obama though he told us he would be transperent has been the exact opposite. A lot of his friends have questionable characters. So though I did not vote for Romney during the primaries I will vote for him in November. As for George Bush he may not have been perfect but I did like him. Something nobody seems to remember is that during the last year of the Clinton administration the economy was in trouble and George Bush inherited that. I remember because I lost a lot of money. A lot of you have very selective memories when it comes to the liberals and the Democrats. Bill Clinton got away with a lot because a lot of you thought he was a charming rascal. But he did a much better job of being President than Obama. A film to watch out for is "The Hope & The Change". All I ask of you is that you keep an open mind and stop the nasty name calling.

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garbo55 | Aug 25, 2012, 12:50 PM EDT

Susan 724 when Romney left office at the end of his term he had a balanced budget, he cut waste where it needed to be cut. Then along comes Patrick ( Obamas bum kisser) to dismantle the balanced budget. Also Romney and his Lt. Governor Kerry never took a paycheck while in office.The first thing Patrick did in office after destroying the budget was to spend thousands of dollars on drapes for the office.

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Breathnach | Aug 25, 2012, 12:44 PM EDT

People will vote for Obama because we still have not forgotten the Bush years. Hopefully a cold day in hell before a regime like that foisted on the country again.

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CitizenWhy | Aug 25, 2012, 12:39 PM EDT

There have been more jobs craeted under Obama than under previous Republicans. Obama is the lowest spending President since Eisenhower. But right wing propaganda has convinced many Americans otherwise.

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francisquinn | Aug 25, 2012, 12:11 PM EDT

How can anyone consider voting for BO.... 1. 8.3 unemployed 2. Deficit in 4 years close to 6 billion 3. Healthcare that nobody wants. 4. Deep deception on the cost of Obmacare. he said abou $900billion...now a few years later between $ 2 and 2.6 trillion....he msut think we are stupid. 5. Hope and Change....pure BS....what he means is distribute income..... I could go on and on...he is in overhead...

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hermitTalker | Aug 25, 2012, 11:43 AM EDT

Stacking the last 3.5 years against a R-R ticket, given the huge bailout, thousands of un-read pages of the Stimulus cash, and Health Care Bill, and the pursuit of Keynesian Economics- borrow your way out of the mess. There is a strong possibility that the R-R policies will work.

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susan724 | Aug 25, 2012, 11:39 AM EDT

wjb1tex - he inherited his money from his daddy and then took it and invested in a company in which he made millions off the backs of the fired employees, period! He was a lousy Governor in Massachusetts and the only thing he did well there was his healthcare program which he refuses to talk about - Oh, and anyone can get into Harvard or Yale if you have the money and a father who was famous - look at dummy Bush!

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TreeDetective | Aug 25, 2012, 11:20 AM EDT

I am really reading this on Irish Central? Is there hope for the Irish enamored by this failed administration? Maybe someone needs to go out and dig up some more obscure ancestors to distract voters.

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jamthecat | Aug 25, 2012, 11:19 AM EDT

wjb...if all it takes is brains to make a lot of money, then the Mafias are made up of geniuses and bank robbers are Rhodes Scholars. Romney ma=de his money by destroying other people's lives and brags about being able to do so. If he's elected -- and despite Patrick's claim, that is still a big IF -- then this country will collapse. We will see a bankrupt America by 2016. But people like you will still blame it all on the Democrats and liberals. BTW, Mr. Roberts, Al Gore won in 2000. The only reason Bush wound up in the White House is his brother and Katherine Harris did their utmost to screw up the Florida ballot and then the GOP got the Supreme Court to anoint him president, in direct violation of the Constitution. And then look what happened...

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