~~ the following is a piece I did for the 2012-13 school year of "The Ram Pride," Ringgold High School's school newspaper ~~
For whatever reason, the loud and proud Herman Cain, the
liberty-loving Ron Paul, the "Strong" Rick Perry, the Chick Fil-A
chomping Rick Santorum and the feminine Michelle Bachman did not clinch the
Republican nomination. None other than Mitt Romney claimed the spot in the ring
against Barrack Obama. If you ask me, I would say that he got the nomination
because he was perceived as the least controversial and therefor the safest bet
to getting Obama out of office. But, now that he has had some time in the
limelight as the Republican pick, and now that the Republican and Democratic
National Conventions have ended, it's apparent that Romney is not doing the job
that so many conservative Americans want him to do. It seems like he does a new
dumb thing every day, I can't imagine he's very appealing to minorities and
moderates, and the RNC and DNC made the Democrats look a whole lot better than
the Republicans. Mitt Romney has already lost the 2012 Presidential Election.
Romney and his VP pick Paul Ryan say that they're going to
remove certain tax loopholes as an alternative to President Obama's proposal of
taxing the rich more, but when asked which bracket will receive these tax cuts,
Romney and Ryan didn't have any answers and Mitt took the opportunity to make
Democrats out to be bullies for pressing him. Another day Romney made it a
point to say that airplane windows really need to open, and that it's, as
Huffington Post reports, "very dangerous," that they don't, making
Americans collectively giggle and sigh a depressing sigh. He may have been
kidding, but this flub, no matter how much of his words he meant, hit the
internet hard and made him look less than intelligent. The Stranger reports
that, when asked, "Is $100,000 middle income?" Mitt said, “No, middle income is $200,000 to
$250,000 and less." Now, 250,000 is
the maximum amount to be considered middle class under our current president's
tax plan, as the same source points out, but Romney shooting down the questioner's
"$100,000" to say "$200,000 to 250,000" is misleading when,
to quote this same source again, directly, "median household income in
this country is $50,000." Romney just keeps saying things that makes the
general public view him as an out of touch aristocrat that doesn't care about them.
Besides white, heterosexual, rich men, who is really going
to connect with Mitt Romney? Are the gays, who he wants to make sure can't
marry on a federal level, going to be slapping ROMNEY/RYAN bumper stickers on
their car? Will all of the Americans that make critically-acclaimed films like
Milk so successful be okay with this stamp on LGBT rights? I say no to both.
Similarly, I can't imagine enough of those who don't place themselves clearly
on the left or right of the political spectrum would throw their vote at Romney
instead of Obama or even a third party. Romney may catch their eye when he
promises to be more fiscally responsible than Obama, but they'll probably be
quite turned off when they hear him go on about how he wants federal protection
of abortion to cease, and when they hear him talk about his opposition to
contemporary demands of the gays and when they hear him say that he will smack
down all of Obama's progress on healthcare. Who exactly does Romney speak to
that's going to net him a place in the White House? He's not even likable
compared to his opponent, as a Gallup poll reveals.
The Republican National Convention did a good job of making
their party, and Romney along with it, look oh-so-very silly. At the RNC, Clint
Eastwood, speaking very poorly, might I add, reprimanded an invisible Obama
like a painfully annoying Jeff Dunham (or more painfully annoying, depending on
your opinion of Mr. Dunham) talking to a puppet. Also at the RNC, the room was
filled with applause and shouts of glee as they shouted "We built
it!," a response to a version of Obama that is socialist and doesn't value
an individual's hard work; such a man Obama clearly is not. At the DNC, we see
a beautiful, glorious, inspiring, hour-long speech from Bill Clinton that
really makes Obama out to be quite the promising candidate and makes the
Republican plan out to be foolish. And he does so with facts. And logic. And
rhetoric that's not misleading. Not with invisible politicians and aggrandized
slogans that aren't even rooted in reality.
I can't see Romney winning this. The polls agree, the
latest from the Huffington Post [as of 8:00 PM, September 30th, 2012] placing
Obama at 48.8% vs. Romney's 44.4%. Unsavory sentiments fall out of his mouth
like snots from a child's sick nose. His backwards-approach to social issues is
hardly going to help him get moderates and minorities on his side. His party
looks bad, as the RNC and DNC exemplified. I don't think that it is too early
to say that Mitt Romney has already lost the 2012 presidential election.
***
Tell me why my opinions aren't quite good in the comments
below.
***
Sources:
"Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan Can't Say Which Tax Loopholes
They'd Plug (VIDEO)": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/09/mitt-romney-paul-ryan-tax-loopholes_n_1868444.html
"UPDATE: Mitt Romney Wonders Why Ann Romney's Airplane
Windows Don't Roll Down": http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mitt-romney-airplane-windows_n_1910930.html?utm_hp_ref=travel
"Romney Stresses Opposition to Marriage Equality in
South Carolina": http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/01/17/405115/romney-stresses-opposition-to-marriage-equality-in-south-carolina/?mobile=wp
"Poll: Americans pick Obama over Romney on likability,
but Romney wins on economy": http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/245243-poll-americans-pick-obama-over-romney-on-likability-but-romney-wins-on-economy
"Mitt Romney Thinks America's 'Middle Income' Is
$200,000 to $250,000": http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/14/mitt-romney-thinks-americas-middle-income-is-200000-to-250000&view=comments
"Clint Eastwood speaks to an invisible Obama: Twitter
mocks 'gran turdito'": http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/us-news-blog/2012/aug/31/clint-eastwood-invisible-chair-twitter
"‘We
Built It’
Resounds at RNC’s
First Night": http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joe-kaufman/we-built-it-resounds-at-rncs-first-night/
"2012 General Election: Romney vs. Obama": http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2012-general-election-romney-vs-obama
"Transcript of Bill Clinton's speech at the DNC":
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/05/transcript-bill-clinton-speech-at-dnc/
"Values" [Romney's official position on abortion
is detailed on his official website here]: http://www.mittromney.com/issues/values
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