by BILL FLETCHER Jr.
What is interesting about the relationship of the extreme political Right to Romney is that they actually hate him. This is not speculation. If you review the language of the Republican primary season it is clear that they actually despise him. They do not believe that he is a real conservative. They do not believe that he even has a belief system. Some of the so-called Christian elements do not trust his Mormonism. So, one could say that there is an alignment that should result in the extreme Right sitting out the election…
Except for one thing: they hate Obama even more.
So, November 2012 is shaping up to be something similar to November 1968. The Goldwater Republicans at that time had no love for Richard Nixon. They saw him as much too soft. But Nixon was the candidate at the moment and the Right saw in Nixon cover in order to give them more time to move their agenda. They turned out to be quite successful, all things considered. Though the Watergate scandal got in their way, it did not block their road to power; it just delayed it.
Obama’s re-election would be difficult under the best of circumstances, but he is not facing the best of circumstances. Although he prevented total economic collapse, his overall program of responding to the economic crisis has been weak. His healthcare reform, while truly historic, was a vast compromise and even with that faces the possibility of being blown up by the Supreme Court. And internationally, though the US has largely withdrawn from Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan continues, to name only two locations. This has demoralized much of Obama’s base. What is worse is that that very same base was not mobilized by its leaders in the first two years of the Obama presidency to pressure the Administration.
Karl Rove, then, was quite correct in pointing out that the Romney road to victory, should it happen, is brought about through a demoralization of the Obama base. It is also the case that it comes through playing the race card and voter suppression tactics.
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via Z Communications