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The Prospect's politics blog

Business Is Doing All Right

Jamelle BouieJan 18, 2012
At a rally this morning at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Mitt Romney deployed an unusual line in his stump speech. “I feel under attack” by Obama’s policies, said Romney, referencing the administration's policies on business. When you consider that Romney has already defined himself as a callous Wall Street mogul, I’m not sure that it’s wise for him to identify with business, as he does in the quote. What’s more, Romney’s overall contention—that Obama has been terrible for business—just isn't true. As Time ’s Michael Sivy notes , money has been rolling in for business during the president’s term: In fact, corporate profits are now at a peak in dollar terms and close to an all-time high as a percentage of GDP. Overall, profits have more than doubled since 2000, while stock prices are actually lower than they were 12 years ago. What that means is that lots of great stocks are now cheap by historical standards. As long as this doesn’t penetrate the broader consciousness...

Is Romney Worried About Gingrich?

Jamelle BouieJan 18, 2012
Judging from the polls, Mitt Romney should feel comfortable about his position in the South Carolina Republican primary. According to the latest survey from Rasmussen, for example, the former Massachusetts governor leads with 35 percent of the vote. His closest competitor, Newt Gingrich, takes 21 percent support from the state’s voters. Even still, the Romney campaign is incredibly cautious and, after Gingrich’s strong performance in Monday’s debate, they are worried that the former speaker might see a surge of support among South Carolina Republicans. As such, this morning the campaign launched twin assaults on Gingrich. Up first was this ad, featuring Congresswoman Susan Molinari, attacking Gingrich as an unreliable leader: The Romney campaign also held a conference call in which Senator Jim Talent and Representative Molinari spoke with reporters about the former speaker and his leadership record in the House. Both Republicans were scathing in their assessment of their former...

Earth to Planet GOP

Cindy CasaresJan 18, 2012
Watching the Republican presidential primaries leaves me feeling kind of sorry for the candidates. In their attempts to appeal to minority voters, they’re like a group of Dungeons and Dragons buddies decorating their basement in hopes that the cheerleaders will show up. I’ve got news for you guys: You may get cheered on for telling poor people to shape up and calling Barack Obama the "food-stamp president" at GOP debates, but you’re sorely out of touch with the rest of us. The 2010 census showed that nonwhites accounted for the majority of growth in this country in the past ten years. Fifty major American cities would be on the decline if it weren’t for Latino and Asian growth, and whites are the minorities in four states. Yet the current crop of Republican nominees consists of five white guys who seem unable to relate to Americans living in a fundamentally different society. The race and gender of these candidates wouldn’t be such an issue if their platforms also weren't so offensive...

This Year's Jesse Jackson?

Bob MoserJan 17, 2012
It was the most annoying and insulting refrain of the 1988 Democratic primaries: “What does Jesse want?” What the Reverend Jackson wanted, of course, was the nomination—which he came closer to winning than anybody seems to remember. And now it’s back , Ron Paul-style. “His goal is to make himself leader of the opposition—within the Republican Party,” writes Charles Krauthammer. “He is Jesse Jackson of the 1980s.” (Unless he’s the Pat Buchanan of 1992, that is.) The Hill was a bit less subtle, asking in a headline: “What does Ron Paul want?” Jackson probably likes this version no better than the original, particularly with more racist passages from Paul’s 1990s newsletters being unearthed all the time. But we’re sure to keep hearing the question repeated for months, as Paul piles up delegates. Does he want a big speech at the convention where he can espouse his contrarian views in prime time, a la Buchanan’s infamous culture-war speech ? Does he hope to have enough delegates to...

What "Not Very Much" Income Is to Mitt Romney

Paul WaldmanJan 17, 2012
Up until now, Mitt Romney has refused to release his tax returns, something that he surely knew would eventually become an issue. And it isn't too hard to figure out why. When you're struggling to get past your image as an out-of-touch rich guy, having front-page stories about the millions you're pulling in isn't something you'd look forward to. And in Mitt's case, there are really two problems. The first is his income, which we can be pretty sure is in the seven figures. And this is despite the fact that he hasn't actually held a job in years. Unlike people who work for a living, Romney makes money when his money makes him more money. Which leads us to the second problem: the tax rate he pays. Because our tax system treats investment income more favorably than wage income, Romney probably pays the capital gains tax rate of 15 percent on most of his income, as opposed to the 33 percent marginal rate he'd be paying if that money were wages. Which is what Romney was forced to admit...

Mitt Romney will Govern as a Tea Partier

Jamelle BouieJan 17, 2012
Jamelle Bouie Mitt Romney speaks to an audience in Charleston, South Carolina. Over at his blog, Jonathan Bernstein makes an important point about Mitt Romney’s place among the GOP field: Indeed, as far as I can tell there’s virtually no separation between Romney and the other candidates on core conservative issues. The main “problem” with Romney from their point of view is not his current professed positions; it’s whether he can be trusted, given his record in Massachusetts (including both his time as governor and his two campaigns). For all of the talk about Romney being a moderate, when you compare him to his rivals for the nomination, he’s a doctrinaire conservative on everything from reproductive rights (he doesn’t like them) to taxes (they should be lower, especially for rich people). Some people hope that Romney’s moderate side will emerge should he become president, but that ignores the political circumstances that shape the incentives for incumbent politicians. Because of his...

The End is Nigh

Jamelle BouieJan 17, 2012
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA —In talking to Republican voters across the state, one thing I’ve found interesting—and alarming—is the degree to which apocalyptic rhetoric is par for the course. “We will not recognize the United States after four more years after Obama,” said John Leach, an avid supporter of Newt Gingrich who attended the candidate's Sunday rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. “We are surely moving toward socialism.” he said. Likewise, at the South Carolina Tea Party convention, attendees were worried that Obama would make irrevocable changes to the country if he won re-election. “He will take the God out of America,” said Carolyn Church, a housekeeper and domestic worker who sees the country’s “Judeo-Christian heritage” as its most important characteristic. And at Rick Santorum’s town hall at Daniel Island Elementary, attendees were terrified that Obama would impose tyranny if he made it through 2012. “This is the most important election of our lifetimes,” said Susan...

Incredibly, Mitt Romney Really Is the Republicans' Best Chance

Paul WaldmanJan 17, 2012
Barring the emergence of, in the immortal words of Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, a dead girl or a live boy, it's all but certain that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president. It's safe to say that there aren't too many Republicans deliriously happy about this outcome. Some may be satisfied, some may be pleased, many are disappointed, the majority are resigned, but if there are any Republicans jumping out of their chairs with excitement at the prospect of a Romney nomination, they haven't been located. And what's most amazing about it is that Mitt Romney really is the best they've got. We have to step back and acknowledge just how fortunate Barack Obama is. With unemployment still over 8 percent, under ordinary circumstances you'd expect a sitting president's re-election bid to be all but doomed. But the GOP nominee is going to be an incredibly phony, unappealing guy with not a single evident principle who finds it impossible to relate to Earth humans and embodies...

Out of The Quiet Rooms

Paul WaldmanJan 17, 2012
AP Photo/John Amis
Even the most disciplined candidate can't get through an entire presidential campaign without uttering at least one or two gaffes, those emblematic statements journalists will mention again and again to provide vivid illustration of his or her character defects. Few candidates are more disciplined than Mitt Romney, but the likely Republican nominee has already built up a small library of such verbal misfires, which could become the signposts of a most enlightening and overdue discussion on which we will now embark. If we're lucky (and Romney is unlucky), that discussion will move beyond the oversimplifications we've gotten used to, and demand that we re-examine some very basic ideas about our economy, like what "business" really represents, how capitalism creates its winners and losers, and what government might do about it. In recent days, Romney has added some doozies to his growing list of cringe-worthy comments. In June, the man worth an estimated $200 million joked to a group of...

Smooth Sailing for Mitt

Jamelle BouieJan 17, 2012
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA —After 15 debates and months of campaigning, one thing is still true of the Republican presidential field: No one wants to take on Mitt Romney. At first, during last night's South Carolina GOP debate, there were signs that Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry would remove the gloves and challenge the former Massachusetts governor. Gingrich opened his bid with a defense of his statements on Bain Capital—“I don’t think raising questions is a prerogative only of Barack Obama. … I raise questions that I think are legitimate questions.” Perry continued along those lines, pressing Romney to release his tax returns (to the large applause of the audience). “Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax, so people can find out how you made your money,” Perry said. “The people of South Carolina have to decide whether they have a flawed candidate or not. We cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now.” Santorum attacked Romney on...

Love Till It Hurts

Gershom GorenbergJan 17, 2012
If there's anything that can produce more anxiety than watching the Republicans pick a presidential candidate, it's watching the process from Israel. Yes, I know that the Republican candidates—well, except for Ron Paul—all love Israel. Newt Gingrich is still in the race because of the cash his super PAC got from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, whose other political investments include financing an Israeli newspaper that exists to promote Benjamin Netanyahu. Rick Santorum has just been endorsed by the high council of theocons, who are sure they understand Israel's importance better than the Jews do. Mitt Romney's foreign-policy platform restates —in more polite but equally counterfactual terms—his accusation of last year that "President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus." This is exactly what makes me nervous. These candidates would love Israel to death. What's scary is not just that any Republican from the class of '12 is likely to replace Barack Obama's uneven support for Israeli-...

Give Us Someone to Endorse, Please!

Gabriel AranaJan 16, 2012
¡Somos Republicans!—the country's self-proclaimed largest Latino Republican group— endorsed New Gingrich today, saying that the candidate "has been working hard for many years to include American Hispanics in the overall conversation for a better America." The group also lamented Jon Huntsman's departure from the race and criticized Mitt Romney's "non-humanitarian approach" to immigration reform. While I never quite understand groups that support a party that is actively antagonistic to their key interests (see GOProud, the Log Cabin Republicans), Gingrich is indeed the best of the lot when it comes to immigration reform. Whereas the two lead candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, oppose anything other than stricter enforcement of immigration laws, Gingrich has come out in support of certain provisions of the DREAM Act; has proposed offering undocumented immigrants with deep ties to their community a path to citizenship; and recognized that much of the immigration problem is...

It's Not Me; It's You

Jamelle BouieJan 16, 2012
Jamelle Bouie Jon Huntsman speaks during a Q&A session at the University of South Carolina. MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA —By the time Jon Huntsman tried to sell himself as a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, it was too late—he had already defined himself as a moderate Republican, and in the process alienated conservative voters. Indeed, you could describe Huntsman’s campaign as an exercise in attacking the voters he needed to win the nomination. John Weaver, his chief strategist, was known for his attacks on the right wing of the Republican Party, and Huntsman himself was willing to disparage conservative voters. When, in a tweet last summer, Huntsman said, “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” he explicitly disagreed with conservatives in a way that appealed to liberal and moderate disdain for the right. Likewise, as Byron York described for the Washington Examiner , Huntsman was willing to question his own party's sanity: The next...

Huntsman '16: Catch the Fever

Paul WaldmanJan 16, 2012
When he first got into the presidential race, I assumed Jon Huntsman was playing a long game. In the 2012, Tea Party-dominated Republican Party, a guy who had worked for the Obama administration and who, though ideologically conservative, was not inclined to treat anyone who disagreed with him as a despicable socialist demon worthy only of spittle-flecked contempt, had no chance of winning, a fact he surely must have understood. So one reasonable path was to run a respectable campaign, watch Mitt Romney lose in the general, and prepare for a strong race in 2016, when conditions would be more favorable. After all, Republicans typically have to run multiple times before they get their party's nomination. In the last four decades, the only Republican who got the nomination on his first try was George W. Bush (and Gerald Ford, but he was president at the time). So it seems like a sensible plan. But there's one hitch: In order for Huntsman '16 to have any chance, the party is going to have...

Evangelical Ballot Stuffing

Patrick CaldwellJan 16, 2012
An endorsement from a group of 150 social conservatives over the weekend should have been a huge gain for Rick Santorum's campaign. The South Carolina primary—Santorum's last real shot to block Mitt Romney's waltz to the general election—is right around the corner, and 60 percent of the Republican primary electorate in 2008 was evangelical or born-again Christians. Yet it's hard to see how exactly this endorsement will play out. The group as a whole did not commit resources to boosting Santorum's bid. It remained unclear Saturday afternoon if the attendees who entered the weekend supporting Newt Gingrich (or the few misbegotten souls still clinging to Rick Perry) would switch their ties and commit to Santorum as the anti-Romney of choice. Now, tales of dissent among the conservative rank and file are already starting to leak out. According to the Washington Times , a "civil war" is already under way following the Texas meeting: The meeting was called to avoid a continued division...

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