Gee . . . Could this be indicative of a rift in the Republican Party?

Shocking . . . Absolutely Shocking ! ! !

Yikes ! ! !

I watched the speech live and the old Mittster went ballistic on Drumpf in his speech today.

The talking heads on Fox 'news' are going crazy tearing apart Romney and bolstering Drumpf's credentials over Romney's taking down of the Donald. Their talking heads are spinning 'round and 'round.

Mitt Romney tells Donald Trump voters they’re ‘suckers’

Donald Trump has run an unapologetically coarse, give-the-elites-the-finger presidential campaign, ruthlessly mocking his rivals, attacking Latinos and Muslims, trampling long-held conservative ideas, and bluntly dismissing the Republican establishment. The tinsel-haired showman has promised delighted supporters that he will take on the politicians who have betrayed them and lead Americans to victory over the global forces that have crushed their hopes of living the American Dream.
On Thursday, twice-failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney — the living, breathing, immaculately coiffed human embodiment of the same Republican establishment that Trump publicly reviles and of the economic currents that he exploits but claims to despise – tried to convince the reality star’s supporters that they are “suckers” being taken in by a dangerous con man.

“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” the millionaire investor told a friendly audience at the Hinckley Institute of Politics in Salt Lake City . “He’s playing the American people for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”

Romney, who was referring to the red baseball caps bearing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, did not endorse any individual Republican candidate for president in 2016 and sharply attacked Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton as unfit for office. The result was a speech that the former Massachusetts governor might have given had he run.

It was a litany of attacks, personal and policy-based, reaching as far back as the failure of failed vanity projects like Trump Vodka and as close as Trump’s ugly tangle with Fox New Channel’s Megyn Kelly.

Romney notably led an all-out attack on arguable Trump’s biggest strength: His reputation as a savvy and hugely successful businessman. What about Trump Airlines? Trump University? Trump Mortgage? Trump Vodka?

“A business genius, he is not,” the former Massachusetts governor said.
And Romney previewed what strategists in both parties have suggested could be the best line of attack against Trump: That his missteps cost others dearly.

“His bankruptcies have crushed small businesses and the men and women who worked for them,” he said.
Romney repeatedly returned to sharp assaults on Trump’s temperament and his judgment.

“Donald Trump says he admires Vladimir Putin, at the same time he’s called George W. Bush a liar,” Romney said. “That is a twisted example of evil trumping good.”

Romney’s broadside came as part of an escalating and increasingly desperate-feeling GOP establishment attack on Trump, whose Super Tuesday romp left him the party’s 2016 front-runner. The effort includes ramped-up efforts by the anti-Trump Our Principles Super PAC .

It’s not clear whether any of this will work. It’s late in the cycle. Trump voters seem to regard even accurate media coverage as an illegitimate attack on their guy. And his opponents have yet to catch fire with Republican primary voters, or do much to take down Trump, who has also shrugged off campaign-trail criticisms from former president George W. Bush. Meanwhile, in Washington, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has scolded Trump for failing to denounce the KKK sufficiently loudly – and drew a threat in response.

“Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him. And if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price, OK?” Trump said at his Super Tuesday-night press conference.

Romney’s attacks were awkward in part because he courted, and secured, Trump’s endorsement in 2012 – after the brash-talking New Yorker made himself the standard-bearer for racist-tinged “birther” claims that President Barack Obama was ineligible for the White House.

Still, Romney assailed Trump’s calls for banning Muslims from entering the United States, as well as his regular blasts against Latino immigrants.

“He’s a man, who as you know, begged me, and I mean begged me for my endorsement four years ago,” Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” a few hours before the speech.

“We backed him and I helped him and raised money for him, and I did everything, but he didn’t do the job, he didn’t have the capability to do the job,” Trump added.

Romney argued that it’s not too late to derail the Trump train. And he even proposed a strategy in which Republican voters should cast their ballots for whichever of Trump’s rivals seems most likely to beat him in a given state - an effort to deny him the majority of delegates. That could lead to a brokered nominating convention, with an uncertain outcome.

In a recent Yahoo News interview, Romney’s top 2012 strategist , Stuart Stevens, suggested that the clash with Trump was far from preordained.

“Donald Trump had a choice in the very beginning: to become a serious candidate for president or to run as kind of a Jesse Ventura candidate,” Stevens said, referring to the blunt-speaking former professional wrestler and action movie actor who starred in “Predator” and later became governor of Minnesota.

“Had he become a serious candidate for president, he would have taken the time and done the work to study policy, and really learned a lot. He, in Iowa, would have been meeting with business people, small-biz people, asking their ideas,” Stevens continued. “He would have been meeting with teachers and students and parents and talking about education. He would have been doing these things that candidates that want to succeed and are serious do.”

But “instead, what he’s done is what he enjoys. He’s at a point in his life where he doesn’t do anything he doesn’t enjoy,” the consultant said. “What does he enjoy? He likes having these big rallies and going out and ranting for an hour. That’s fine — it just has very little correlation to what you need to do to get elected president.”



I'm pretty sure Drumpf will come out with both guns blazing at tonight's 'debate' to eviscerate Romney.

Hey, but everything's A-OK with the Republican Party.    Yeah, right.

Last edited by Rongone (3/03/2016 12:58 pm)

I know there has been some discussion that if the Republican nomination went to the convention that there is a possibility Mitt might jump in and be nominated.

I would prefer him to everyone else in the race and hope that happens.

Brady Bunch wrote:

There has also been discussion that Paul Ryan might be nominated if it went to the convention.  I would also be excited to see that happen as well.

It is a very unlikely scenario, but one can only hope.

I am looking for candidates that CAN and WILL reach across the aisle. They don't have to like or agree with the "other" party, just agree that compromise is better than the do-nothing representation that we generally have had over the last couple of general elections. 

Trump actually might be able to do that, but I just cannot stomach his demeanor. 

Kasich has proved to be the true gentleman in all of this fiasco. 

At this moment I am embarrassed to be a Republican but also have felt for many years that the Republican Party that I once knew has ceased to exist many years ago. If it would not be for the fact that PA does not have open primaries, I would definitely be registered Independent.