GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
Dear Governor Romney,
If you have yet to do so, I suggest you hire race42008’s Jason Bonham to be your chief adviser. The most astute criticism I’ve heard in a long time was when he said that the candidates are wearing out the Reagan brand during this campaign. You might very well have the most brilliant economic mind out there, but “The Reagan Zone?” A plan called “The Reagan Zone?” Mitt, you are probably the most qualified to comment on this, so why do you have to do it by giving it a gimmicky Reagan title that makes me want to go watch the “I was an independent during Reagan/Bush” youtube spot again and again.
The title of your economic plan should draw a little attention, but then be forgotten by the details of it. By titling it “The Reagan Zone,” you’re asking for it, and playing right to your weakness. Reagan’s dead, and unless you can conjure him up with a crystal ball, he can’t give your plan his seal of Reaganesque approval. Why don’t you ask Ronnie Jr.? I’m sure he’d approve of using his fathers name [cough bull$h!t...cough] as a political gimmick.
Please stop doing things like this. It’s beneath your candidacy.
Your pal,
Tommy O.
P.S. DORK!!!
From Mitt Romney’s website:
Governor Romney Proposes “Reagan Zone Of Economic Freedom”
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
“Reagan Zone of Economic Freedom.” Catchy title! I had a conversation with Reagan about Praxeology one time. He understood the nuances of von Mises’s take on Austrian economic theory, and he was devoted to economic freedom and the concomitant need to constrict the state. Since he shared that interest with Romney, Mitt’s naming this after Ronnie is entirely appropriate and in immaculate taste.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
seems a little over the top to me. As if he didn’t mention Reagan’s name several times at the debate . . .
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I mentioned after the last debate that by invoking Reagan’s name every tenth word, Romney is really diminishing himself.
I’m sure he and his advisors figured they needed to get people to forget Bush and remember Reagan, but my word…..
What next? Romeny tells us he eats Reagan Flakes every morning for breakfast? That under his suit he’s wearing Reaganwear?
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
“Mitt’s naming this after Ronnie is entirely appropriate and in immaculate taste.”
Hmm. Does anyone smell DORK? Haha
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:25 pm
…..I’m surprised two years ago (that magic time for conversion and reflection) that Romney didn’t rename all of his children “Ronald.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
MWS,
Seriously. I would have started with Tagg the war…er… campaign hero
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Actually on second though, MiTT can keep TaGG and rename Josh to RoNN.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Tommy,
All Republican candidates have invoked the name of the Great Communicator from time to time. Some do it more than others, but I think if any of them are forced or asked to stop, then they all should.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Well I’d bet most of the other GOP candidates might want to return to Reagan-Bush or at least were Republican during Reagan-Bush
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Mitt offering Jason a job it totally unnecessary… Here’s already a member of “the inner circle” by his membership in the Faith & Values Committee
.
Oh geez… Bonham is probably going to smack me for that one the next time I see him. Which is worrisome considering he’s like 10 feet tall.
Well, I’m smaller and quicker.
I hope….
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Tommy, thank you for caring so much about my COC (candidate of choice) that you wrote him a letter. I think all the candidates need to lay off Reagan a little bit. Anyway, I hope he heeds your advice. You’re one smart guy.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Tommy, thank you for caring so much about my COC (candidate of choice) that you wrote him a letter. I think all the candidates need to lay off Reagan a little bit. Anyway, I hope he heeds your advice. You’re one smart guy.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
cwpete,
Yes, they all should stop. However, Romney’s just comes across so forced. I’m not really attacking him, but pleading with him for the sake of his reliability. You can use Reagan’s name from time to time, but to start naming your plans and policy after the guy? That’s a little bit over the top.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I am amazed when intelligent people with high-paid advisors do stupid things. This was just stupid, not just because of the name but because of the politics.
Let me say first that Reagan was not a free trader. His administration took many protectionist measures.
But the politics are not favorable on trade. People are feeling very apprehensive and there is the sense that we are losing our jobs to China and India. I would think that coming out for more trade is suicide. The dems can easily cast him as the candidate for wall street and not main street.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Thanks beth
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
To Rap Music:
PLEASE OH PLEASE
EASE off the REAGAN name GEEZ!
If I hear it one more time I’m gonna _______.
Sorry, couldn’t think of the next best word. I’ll have to work on it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:17 pm
sneeze?
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Beth and Tommy,
I agree, the reagan tick has to stop. It makes EVERYONE on stage look small by comparison. i understand the reagan library debate started the ball rolling, but by now it’s a total cop-out answer whether it’s from Romney, Rudy, or Ron Paul.
The world is a different place than it was in 1981 with different problems. The party really was a different party in 1980 than 2007. And whoever is elected will be a different president.
Dems did this with FDR and they insist on his platform when it’s no longer relevant. Bill Clinton is the only Democrat in a couple generation to challenge any of FDR’s orthodoxy. The GOP needs to keep changing with the times.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
That depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘Republican’ is.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I can’t knock you on the name thing. It’s a little silly. Romney is a little nerdy so I guess things happen, but I guessing the plan itself is pretty good though I haven’t had a chance to read it yet,
Kavon, I am driving up the 94 as we speak- in a rented red chevy pickup.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Tommy,
Do you have any familiarity with marketing? What better way to draw attention to the position than to associate it with the greatest icon of your target market? The promotion of free trade is a central raison d’etre of the Republican party, and the denigration of it is a major reason to weep for the Republic. More than anything else, the Smoot-Hawley tariff was the dominant cause of the great depression. If we want to fight for the futures of our country we must fight for free trade. Mitt is demonstrating his willingness to do it, and in the name of the greatest champion of economic liberty the country has produced in my lifetime.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
#17 Well the two words that come to mind right now are wheeze and hurl (going into a different rhyming sequence).
Neither one is working for me, I’ll have to think about it for a while. I was hoping for some inspiration.
Wait I got it…
PLEASE OH PLEASE
EASE off the REAGAN name GEEZ!
If I hear it one more time I’m gonna fall to my knees.
Whack my head.
Act like I’m dead.
Then I’ll consider voting for Fred.
LOL
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
#17 Well the two words that come to mind right now are wheeze and hurl (going into a different rhyming sequence).
Neither one is working for me, I’ll have to think about it for a while. I was hoping for some inspiration.
Wait I got it…
PLEASE OH PLEASE
EASE off the REAGAN name GEEZ!
If I hear it one more time I’m gonna fall to my knees.
Whack my head.
Act like I’m dead.
Next think you’ll know, I’ll be voting for Fred.
LOL
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
LMAO you guys don’t get it. This is a brilliant idea. Romney’s plan is to transcend the art of pandering into a new zone where no one has ever walked before. He is a caricature of a politician but only he is not a politician, he is only playing their game. At some point you’ll understand the genius. Meanwhile you can expect McCain to take his bait (again) and start whining about Mitt Romney this, Mitt Romney that, which will translate into more exposure and higher poll numbers for Romney, as has been happening lately.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:26 pm
shawnie,
Pretty positive fred uses regans name like its going out of style.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Dave,
I’m not knocking the specifics of the plan. I haven’t read it fully, but I’m willing to give Romney the benefit of the doubt because he obviously would have a better understanding of economics than I do (I’m no economist).
The problem is that the GOP already has an image problem, and the media is all over how all of the candidates keep bringing up Reagan to identify themselves with him. Mitt is smart enough to speak for himself without trying to hang on to the Reagan coattails. All it does is give those who are already skeptical more reason to roll their eyes at him. It’s silly. He should let the plan stand on its own without trying to jump on the Reagan name value. It brings back the “I was an independent during the time of Reagan/Bush” and makes it fair game to his opponents and skeptics.
Or those who are yet to become true believers in “Romneydom.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:39 pm
The “plan” really isn’t one. There are few specifics and of course no price tag for the retraining and worker asistance programs.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Jason #20,
DOH!
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Tommy,
Great post! I completely agree. And no, the “Dork” comment in the end doesn’t make you look childish, small, pathetic, intellectually vacant, like a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance at all. Keep up the good work.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Arg - do you really think this is a strategy or are you being sarcastic.
I’ve always said, all along, that Romney is a corny nerd. That’s why people don’t get him. They think he’s trying to be slick and fake, but he’s got this innocence about him. People in today’s world just can’t comprehend someone like Mitt. He really IS squeaky clean and earnest. The only way people can understand it, is to say he’s fake.
This Reagan tick,
Is making me sick,
If I hear it once more,
I’ll barf on the floor.
Enough everyone!
Reagan’s time is done!
A new age has come —
Be the man for this one!
How’s that, Shawnie?
Look what you’ve started, Tommy!
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
#29 Troy
LOL
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Romney is continuing his surge…
http://mydryfly.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/romney-surges-in-sc-florida/
Jump onboard Tommy!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Bethtopaz
Excellant!
Last line;
Be the man (on your own) for this one!
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Why don’t write a petition and have everyone sign it and send it to ALL the Republican candidates? We can call it “A Moratorium on Using the Name of Ronald Reagan” and we could include the best poem.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Mitt is obviously an economic genius given what he did for the Olympics, the state of Massachusetts , a, and the nd the and companies he has headed. I don’t think he needs the Reagan label, though it does help the public hearken back to a time of economic prosperity. Maybe that’s the idea.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:49 pm
[...] huh. Tommy cries, “good grief.” And for good reason. A plan called “The Reagan Zone?â€? Mitt, you are probably the most [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
#36 — “Mittens Is Not Reagan”?? Is that your cute, disparaging name for Mitt Romney? You must be from Free Republic. They use those kinds of juvenile name-calling tricks over there.
When you call candidates names other than their real names or initials it just makes you look really silly and causes you to lose credibility. At least it does with me.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
bethtopaz, it is part of the strategy. This is coming right after the “I speak for the republican wing” cycle. What it does is it generates a controversy that (if it works) will make Mitt Romney the center of attention. McCain will probably fall for it again and will start complaining that Romney voted for Tsongas in 1994. FOX news loves a controversy so they will give this ample air time. Meanwhile, Joe Sixpack in Kansas couldn’t care less that Romney voted for this Tsongas person 15 years ago but he will find the Reagan Zone to be an endearing concept. Needless to say McCain will come across like a crybaby but he will have fulfilled his mission of promoting Mitt Romney.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I was SO unimpressed with the way McCain tried to disparage Romney in that sullen, little kid brother manner at one point in the debate, and again elsewhere in MSM. If he had pouted, it couldn’t have been any more demeaning to himself.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Arg - thanks! That does make sense.
I read that when Mitt was CEO of Bain he would stir up discussions and disagreements between everyone to get them talking and thinking.
He is no dummy. And he is willing to make himself look silly and corny, if it works.
I think my whole political philosophy can be broken down to this one thing: I believe in the politics of what works.
Socialism/Communism has been proven to NOT WORK. Capitalism WORKS!
That’s one of the main reasons that I am so attracted to Mitt Romney as a candidate.
He is a brainstormer. He is a solutions guy. He will analyze, pick apart, and brainstorm until he comes up with the best solution. And if that solution isn’t perfect, he is willing to tweak it until it gets closer to perfection.
We really need someone in Washington D.C. who is willing to dispense with Conventional Wisdom and the Status Quo and really makes changes that WORK!
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Mittens is just a nickname. Don’t get all ruffled about it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:18 pm
#39 - Yeah, Shawnie, that’s the thing about McCain that is really unattractive. He uses his “hero-ness” in Vietnam to fend off criticism. Who’s going to criticize a war hero and someone who endured torture for our country? I even feel bad about it right now.
Romney didn’t even react to John McCain. Romney is focused on who he is really in competition with — Rudy.
Did you notice at the debate that Thompson was constantly attacking Rudy?
I’m sure his campaign handlers advised him, and perhaps he even advised himself, that he had to make the debate about him and Rudy. Remember the last debate? Thompson became invisible in the fireworks that were going on between Mitt and Rudy.
Mitt is not going to fight with someone who he does not perceive to be a threat. It only gives that person attention.
Look at what Barack Obama did today: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/romney-makes-obama-osama-gaffe/?ex=1193803200&en=565d495ef7942601&ei=5070&emc=eta1
But if you notice the 2:45 p.m. update (at the end of the article), he is backtracking and saying he doesn’t pay much attention to Mitt Romney.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
HA! I love it, it is irking all the right people to be irked and it is garnering attention!
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:20 pm
#41 Psycheout - I’m not ruffled - it’s just a turn-off. There’s so much junior high stuff going on this campaign and I’m sure I’m not innocent of it, myself.
Everyone wants their candidate to be and do the best. And everyone wants ANYONE BUT HILLARY CLINTON.
There’s a lot of angst running through the GOP faithful right now - at least the ones that are paying attention.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
bethtopaz,
You get it. As time goes by, more people will get it.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Thanks, Dave (45) - All you guys here are helping me. I’m really new at politics. Didn’t wake up til 9/11.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
whoa! mitt lost Don Wilton. Mitt can’t count all his evangelical eggs before they hatch.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,304576,00.html
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Sampo, who is your candidate of choice?
And notice in the article that he is pulling his support from Romney to give it to someone else, he just didn’t know his name and support would be so widely spread nationally (yet another person not used to the lightening quick speed of the Internet) and he has NEVER endorsed anyone for president, whether republican or democrat.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I meant, “he is NOT pulling his support from Romney to give it to someone else.”
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:17 pm
It would be nice if Giuliani would quit saying 9/11 too. And McCain quit talking about being a POW. Somethings are just the way they are in Politics. I don’t think it bothers most people like it does us political junkies.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:27 pm
sampo is a true blue straight talkin’ McCainiac.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:35 pm
MJN - I was thinking about this same thing when I was watching the debate the other night.
As most folks here know - I’m a big Romney fan, but when I hear him repeat his credentials all over again, I start to cringe. But I cringe when the others do the same.
But for people like us (political junkies - and it is truly an addiction, with all the signs) we have heard all the candidates’ credentials, we know all their one-liners and used-too-often jokes.
But most ordinary Americans have not been paying attention, and to them, it’s all new!!
I guess that’s the reason they have to keep repeating it. For those new folks, hearing it for the first time.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
beth.. please!
i offered to send you a mccain bumper sticker just yesterday.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
AMEN! I am a huge Romney guy, but cheesiness like this has got to stop. It is just simple pandering and we all see right through it. Romney, you can do better than that.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Tommy,
I read your post and agreed with it but now I think that Argamenon might be on to something. Mitt can be granola sometimes but he is a genius and as Townhall’s Patrick Ruffini (or was it Matt Lewis) wrote yesterday, nothing in the Romney Campaign happens by accident.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:36 pm
#50 MJN is right. But they won’t stop. Pandering is what politicians do best. Avoiding the real issues is part of the game for these folks.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:06 pm
No one else does this but Mitt.
Since he doesn’t really believe anything, his pandering is obvious. It’s like he compiled people together in a big committee on conservatism and took notes about what he should do. “Ah, you say they like Reagan, eh? We’ll just stamp his name on a couple of our programs here, and that should do it.” “God, huh? Social conservatives are into that guy. Let’s say something about him and cue applause.”
I like all of our candidates a lot…just not Mitt, who doesn’t know how to run anything but business. In politics, you’re not supposed to try and be all things to all people. You can in a business, and that’s great. Mitt’s a great businessman. Success in business doesn’t necessarily transfer into politics.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
sampo - sorry about that! it slipped my mind.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:54 pm
[...] had one of those days. First, he unveils an economic plan, which gets more attention for it’s weird title than it’s details. Secondly, He commits a gaffe while campaigning today in South Carolina. By [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[...] had one of those days. First, he unveils an economic plan, which gets more attention for it’s weird title than it’s details. Secondly, He commits a gaffe while campaigning today in South Carolina. By [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Love the name. Brilliant. What do you think Guiliani or Thompson will call their plans? (Do they even have an economic plan?) I’ll tell one thing, it won’t have the name “Reagan” on it. Score one for Mitt Romney.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:37 am
#61 - bobarth - thank you!
October 24th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Very funny. I wonder what Michael Reagan would say? He already got on TV once and said that Thompson was no Reagan… And he supports Mike Huckabee.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I like Michael Reagan. If Hillary wins, he should run in 2012.