Mitt Romney...what are his policies?

well, Mitt will be meeting with the CPAC (the conservatives of the GOP) in DC this weekend. Im sure he will roll out his latest deeply held convictions and will clarify how, occasionally, he's changed many of his earlier deeply held convictions .

I wish someone asked this question of Obama before he was chosen.

Except for his free market economy killing Marxists ways, we still don't know what Obama's really about.

he's all about the magic underwear




and his pet rat ben

What are his CURRENT deeply held convictions, though?

For a Repub, is he far right, right, centre, or left of centre?

The magic underwear etc. bothers me.

U.S. Presidents have far less power than the rest of the world seems to think. Much more important is the composition of Congress. That being said, with all 435 House seats up for election and one third of the Senate, it is silly to think that people in other countries can be expected to follow those election campaigns.

The force of the personality of the president, and the skills of his administative team are what determines how well he (or she) can wield power, mitigated by the relationship with Congress. So, for example, Bush's team very cleverly manipulated public opinion so that members of Congress feared the reaction of the electorate if they didn't give him war powers in the proposed invasion of Iraq. Had congress not give him war powers, he'd have been obliged to wage war for 60 days without their approval, and hope to get approval after the fact. The war powers resolution also says the president can do this only in an emergency situation, and stipulates an attack or the threat of an attack. So Bush's power in that incident was a product of the successful manipulation of public opinion in the United States. His liars were better than the opposition's liars.

So Mr. Romney's personality, and the quality of the advisors he would appoint if elected matter far more than any policies he might articulate. Of course, as FM has pointed out, Mr. Romney's deeply held convictions are subject to sudden and dramatic change. He has a wonderful talent for verbal gaffes, after which his handlers are obliged to show their creative writing talents to show that what he said was not actually what he said. He seems to be an inveterate waffler, and seems to want to be all things to all Republicans. It really would be difficult to make a confident statement of his policies.

It is very likely that the composition of the Congress will not dramatically change. The enthusiasm of the teabaggers which allowed the Republicans to take over the House in the mid-term election seems to have waned, so the composition of the House probably will not change dramatically. There are currently 51 Democratic Senators, and two independents who caucus with the Democrates. There are 47 Republican Senators. Only ten Republican seats are up for election, and incumbents have a dramatic advantage in these elections. On the other side of the aisle, the two independents and five of the Democratic Senators have said they will not run. That means those seven seats are up for grabs. Sixteen Democratic Senators will be running for re-election, and they, too, of course, will enjoy the advantages of incumbency. There is a good chance for the Republicans to take over the Senate, but it will be close. Thirty-five Democrats are not up for election, and Thirty-seven Republicans are not up for election. Niether party enjoys the confidence of the electorate.

Ideologically, Romney is a moderate Republican. He is very much like a conservative Democrat. Bill Clinton is a conservative Democrat. That is not to say that Romney would have the same policies, but he is ideologically closer to Clinton than he is to the other Republicans who oppose him for the nomination. This is the source of the acrimony in the Republican nomination process. The hysterical lunatic fringe of the party don't know who they want to hate more--the communist Obama or the RINO Romney. (RINO=Republican in name only.)

Mitt is slightly to the right of Obama, and left of center.

Mr. Romney is by no means to the left of center. That's just silly, and typical of the hysterical lunatic fringe of the right.

I think he's an empty suit.

That's mildly reassuring....that he's relatively moderate.

I agree, and that is more distressing than anything else. If he were elected, his administrative "team" would be the ones who really ran his administration, even more so than Cheney et al in the Baby Bush administration.

That's an excellent description of Obama.

You are wrong, but I've come to expect that from you.

Was.

That's the problem, and I've read a ton about the guy and still don't know.

He WAS relatively moderate. Does that mean that secretly he's actually moderate, and is just pretending to be a far-right conservative to be elected?

Dunno.

But as of right now, his stated views are far-right conservative. (Pro-choice, anti gay marriage, etc. etc.)

But another big problem is exactly your title question. What ARE his policies?

He's come out with precious little actual concrete stuff -- his campaign is currently "Obama sucks, and I'm a businessman, and I'm conservative, I swear."

Excellent summary statement.

Did you mean anti-choice?

Obama sucks is certainly not much of a policy!

So...he's a policy free zone?

Ha!

That was a good one.

He's sufficiently vague that it is troubling.

I meant pro-life! Sorry.

I wrote "anti-choice" and then tried to change it to "pro-life" (trying to be respectful) but only went halfway. And halfway doesn't work for this one!

He's pretty much policy-free at this point, yes. Not entirely though.

Some things he's mentioned:

- Wanting to repeal health care reform (the one that was, ya know, partly based on his healthcare policy in Massachusetts)

- He's blustered a lot about Iran, and is scary in that sense if he's serious. The question, again, is whether he's serious.

Ha, this is funny, looked up "Mitt Romney policy," this was a result, seemed promising, clicked on it:

http://mittromney.com/Issues/combating-nuclear-terrorism

(In case it changes, as of right now it's BLANK. A page with the word "policy" in the upper left corner, and nothing else.)

Hmmm...certainly not sounding moderate at present.

Blimey.