People of Massachusetts, tell me this about Romney....

I thought it was the liberal state, and I have often wondered about this.

I have my fingers crossed that someone who lives there can fill us in.

I don't know much about Mass. politics but I remember at one point having Romney on my "likeable" radar. Now he's nowhere near it. I'm not sure where or when I disconnected, but I know I disconnected.

His approval rating started out at 66% and fell to 34% by the end of his first term in 2006. There is some disagreement as to why he didn't run for reelection. Some say that it was because he wanted to run for Pres in 2008, others say that it's because he would have lost.

I'm not from Mass, but there's a lot of info here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governorship_of_Mitt_Romney

Well you can't blame me for Romney. I moved out of Massachusetts in April 2002. I had my share of suffering through 3 Republican governors I didn't vote for. Starting with William Weld, Celluci, then Swift. From 1991 to 2002.

As I understand it, like these past governors, Romney took the conservative fiscal road but promised to remain socially moderate. Keep the state very prochoice accessible.

When I left, the US congress, the US Senate, the state house, and the state senate were all in Democratic control. That's until Scott Brown took Kennedy's old seat.

I believe Romney was merely holding his political breath when he was MA governor. I truly don't believe he can be socially moderate as president now his duty to play socially moderate as MA governor is over.

That's about the size of it.

I have no idea why we had Republican governors for so long. I am guessing people liked Weld (helfino why) and thought they'd continue in that mode. But, truly, Swift in particular was an abomination.

As for Romney, my main thought about him was always meh. He just struck me as hair and a suit and little else. Now, of course, he's also a rabid homophobic bully and isn't nice to dogs, among other fun stuff. Oh, and panderer to the far right.

I recall a lot being said about Bill Clinton being a panderer, but Romney is right up there. Pretend at liberalism (or what can pass for it) in order to be the Mass. gov, then pretend at conservatism and Tea Party, er, -ism in order to get the Republican nomination for President. Then, I bet, pretend at middle of the road, uh, -ism in order to try to get elected President. I predict a shift to the middle right about the time of the convention (actually, a week after it), mainly fueled by will o' the wisp polls.

That's a good article, JPB. Thanks for the link. I've only made it about halfway through so far but he does seem socially moderate. I wonder how much of that is influenced by his Mormonism.

So you think he was playing the role of a social moderate?

It looks like he always stayed pretty clear about his own beliefs while understanding that the people he governed felt otherwise. We've had similar experiences with our Governor -- especially on the issue of physician assisted suicide. Our Gov. was against it, vocally against it, unrepentantly against it. He signed it into law because the people voted in favor of it. I really respected that.

I'm going to have to think a bit on the notion of "pandering" as I'm not entirely convinced that it's a bad thing.

It seems that people who recognize all the gray areas between black and white are accused of pandering and I reside in a lot of gray areas.

I live in the grey area most of the time too. I recognize pandering for what it is, but there's no doubt in my mind that Romney is an empty suit (never publicly ran on his heartfelt positions) who simply wants to be President. I think the gay-abusing, hair-cutting teen bully is probably the closest we'll ever see to the real Mitt. He's certainly been a bully in his business dealings. I see him as a man who will climb on the backs of everyone around him in order to get to the top of whatever hill he's trying to climb.

Wow, JPB . . . tell us how you really feel . . .

I don't know what to make of Romney but I do know I'm glad that I'm no longer judged by the idiotic things I did as a teenager.

What he did was reprehensible and the fact that it went unpunished is unforgivable. I'm not guilty of anything approaching that level of behavior.

I think most politicians are empty suits. I have pretty serious reservations by anyone who runs for public office.

Mass is an odd place - for some reason we really like Republican Governors and you are right we are very liberal. But I think truely we have lots of Independents in the state (and we tend to be as a personal trait cheap or is heard more often thrifty) - my opinion which is why we tend towards more moderates for Governor - which is really what any Republican is in Mass - they are moderates.

Democrats in MA are about as liberal as you can get.

I think Mitt is pulling the opposite card simply for the Presidential race to gain more conservatives....again all just my personal opinion from my experience in this state.

Also, my opinion of him - I think personally he is an all around nice guy. Boring - but nice.

Yes that is the typical "Republican" governor of MA - they tend to be more fiscally conservative while more liberal on social issues - the only way for a "Republican" to get elected in MA.

Yeah, I have a pretty low opinion of most career politicians. I'm in IL so my vote is irrelevant. Obama will carry IL. I'm not an Obama fan either. As of today Gary Johnson on the Libertarian ticket has my vote.

Wish I could give more than +1 to this....

I dunno much about Mormonism.
How do u figure that it affects him ?





David

he grows extra hair during a full moon, dave...

not sure if he howls or not.

Hmmm....

I can really only speak from my personal experience but I have known a lot of Mormons and to a person they have all been personally conservative but socially liberal. (I have never met a fundamentalist Mormon, I know they are more socially conservative, but they tend to isolate themselves instead of trying to interfere with other people's lives.)

Their sense of community within their ward (a ward is like a parish) is really amazing to see but it really extends out to the community at large. They really do seem to care about the well being of people as a whole.