Obama says he’ll portray Romney as extreme libertarian

[July]

>Mitt Romney
>Paul Ryan
>Libertarians

Holy hell, lolololololol. Can any sane individual believe this? Obama might have the dumbest political strategy ever if this is what he is doing. "Call Romney a libertarian (a group of people that don't like Romney) and completely misrepresent a group of well informed, activist people". I think we need to have some kind of million libertarian march or something to denounce both Romney and Obama.

To the contrary, I've always thought Obama was intelligent, and he has demonstrated that he does understand the Constitution (understands it, but opposes it, and knows how to manipulate and circumvent it). He understands what classical liberalism is, and is educated in political philosophy. Which is why Ron Paul was always his most direct and formidable opponent, and a debate between the two would have been an interesting thing to see.

The establishment could never let that happen. Paul is the only candidate who could have openly and directly debated Obama on ideology and political philosophy, and the only candidate that would stand in contrast. Romney will only debate Obama with superficial partisan rhetoric, and the American people won't get to see behind the curtain, or understand what drives and motivates our political establishment.

By running against "capitalism" and casting Romney and Ryan as "libertarians" Obama demonstrates he knows exactly who his real opponents are--they aren't Romney or Ryan. It is the growing liberty wing of the GOP. The media has already attacked Ryan on Ayn Rand. Obama is attacking us by proxy. This is win/win for the establishment. If Obama wins, they have discredited us, if Romney wins, a twisted/co-opted version of libertarianism wins.

 

[moostraks]

I think we need to have some kind of million libertarian march or something to denounce both Romney and Obama.

One million libertarians going in the same direction??? Now that would be something to see!

It is more than that. The media is going to try to Paint Romney as a Libertarian. This is a move to co-opt and dilute libertarian philosophy.

Absolutely! Except I don't think anyone expects to draw libertarians in to the fold, more like paint the perception there is some agreement with Romney over Obama. For some libertarians they might be able to pull that lever for Romney on the basis of the evil that you don't know is better than you do, but I think most will abstain or vote third party. My guess is that he is forming a dialogue for a potential loss of power due to his own party people crossing over to vote for Romney and going to blame it on the libertarians. It is a way to tarnish the label, as much as Boortz did by demanding that prostitution is a cornerstone issue of being libertarian.

 

[Aratus]

this is the gameplan assuming mitt solidly emerges out of tampa with scott walker
as a number two instead of senator paul, demint or governors haley or christie???

 

[specsaregood]

But what is the attack? Is it Obama attacking Libertarians, or is it more than that?
It is more than that. The media is going to try to Paint Romney as a Libertarian. This is a move to co-opt and dilute libertarian philosophy.
This isn't about the election. This is about trying to draw libertarians back into the left-right paradigm.

I disagree. I think its a headfake to get Romney to run even more to the middle and by doing so discourage the GOP base from showing up.

 

[TheTexan]

When a pretty good chunk of our already-enslaved country is blaming our country's problems on our freedoms... methinks a secession is in order

 

[Henry Rogue]

This is the best thing that could have happen to Obamney I mean Romney. He has a lack of identity crises.

 

[Aratus]

lets shortsheet the bed on our potus by expecting mitt to flipflop back to where he
was when he took on senator teddy kennedy as we now get OUR rules & platform
planks in place for a rand paul or justin amash or scott walker run in 2016 on a solid
fiscal conservatism as well as a gold standard and astutely pro bill of rights stance!

 

[PaulConventionWV]

"Moreover, polls regularly show that the public wants smaller government and lower taxes, even though they also want a strong federal safety net."

Hmmm. Something about those two things in the same sentence doesn't quite make sense.

*facepalm*

Where do they think the money comes from for the safety nets?

 

[Aratus]

or mayhap maybe lets pose TAMPA as a binary given, because there are only two GOP contenders.

lets try to craft a platform ron paul will like even if mitt romney has to run on the tampa gop planks.

if mitt was not so flipflop prone, i'd feel more guilty about slipping a bill mckinley or grover cleveland

set of economic aspected plankings that go in tandem with a downphase of the institutions w.wilson

brought into being in 1913. i feel that with barack obama's rather bold same sex marriage stance we

have him being extremely leftwing & handing any gop contender the centrist middle. end the fed, yes!

 

[LawnWake]

I may have joked earlier about calling ourselves liberals again but I really believe we need to start calling 'the ideology' something different. Let's co-opt 'voluntaryism'. It's already a form of libertarianism, but to me the word 'voluntary' gets to the bone much more.

They stole liberalism and conservatism from us and they WILL do it to libertarianism. It may just be a word, but if the word is too tainted with negative connotations it'll be impossible to 'market' to people.

Some people will probably reject what I'm saying, perhaps being too attached to a word, but a word is just a vessel and society at large paints it. If we can start with a "new" word and paint it nicely, we'll have more success with it. And while I think words are powerless, the masses don't. 60% of the 'Merican population already believe they're fisically conservative and socially liberal, but they don't like being libertarian.

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I disagree. I think its a headfake to get Romney to run even more to the middle and by doing so discourage the GOP base from showing up.

It's a losing move for us no matter how you evaluate it. Our only option is to keep painting them as the same and make sure everyone knows that Romney is NOT a libertarian. Based on his record, he's a big government liberal.

 

[catdd]

They are trying to turn Libertarian into an ugly word. Now watch Romney deny it and do his best to help run it down.

 

[Aratus]

actually mitt romney is not really backing away from having serious audits of the FED and he has talked with rand paul.
earlier this evening rand was on hannity's program and said he'd be backing mitt romney as the party nominee, so if our
potus takes this as a proof positive of mitt romney's libertarianism rather than dr. rand paul's desire to heal the internal
wounds inside the GOP, as a consensus on the party platform planking is being reached before tampa, okaaaaaaaaaaay.

 

[cheapseats]

This is an overt attack on the liberty movement by Obama...

Yep.

OK, here's how the leftist propaganda works: "Republicans are selfish bastards that want poor people and minorities to just die." Obama and his ilk have pushed that meme and labeled it as "libertarian". It doesn't help when Hannity and Mark Levin claim to be libertarian, and their definition is that "greed is good", "survival of the fittest" and "corporations are people". It should be obvious how all of this dovetails into a convenient attack on Romney.

And on Gary Johnson...two birds with one stone.

It is more than that. The media is going to try to Paint Romney as a Libertarian. This is a move to co-opt and dilute libertarian philosophy.

More like, DEMONIZE.

This isn't about the election. This is about trying to draw libertarians back into the left-right paradigm.

The Liberty Moovement playing for control of the Republican Party is ALREADY sucked into the left-right paradigm. This is to equate LIBERTARIAN with REPUBLICAN in the minds of DEMOCRATS.

They are trying to turn Libertarian into an ugly word. Now watch Romney deny it and do his best to help run it down.

It would be GOOD THING for Gary Johnson to be in the presidential debates...a really good thing.

 

[emazur]

Well this settles it - Dondero declares Romney a libertarian: http://www.nolanchart.com/article9665-rand-paul-gambles-on-romney-has-a-deal-been-made.html

Eric Dondero Rittberg

Romney is also a guy who was personally recruited into politics by the early 1990s #1 elected libertarian fmr. Mass Gov. William Weld (Something you won't hear reported on so-called libertarian sites, cause it doesn't fit the template). Romney was backed in the 1990s by the Republican Liberty Caucus (at a time when Ron Paul served as National RLC Chairman btw). The Weld/Romney people contacted the RLC back then for help, and described him as a "libertarian-leaner" like Weld. But of course, none of this fits the left-libertarian template, so it goes un-reported by so-called "libertarian" sites like Nolan Chart.

Oh, btw, just yesterday Daily Caller headlined a story, "Obama to attack Romney as an "extreme libertarian." That's right, not just libertarian but extreme libertarian. And yet so-called libertarians say Romney is a "squish" not worthy of libertarian support. Go figure?

 

[specsaregood]

It's a losing move for us no matter how you evaluate it. Our only option is to keep painting them as the same and make sure everyone knows that Romney is NOT a libertarian. Based on his record, he's a big government liberal.

I find it moderately interesting that this came out just 2 days before the Rand endorsement, its like they knew it was coming.

 

[Aratus]

mitt + barack + gary = great debate?

 

[UWDude]

It is more than that. The media is going to try to Paint Romney as a Libertarian. This is a move to co-opt and dilute libertarian philosophy.

If Rand is announced as V.P. pick, then you will KNOW this is the strategy. Plan accordingly.

I find it moderately interesting that this came out just 2 days before the Rand endorsement, its like they knew it was coming.

If they can get Rand to only talk about the right-wing side of libertarianism, and silence him on the left-wing side, then yes.

 

[UWDude]

It would be GOOD THING for Gary Johnson to be in the presidential debates...a really good thing.

Will not happen, but i have a proposal for the debates, 2nd post, here:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?379925-The-Shot-heard-around-the-world-Write-in-Ron-Paul