Mitt Romney Is 'The Least Popular Candidate In History'

[Mayhem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/23/david-brooks-mitt-romney_n_1907400.html

After a rocky week that saw plenty of conservatives break away from Mitt Romney, New York Times columnist David Brooks summed up the state of affairs on Sunday.

Brooks was one of several panelists on NBC's "Meet The Press" roundtable, which dove into some data surrounding Romney's popularity.

"Look at his high unfavorable ratings," host David Gregory said. "At 50%. The highest of any candidate running in recent memory. This is an image problem that his philosophical statements in this speech in May to fundraisers only exacerbates."

Brooks did not mince words, calling Romney "the least popular candidate in history."

"He has to look at what the president's weakness is," Brooks said. "He's never gonna win a popularity contest."

Brooks added that Romney "does not have the passion for the stuff he’s talking about."

"He’s a problem solver," Brooks said. "I think he’s a non-ideological person running in an extremely ideological age, and he’s faking it."

Polls have brought grim results surrounding Romney's favorability, with a late August ABC News/Washington Post survey drawing a 35 percent likability rating.

Romney's 47 percent comments added fuel to that fire. After his comments were leaked on Monday, Brooks conceded that he sees the GOP presidential hopeful as a "kind, decent man" running a "depressingly inept presidential campaign."

Video included at the link.

 

[lurkingdirk]

I'm watching him on 60 minutes right now, and I don't find him appealing at all. Frankly, many of his platform policies are not much different from President Obama's policies, but I find I just don't like this guy. And his fake tan is absolutely ridiculous. He looks like he's from the cast of Jersey Shore.

 

[Supafly]

He is Snookie's uncle.

 

[lurkingdirk]

President Obama is on now. I presume his tan is natural?

 

[Red Spyder]

According to the Huffington Post. Since when have they considered any Republican cadidate popular? It would be like Fox News saying that Obama is the most unpopular president ever. Anyway, heard the same thing before with McCain, and before that with Dubya Bush, and before that with Dole.

 

[Rey C.]

"He’s a problem solver," Brooks said. "I think he’s a non-ideological person running in an extremely ideological age, and he’s faking it."

I've been saying this for awhile and I think that's part of his problem now. Romney is having an identity crisis right before our eyes. He can't really be what the radical right wants him to be (because that's not who he is nor has he ever been), he can only play the part. All jokes aside, think about it. Having to pretend to be someone you're not in this kind of pressure cooker environment has got to be tough. Or as Ann Romney said, "This is hard!" - maybe this is part of what she was talking about. I don't know. But clearly the man has been faking it since the primaries. Hell, he's no more of a "severe conservative" than Obama is. In fact, the two of them probably share more ideological agreements than disagreements.

And if Mitt gets elected (which is looking more & more unlikely unless he pulls a rabbit out of the hat during the debates), I think this guy could have some kind of nervous break down if the neocons and tea baggers lean on him too hard. I just can't imagine anybody but James Arness (Marshal Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke) playing a make believe role every week for that long and not cracking!

 

[lurkingdirk]

According to the Huffington Post. Since when have they considered any Republican cadidate popular? It would be like Fox News saying that Obama is the most unpopular president ever. Anyway, heard the same thing before with McCain, and before that with Dubya Bush, and before that with Dole.

Fair point. It is interesting to see people's reactions to the candidates. Just within my own circle of friends, some Dems, Repubs, Independents, and Libertarians, the reactions to Governor Romney are not at all along party lines. The Republicans are disgusted with him, the Democrats don't mind him as much. I wonder if it is significant that the Democrats in my circle are very wealthy, and the Republicans are not...I do think that Romney is less popular with average-income Americans than, say President GW Bush was.

 

[Rey C.]

According to the Huffington Post. Since when have they considered any Republican cadidate popular? It would be like Fox News saying that Obama is the most unpopular president ever. Anyway, heard the same thing before with McCain, and before that with Dubya Bush, and before that with Dole.

No, not according to the Huffington Post - this has nothing to do with Huffington, Fox or any of the others. It's according to data collected by Pew Research.

Who/what is Pew Research? Well... I think you mentioned at one time going back to school to get into banking. I assume you meant going for an MBA? Well, should you do that, much of the demographic data and some of the micro econ data that you'll use in certain classes will be data collected/compiled by Pew. It's not exactly a fly-by-night, partisan outfit. On the specific issue of favorability/unfavorability, no such things would have been said about the candidates you mentioned, since as you can see, it's not true. In fact, Romney is in rather unique territory at this stage of a presidential campaign.

It just is what it is. These findings don't make Romney's mission impossible... but it's not looking like the landslide victory for him that Sammy F. is predicting - not that the S man could ever be wrong.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Pew, while a formidable and wonderful organization, is very left leaning. Take that for what it is worth.

 

[Mayhem]

According to the Huffington Post. Since when have they considered any Republican cadidate popular? It would be like Fox News saying that Obama is the most unpopular president ever. Anyway, heard the same thing before with McCain, and before that with Dubya Bush, and before that with Dole.

No, I don't recall anyone saying that either McCain or Dubya was an unpopular candidate at all, so sorry. Your premise in nonexistent. In fact, Dubya was hugely popular in 2000. Everyone was on his side and he had a virtually limitless warchest.

And if you're going to get all smarmy about HuffPost, then don't follow it up by comparing McCain with Romney. It's ridiculous.

 

[Rey C.]

Pew, while a formidable and wonderful organization, is very left leaning. Take that for what it is worth.

That may be the view of some. I've typically seen Pew described as a "nonpartisan organization" - but some may see it as partisan (probably depends on whether or not they like/agree with the results and findings). And Pew has issued findings which clearly did not favor the "left wing MSM" (as the conservatives typically call it), such as this report on media bias during the 2008 Presidential campaign: Pew Research Center confirms media bias affected race

So unless there is clear evidence of bias, I'm not sure that dismissing data simply based on the source is ever correct. Bias is always possible - intentional or unintentional. But if using the same sampling methodologies and confidence intervals, and if done properly, I would expect a random sample poll from Fox News to show roughly similar findings as a random sample poll from MSNBC. Unless they're juiced, they should be roughly similar.

But still, in this case, since the Pew data in the attached link doesn't appear to be biased against other candidates in the study, who are typically seen as (much) more conservative than Mitt Romney, and all the other candidates have favorability ratings higher than their unfavorability ratings (including the conservatives), how would one explain Mr. Romney's historically unique situation as represented by this data? :dunno:

P.S. To be fair, I'd like to look at any other research data that might show Romney with a net positive on favorability, but then I'd also like to see how that source ranked previous candidates. Apples to apples... and oranges to oranges. Has anybody seen a poll that shows Mitt with a net positive?

 

[lurkingdirk]

That may be the view of some. I've typically seen Pew described as a "nonpartisan organization" - but some may see it as partisan (probably depends on whether or not they like/agree with the results and findings). And Pew has issued findings which clearly did not favor the "left wing MSM" (as the conservatives typically call it), such as this report on media bias during the 2008 Presidential campaign: Pew Research Center confirms media bias affected race

So unless there is clear evidence of bias, I'm not sure that dismissing data simply based on the source is ever correct. Bias is always possible - intentional or unintentional. But if using the same sampling methodologies and confidence intervals, and if done properly, I would expect a random sample poll from Fox News to show roughly similar findings as a random sample poll from MSNBC. Unless they're juiced, they should be roughly similar.

But still, in this case, since the Pew data in the attached link doesn't appear to be biased against other candidates in the study, who are typically seen as (much) more conservative than Mitt Romney, and all the other candidates have favorability ratings higher than their unfavorability ratings (including the conservatives), how would one explain Mr. Romney's historically unique situation as represented by this data? :dunno:

Having been intimately involved with Pew in several projects, I can tell you with certainty that the organisation as a whole is left leaning. They do very good work, however, and generally I trust their findings. I throw out the left-leaning tidbit merely to allow us all to have a moment's pause before swallowing any "data" without scrutiny.

Your post is good, your sources are good. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm merely trying to bring a full understanding to the discussion.

From a personal perspective, and perhaps especially in light of what has been said in this thread, I don't doubt that Governor Romney is unpopular. I think a large part of his votes come from an "Anybody but Obama" perspective. Take that element away, and I think you see his campaign fail so completely, it would be embarrassing.

 

[StanScratch]

Romney is made the same mistake McCain made in 2008: he sold his soul to get elected and cannot turn around. Both tried to appease the radicals who have quickly taken over the Republican party, instead of trying to make sense of the issues. Both got a whole lot of money during the primaries from very rich, powerful fringe characters who helped them get elected in spite of themselves. Sure, neither Romney nor McCain ran on what they truly believed in - but the need to feed that beast known as power was too much for them to turn away.
And once they got away from the primaries and were faced with a general election - with a MUCH more diverse voting populous, they found their downfalls. In Romney's case, he is quickly finding that the tea party does not hold the opinions of the nation, he is finding that the "average voter" fortunately does not hold the same values as those on the far right. By now, it is way, way, way too late for him to turn around, despite his glowing past as a flip-flopper.

 

[bobjustbob]

He is Snookie's uncle.

No,no. George Hamilton. Have you ever seen them in the same room together?

 

[Rey C.]

Having been intimately involved with Pew in several projects, I can tell you with certainty that the organisation as a whole is left leaning. They do very good work, however, and generally I trust their findings. I throw out the left-leaning tidbit merely to allow us all to have a moment's pause before swallowing any "data" without scrutiny.

Your post is good, your sources are good. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm merely trying to bring a full understanding to the discussion.

From a personal perspective, and perhaps especially in light of what has been said in this thread, I don't doubt that Governor Romney is unpopular. I think a large part of his votes come from an "Anybody but Obama" perspective. Take that element away, and I think you see his campaign fail so completely, it would be embarrassing.

Not a problem. I understand the point you're making. But unless there is actual proof of skewing or bias (whether it be Pew, MSNBC or Fox News), or there's a rival study which shows vastly different results, since Pew doesn't seem to be treating past conservatives any better or worse than the past liberal candidates, it's just hard for me to find fault with these results based solely on perceptions of political leanings.

 

[lurkingdirk]

Not a problem. I understand the point you're making. But unless there is actual proof of skewing or bias (whether it be Pew, MSNBC or Fox News), or there's a rival study which shows vastly different results, since Pew doesn't seem to be treating past conservatives any better or worse than the past liberal candidates, it's just hard for me to find fault with these results based solely on perceptions of political leanings.

Fair enough.

 

[averageJoe]

I don't like Obama, but only a fool would believe he or Ryan's lies. I am voting Libertarian. Neither of the others is worthy of leading this once great nation.

 

[meesterperfect]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/23/david-brooks-mitt-romney_n_1907400.html



Video included at the link.

well if the huffingandpuffington said it it must be true.
Its not like they lean certain way or anything like that.

hey, why can't you people just pay attention to what the 2 candidates actuall say/said and do/have done instead of relying on the in full obama campaign mode liberal biased media feeds you?
Ah, nevermind. sometimes I feel like gene hackman in the Poseidon Adventure trying to convince the fools down below to climb the freakin christmas tree around here.
we'll see just how unpopular he is in november.

 

[Mayhem]

well if the huffingandpuffington said it it must be true.
Its not like they lean certain way or anything like that.

hey, why can't you people just pay attention to what the 2 candidates actuall say/said and do/have done instead of relying on the in full obama campaign mode liberal biased media feeds you?
Ah, nevermind. sometimes I feel like gene hackman in the Poseidon Adventure trying to convince the fools down below to climb the freakin christmas tree around here.
we'll see just how unpopular he is in november.

Where do you get the impression that we're not paying attention to the candidates? Where do you get the impresssion that I'm not? If you Conservatives had treated the primaries like a Presidential election instead of popularity/cheerleading captain contest, if you had made Ron Paul your nominee, my posting history would look entirely different regardless of what any news source has to say.

When I post a quoted story, it's because I agree with it on my own. Spoon feeding is unnecessary.

 

[zonty]

well if the huffingandpuffington said it it must be true.
Its not like they lean certain way or anything like that.

hey, why can't you people just pay attention to what the 2 candidates actuall say/said and do/have done instead of relying on the in full obama campaign mode liberal biased media feeds you?
Ah, nevermind. sometimes I feel like gene hackman in the Poseidon Adventure trying to convince the fools down below to climb the freakin christmas tree around here.
we'll see just how unpopular he is in november.

where would you suggest we go to get a more balanced view of politicians? please state what sources are good enough for the perfect one.