Is Mitt Romney Fit To Be U.S. President?

[Kerosene]

http://www.telegraph....elegantly-stated.html

Mr Romney basically disowned around half of America's population by his crass remarks, secretly recorded.

Is his campain now fatally flawed because of this gaffe?

[jno]

some had even encountered Boris via the TV and couldn't believe he was the Lord Mayor of London

I can't even believe he's the non-Lord Mayor of London, but I am assured it is true.

[FredPuli43]

Boris makes gaffes on purpose, because he takes the pee out of the hypersensitive 'don't offend anyone, lest we lose their vote' elements of his party. Romney, apparently, doesn't know, when he commits a gaffe, that it is a gaffe. He genuinely can't understand what it's like to be an ordinary American; why should he, he has no experience, even indirectly. He is a venture capitalist, a hedge fund man, a reader of balance sheets, not an employer who you would see on 'the shop floor' like Philip Green or Sam Walton who do ( did, in Walton's case) understand the mechanics of a business and the thinking of a workforce at a personal level.

[Kerosene]

My view of it is that he may as well give up now. Why? He has ostracised near enough half of the American population with his crass remarks which in my book makes him the proverbial 'dead man walking'.

If he thinks he can afford to alienate a large amount of the electorate and still go on to win....I think he's whistlin' 'Dixie' !

[Sqad]

Kerosine

\\\\If he thinks he can afford to alienate a large amount of the electorate\\

N.B Who wouldn't have voted for him anyway.

"Show and Fat Lady" comes to mind.

[jno]

agree with Sqad. What might well have happened though is that he's alienated swing voters who would have been considering switching from Obama to Romney, and who will not be that impressed by his view of them. This could be serious but might not be; I don't knwo how large a potential bloc they make up. He won't have lost any core Republican voters with the speech.

[Kerosene]

How do we know that some of them - perhaps crucial in the end analysis - may not have been persuaded to cast their vote for Romney had he not dropped such a clanger? Who's to say that all of the almost 50% of voters referred to might not have contained some undecided, floating voters?

Put it this way: should Obama win the election by a very narrow margin from Romney.........need I go on?

[ludwig]

It's true there's a big load of confirmed Democrats who wouldn't have voted for him anyway. Also he isn't going to have lost any republican votes with this speech. It's exactly the kind of thing they would want to hear.

The problem is that if he wants to win, he needs to gain votes from people that voted Democrat last time but are disillusioned with Obama. This certainly isn't going to help attract any of those. If they were wavering, they'll be wavering back in the direction of the Democrats after hearing this.

[andy-hughes]

Remember, this is a Party that thinks Reagan, Bush and Palin are suitable individuals to be put in chanrge of the country, when any right-thinking person would not trust any of them to walk their dog!

[emmie]

Boris isn't the Lord Mayor of London, he is however Mayor of London, that is an entirely different post.