John Heilemann: 'Mitt Romney Is Never Going to be Likable'
It sure seems New York magazine's national affairs editor John Heilemann is shamelessly becoming a part of President Obama's reelection team.
After penning a much-discussed cover story Monday outlining the current White House's plans to attack its Republican opponent as the devil incarnate, Heilemann on this weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews Show said, "Mitt Romney is never going to be likable" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: John, that's the weird question now: could we be on the verge of having a president getting elected who isn't particularly liked?
Think about that question for a moment.
As folks like Matthews and all on his panel support Obama in this election, their goal since primary season started has been to depict every Republican candidate as unfit and unlikable.
With virtually everyone in the national media painting a negative picture of Romney for over a year, how could he possibly be liked at this point in time?
It really is an amazing thing our news outlets do today: they savage their political opponents with all manner of hit pieces and negative stories until polls show their victims are suffering for it and then point to such surveys as evidence of unlikability.
But I digress:
JOHN HEILEMANN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE NATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR: We could be. Look, the president's people in Chicago and the White House have pointed to the personal attributes, the leads that he has, not just likeability being important - shares your values, strong leader, all those attributes they point to them as being huge assets that the president has, but the economy is a big millstone around his neck.
And Mitt Romney is never going to be likable because he is never going to be comfortable talking about the things that animate him as a person. The Romney campaign isn't going to try to fix that problem. They are just going to stay focused completely on this is a referendum on the president's economic stewardship. They think that they can within that argument, all the rest of it melts away.
A few minutes later, Heilemann elaborated:
HEILEMANN: There is a tag line that they were considering using in Chicago they may still use on Romney which is “He has never been in it for you.” So, what does that say? It says, it ties up he didn't create jobs at Bain. He didn't create jobs in Massachusetts. He has this problem of being a rich out of touch guy. He is in it for himself.
He's quite a marvelous surrogate, isn't he, especially given how folks like Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former President Bill Clinton have actually had better things to say about Romney recently than this so-called journalist.
What Heilemann did here much as he did in his Monday cover story was perfectly represent Obama talking points without addressing their inaccuracy: Bain did create jobs and Massachusetts unemployment fell from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent under Romney.
As surrogates don't let facts get in the way of their talking points, Heilemann apparently doesn't feel the need to either:
HEILEMANN: And you talk about FDR or JFK, they were rich guys, but they projected this notion that they were on the side of the average voter.
Did they project that notion or did their adoring media? Why is it rich Democrats are tremendously admired by Heilemann and his ilk while Republicans of equal net worth are evil?
HEILEMANN: What Chicago wants to try to say about Romney is that he doesn't have your best interests at heart. He has never delivered for you. He is all about himself. They have to make Romney not scary, because he’s never going to be scary. He’s always going to be kind of dorky. They have to make him a Republican, because a lot of the people in the middle of the electorate think that Romney is a moderate not a Bush, Boehner, McConnell Republican. They have to nail him for that.
Heavens - not a Republican!
Anything but that!
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Comments
Heilman or whatever
Submitted by mmilesll on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 12:48pm.
What a typical liberal ass. This is the first and if my luck holds out last time I will ever have to see this ahole. Do these people really think the world rises and sets by any thing they say?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:00pm.
You mean likeable like you are, John boy?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
NBC and M.S.S.R. (N-BS-NBC)
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:01pm.
So THIS is the best product that COMCAST can call their own, huh?
No wonder their ratings are ABYSMAL.
Likeable B.S.
Submitted by ChicagoFreedomF... on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:01pm.
I so love the left's argument and emphasis on LIKEABILITY! As if we want a Commander in Chief, Leader of the Free World to be a person we like! We think he is a cool dude that we like and want to pal around with and have over for a beer and BBQ. Why he or she should be 'one of us'....... Well excuse me Sir but I for one DON"T want our President to be part of a frickin popularity contest!!!! I want he or she to be a true leader standing by their convictions and principals, manning up and taking responsibility for his/her own record and LEADING for cryin out loud.......
Again the only thing they have to go on is his rock star persona which IMO is slowly fading like a has been who hasn't recorded an album in years. For all of us sane citizens, please don't fall for this B.S. trap. LEADER NOT PROM KING ASSHOLE!
In comparison to what?
Submitted by ant on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:11pm.
All these 'likeable' people we suffer the sight and sound of everyday?
Michelle Obama and her wife.
Snookie
Kim Kardashian
Wassername-shultz
Nancy Piglosi
John Kerry
Hillarah
.............
You got that right......
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:16pm.
Where does Jeremiah "He's like family to me" Wright fit on the likeability scale? How about Sandra "Gimme my $3K of yearly free contraception NOW" Fluck's likeability? Or Joan "Breitbart's spawn is attacking my child" Walsh?
And Obama will never "fix" the economy
Submitted by c5then on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:21pm.
His ego and ideology won't let him. He is incapable of allowing Government to get out of the way and allow the economy to grow in whatever direction it does on its own. Marxists/Socialists want to maintain the status quo while they dictate which industries diminish and go away and which new technologies grow and prosper.
The media are part of this plan and are doing everything they can to reelect Obama.
They demonize Romney for putting their pet dog in a crate on the roof of the car for a drive to a vacation spot with the family, but are silent on the revelation that Obama ate dogs while in Indonesia.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Not likeable?
Submitted by CobraMan on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:29pm.
So, Romeny's so unlikeable that he's, what, pretty much sewn up the Republican nomination? SOMEONE must like him!
By the way, it's funny how they're now admitting that Romney could very well be the next POTUS! A few months ago, heck, a few weeks ago, it was an impossibility. He's too Conservitive. He's too Mormon. He's too RICH! Now they are beginning to question why so many people would vote for someone who's so "unlikeable."
Obama, you are in serious trouble!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Not necessarily true.
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:58pm.
That doesn't prove anything, Cobra....remember John McCain?
Does anyone know anyone who actually LIKED him? And yet, there he was.
At least Romney has a personality.
He has drive, something that McCain NEVER had.
Also, he's not afraid to attack Obama, and that's a HUGE plus.
throwing the game
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 3:09pm.
There are those and some are speaking more openly about it now that perhaps McCain really didn't want to win, that he didn't want to be the one who stood in the way of 'history' being made.
That's as good an explanation
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 3:56pm.
That's as good an explanation as anything else, Mid....................I could never figure out why the McCain Mutiny didn't go for the brass ring - that's what he was supposed to be there for!!! And I, lilke you and millions of others, had to pull the damn lever for this 'maverick' who didn't really want the job. Fortunatly, we had Sarah Palin on the ticket, and she undoubtedly made John McCain look a lot better in the final talley than he would've otherwise.
McCain...
Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 12:07pm.
McCain was a different situation. He wasn't facing an incumbent. It was to relatively unknowns, battling for popularity, for there was nothing else in which to judge them. Even so, it was pretty close.
In this new election, it's a known incumbent facing a known Governor, both of whom who have administrative records in which to judge them. That's a completely different situation. It's more like Bush vrs. Clinton. We all know how that turned out, don't we? The incumbent lost, just like how Carter lost to Reagan. In both instances, the incumbent lost to the governor who was challenging them. That speaks well for Romney, this time around.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Heilemann
Submitted by Kevin Groenhagen on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:29pm.
He's a creepy, little guy.
His saying that Romney will never be likeable is like Rosie O'Donnell saying Taylor Swift will never be slender.
"strong leader"?
Submitted by PJRyan on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:33pm.
I would love to see the makeup of the people that were polled that think that this "take-credit-if-its-good, throw-blame-if-its bad" empty suit is a strong leader. Which appearance on "The View" convinced them of his great leadership? Or, was it one of the 6 campaign money-grabs he made on the day that they announced the pre-corrections job numbers at 69,000. Laser like focus on jobs...he's a miserable failed excuse for a leader, but he's got huge ones...HUGE.
Romney's likeability is off the chart for non-Libs, especially when compared to the crony-capitalist, Cambridge cop-hating, immigrants can't take their kids for ice cream, SCOTUS-scolding, Biden-tolerating (he's clean and articulate!!), Holder-excusing, running-from-ObamaCare, Skank-Maher money-accepting, Trayvon Martin-politicizing, pipeline can-kicking, corpsemen from 57-states, Sandra Fluke-calling, Bush-blaming, Congress-blaming, ATM blaming, Europe-blaming, I...me...my BinLaden credit-taking, green jobs flunkie, apologust Loser.
Even his supporters think he hasn't displayed . . .
Submitted by Galvanic on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:57pm.
. . . strong leadership.
The difference between the Left and the Right on Obama is that the Left is anxiously awaiting the awakening of the strong leader in Obama that they themselves ascribed to him in 2008, though even some of them (like Maureen Dowd today) are losing hope.
The Right knows that when a middle-aged man has never exhibited any sign of strong leadership in his life, there is no reason to believe he is capable of it.
The Obama Messiah created through pure delirium by the Left and its MSM echo in 2008 has never emerged, because it can't. His supporters are increasingly impatient, while Obama implies that he's saving it for his second term.
Meanwhile, the economic crisis rolls on.
Only Cares for Himself??
Submitted by Joe W. on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:41pm.
If Mitt Romney only cares about himself, why did he give his inheritance away and why has he donated so many millions of his dollars to other people in need? Why does he tithe his 10%. How much has Barack & Moochelle Obama given over the years when they were busy defrauding the government out of undeserved scholarships, patient dumping schemes and hocus pocus phony hospital jobs?? These liberal pukes make me so angry I could just spit. So I will... (((SPIT)))
Dorky v Petulant Punk
Submitted by CT on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:44pm.
I'll take Dorky every time especially compared to a Marxist.
likeability
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 1:56pm.
How is that people came to love Ronald Reagan, even those who didn't want to? Because he loved Americans and America. So the real focus for Romney is to express his love for the same. We already know obama doesn't like either America or Americans. He wants to transform them.
America is in the same condition it was during the Carter years. it is tired of feeling bad about itself and feeling helpless. If Romney can find that key to unleashing positive emotion from the people he will have a landslide just like Reagan.
Well,
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:08pm.
Just look at what 'likable' got us. I'll settle for 'competent' over 'likable' any day.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
Just my personal take, put
Submitted by ant on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:09pm.
Just my personal take, put aside all Obama's many. many, many other failings, and just pick single lesser traits, policies, whatever of Obama and I find I could NEVER like someone like him. A man who ate dog? Never likable. A man who uses the word 'folks' all the time? completely loathable. Like I say, if I knew nothing about Obama but was given just one bit of random information about him....there is no redeeming, likable quality I can think of. I could say, even, that he was a good father....but even there, he uses them for his politics and campaign.
I'm often surprised
Submitted by katiejane on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:14pm.
when the Left goes on about how likeable BO is. I will grant that Romney may not be a "good old boy" like GWB was but the Left never seemed to think highly of that quality when GWB was in office.
How can BO be thought so likeable when he comes across as a thin-skinned arrogant ass . If ever was a guy who thought the freakin world revolved around him it is BO.
stop the tyranny
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:19pm.
Romney's campaign or a surrogate should run positive ads that show the lives of all the different groups and individuals obama has attacked over the years, such as coal miners, stay at home moms, Catholics, doctors, bankers, oil workers, rural Americans.... the list is quite long but these people are our neighbors and have been attacked simply because they got in the way of the obama regime. America is not the government. America is the people.
Never Likeable By Who?
Submitted by Bourbeau on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:20pm.
The likes of you Heilemann and Matthews? Hahaha, what a shallow liberal. You have to love people who have annointed themselves so elitist, that they know everyone's likes and dislikes. Take this to your bank Heilmann, the issues isn't how many people like Romney, the real issue will be, how many people absolutely are fed up with your soul-mate Obama. Stay tuned.
P.S. This isn't a hard choice: simply look where you are today, where you think your country is, and then ask yiourself where do you want them to be in four years. Now, who hasn't done that? And then, who do you think can do it? There's no trick question there; the answer is obvious.
Regarding your P.S.
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:37pm.
What do you think Heilman and all the Obamaites want? They look 4 years down the road, and are looking to create another Zimbabwe. What else do you think Obama wants? He wants this country bankrupt as retribution for our colonial ways (which his Father said were our fault; fat lot the Senior Obama knew). He is trying to do to us what Mugabe did to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). To turn the US into a food importer and to have inflation that will be so huge that the Obama debt will look trivial. Unfortunately, Obama doesn't care that if the US goes this direction, that the rest of the world will look much worse.
Dennis Prager
Petulant?
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:21pm.
Snot-nosed, self-absorbed little brat is his behavior, not just "petulant". Petulant wouldn't say that "elections have consequences" or that he had to finish his golf round, so let's hold up the operation against Osama. If you look at his daily schedule, 10:30 to abot 3:00 is normal. I guess when you are trying to raise $1B to run your campaign, you are working two jobs, so the one in the White House takes a back seat. Besides, he has that Brainiac Joe and all of his czars to run the place for him.
Dennis Prager
the real truth
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:30pm.
Because he has failed obama isn't so likeable to these partisans either.
But they are stuck with him.
More than one has to be dreaming in the night... "Hillary I'm sorry!"
Likability or Direction of Country?
Submitted by Conservator on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 2:31pm.
...that's is the only question of import to voters. According to Real Clear Politics, 58.3% of Americans believe the 'Direction of Country' is heading the wrong direction. Americans know they are hurting and Obama has made the economic nightmare worse. When Mitt begins to ask the infamous question, are you better off today than 4 years ago, the result is a given IMO - Romney Wins.
I'm sure the left will be
Submitted by rbosque on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 3:05pm.
I'm sure the left will be working overtime to demonize him just like Bush. This is the only way the left thinks they can get elected, by demonizing anyone with an "R" by their name. By the time the left gets into full-swing, Romney will be the devil's butt-boy. You'd think that the Democrats would have SANE foreign and fiscal policies so that they wouldn't need to demonize their opponents, by sadly they can't help to push Marxism...as if that's ever a winning economic policy. The only conclusion is that these people just want unbridled power.
Dorky??
Submitted by grammajane on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 3:19pm.
Hey, have you ever looked in the mirror or heard your blabbing? Perfect example of a dork. Romney making a success in his life is dorkey? Don't think he spent his college years smoking weed and drinking booze like your hero.
I don't think that Romney is
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 3:52pm.
I don't think that Romney is 'unlikeable', as far as I can tell - maybe some of his tepid political stances are 'unlikeable' to us conservatives, but it appears that he's getting more aggresive and bold in his quest for actually trying to WIN the election, which is something that the 'unlikeable' McCain Mutiny wouldn't do. Of course, there IS the outside chance that he won't be able to WIN the damn election, if it is suspended by the highly 'likeable' Boy Baraka Hussein Obama.
But, seriously, what is so 'likeable' about the punk-assed petulant prick President anyway??? I've read stories about how the Democrats view him as being aloof, non-engaging, self-centered, and rigid in his idealology, but that type of information doesn't make the news. And I've heard enough condasencion, arrogance, sanctimony, alibis, excuses, and stupid statements coming from his purple lips - from the first time I ever started to pay attention to this jerk - that I cannot find anything 'likeable' about him.
And then I look at his big-boot wife, and HER attitude, and then I factor in people such as Ms. Botox and Harry the Weasel and the rest of the vermin who are doing Baraka's bidding for him, and I look at the people that Boy Baraka admires and touts and appoints as 'czars' and cabinet members, and then I add George Dracula Soros and other bahind the scenes puppet-masters to the mix, as well as the people who were, and still are, very influential in Boy Baraka's life.......................and I can't imagine using a word such as 'likeable' to describe any of that!!! In fact, the word may be more like 'treasonous', or 'seditious', or something along those lines.
killa---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 4:25pm.
Agreed.
While I don't necessarily 'like' Romney --- I absolutely love him as presidential timber when compared to the purple-lipped RBFSOBPOS.
Or maybe it's just that the "American Dream", for me, as exemplified by Romney and his wife - hard work in the business world and good works in private life - wins out when compared to the "Nightmare for America" that is nothing more than a successful scam perpetrated by a sleazy, lying, wimp-assed, conniving grifter married to a nasty, irresponsible sASSquatch of a spending machine who burns through taxpayer money while hating the very people who provide it.
MD
sASSquatch??? That's pretty
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 5:04pm.
sASSquatch??? That's pretty good, MD!!! I'm gonna log that one into my little peabrain, OK???
killa--
Submitted by matthewdean on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 5:10pm.
I saw that on another site, and would give an h/t but I don't remember who should get the credit.
It sure do fit though, don't it? :o)
MD
The type of people who don't like Mitt Romney are the same...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 1:44am.
type of people who don't like the Boy Scouts or Tim Tebow. Too wholesome for their tastes.
They prefer people they can feel morally superior to and Mitt Romney does not qualify in that regard.
Obama with his arrogant, nose in the air, disdain for Christians, gun owners and people who are proud of their Country, no doubt does qualify in that regard for most of them.
Losers tend to gravitate to one another. Let's hope there are not enough of them to beat Romney in November.
They should call him John Hyperbole.
Submitted by drsamherman on Sun, 06/03/2012 - 5:04pm.
"Not likeable" to who?
He's a very affable, very polite and very focused and talented individual who may not be conservative enough for some, but certainly the GOP is coalescing around him faster than the Oblivious team thought. They thought keeping the GOP as fractured and factionated they were during the early primaries would be easy, only to discover after having some idiotic disasters of their own making happen to them and now they see Romney's team is not going to let a second go by without taking advantage of each and every gaffe that Biden (possibly the stupidest Veep we have ever had) and Zero make between now and election day. This is not 2008, and all of their attempts to paint this as a redo of Obama versus the ghost of Bushes past is not going to happen. When the economy is this bad, the vast majority of voters will stick to economic issues and lack of performance by the current POTUS.
Between the Oblivious' campaign missteps, loudmouthed morons like DWS and Biden, and the pathetic dissembling and distraction we are seeing in lockstep with the lapdog media, it's going to be a long campaign season and one where Ear Leader will finally get the vetting he should have had the first time.
Hey Heillman or whatever your name is, I like Mitt...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 1:55am.
Romney. I think your guy Obama is very unlikeable. First of all, he is a snob. He is arrogant. He has no class in that he never takes responsibility or blame for anything. It is all someone else's fault...usually Bush's, according to him.
Mitt is a gentleman. He is someone who will be a breath of fresh air after four years of being stuck with the worst president in our history. Yes, worse than Pierce, worse than Buchanan, worse than Andrew Johnson, worse than Wilson, worse than Harding, worse than Nixon and far worse than Carter, who up until Obama was our worst president ever.
Boy, Jim, you've been around
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 12:48pm.
Boy, Jim, you've been around a long time!!! You remember those guys??? And I do think that ol' Jihah Jimmah Cahtah should be bringin' Boy Baraka coffee and shinin' his shoes, for kickin' him out of the cellar!!! But ol' Jimmah is still too delusional to understand what an abject failure he was, and I suspect that Baraka Benito Barama will be the same way.
I'm looking at that guy with the oversized torpedo like head...
Submitted by jawebster1 on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 1:54am.
and I'm thinking there is a guy who wishes he were one half as likeable as Mitt Romney.
He appears on MESSNBC. The American people have spoken via their viewership or lack thereof.
People on MESSNBC are not likeable and that includes you, Mr. Heilemann!
For the Obama-Owned Media
Submitted by BondPlainBond on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 6:28am.
It's all about the repetitive "conditioning" of the hobbled minds. Deliberate and false "innuendo" meant to stick around the holes in the heads of the hobbled-minded liberal masses, and those unwilling to do their own investigation into any issue or person.
Heilemann is a more than willing stooge for Obama. As is the rest of the complicit media.
Mr. Heilemann Mr. Romney
Submitted by John21 on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 8:24am.
Mr. Heilemann
Mr. Romney doesn't have to be likeable, he has to be competent. He wants to be president of the country not a movie star. He has to show leadership ability (unlike Mr. Obama) and decision making ability (unlike Mr. Obama) that benifits the country not his cronies.
TheTrouble
Submitted by Lamdog on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 11:46am.
The key problems with libs your quote unquote likeable presidents Carter, Clinton, and the Great One can't compare to the unlikeable one of Nixon, Reagan and Bush.
For all the problems Nixon had and the monumental disaster that is the EPA, still a more effective president than Carter, Clinton and Obama.
The latest tried old theme
Submitted by StarAZ on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 1:05pm.
Oh yes--this is the latest they are trying to pound in--Obama is so likable, Romney isn't. First, I don't think Obama is likable--I find him snooty, deceptive, secretive, and self-centered. If he is such a great Dad, how come his kids are never around? As for Romney, all I heard was he is not likable--it occurred to me that I usually do like people who work hard, are serious, wryly funny at times, loyal to their spouses, and so on. What's not to like? This is all so stupid. I guess Americans are just stupid now.