I think Mitt Romney is a decent governor

[Bombtrack]

During the primary I supported both Reich and Tolman, and the progressives of the state split between those 2 and we got Shannon O'Brien as the status-quo nom(now she's doing consumer segments on local news there I hear).

During the election both sides put out very misleading ads, from the few I saw.

Since the election he hasn't done anything to really piss me off, besides a few cuts that affected my friends.

But he seems very third way. I read somewhere that he considered running in Utah for senate as a democrat. I still hope he can be defeated in 06 by a democrat, although it will be tough.

From what I've read about it, I support his new innitiative. Read about it here.http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2003/10/29/romney_details_a_plan_to_aid_troubled_schools/

I know I won't find many that agree here, but do you think he's better than Weld, Celluci, and Swift?

[bluestateguy]

1. Flame away, flame away, flame away...

All the firefighters are in California now!

Though I'll take the Mitt any day over Rick Perry.

[Bombtrack]

3. He's not a guy I love

but I read that article about his new initiative and it got me thinking MA could do alot worse

It's not like he's cut spending AND cut taxes

I didn't like him at all during the campaign. But he doesn't come off as evil at all to me anymore, or even a jerk

a guy who's accustomed to the ruling class mindset somewhat? Yeah, a square? yeah, but other than that, he doesn't deserve my scorn

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Weld was a true moderate and socially was somewhat...

progressive! I do not know :wtf: you are talking about! Romney is no liberal though he may put a few Lib policies through to make himself look good!

[Sperk]

4. he's an empty suit sent to us by Rove.

Anyone who associates himself with Rove and Co. is a piece of crap in my book. Wait til he gets his "MITTS" on the state school, watch the tuition sky rocket.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. guilt by association...

big time. Mitt's a shit.

[cjm2222]

6. Mitt's okay

He has some good policies, according to my friends in MA. I did like William Weld, though. I thought he was an interesting politician. Too bad Jesse Helms wouldn't allow him to be confirmed as ambassador to Mexico (I think).

[newyawker99]

15. Hi cjm2222!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Um no

Decent governor, hardly...Especially if you're poor or elderly or both. He's a fucking carpetbagger using our state as a springboard to a Romney run for President. Screw him. :thumbsdown:

[GeekLife]

8. Hmmmm

He's a fucking carpetbagger using our state as a springboard to a Romney run for President.

Who have I heard that about before?

[Mairead]

17. Hear, hear!

He's doing no favors for working people or the poor.

[DrBB]

9. Why I disagree: My daughter has AIDS

...and too old to be covered under my health plan, and the legs have been cut out from under the state health program that was paying for her HIV meds.

[Cha]

10. I'm sorry to hear that! I hope somehow she is able

to get the help she needs!

[DrBB]

13. We'll figure it out somehow. Others won't be so lucky n/t

[Armstead]

11. He's a wild card

He's not as bad as I initially feared. But he does have a bull in the china shop side, like wanting to rearrange all of the state colleges and combine community colleges with four-year state schools.

Maybe as he settles in, he will adjust to political realities. But he's basically an empty suit with ambitions.

[elfin]

12. He's just building a "moderate" image

so he can be scooped up to go national by the RNC and THEN go along with all their viscious policies.

It's the image that counts - just ask Rove and Chimp.

Maybe positioning himself for when Cheney croaks.

[arendt]

14. A typical phony Repuke

He gets a lot of airtime for personal vendettas, like the one
he carried on against Bill Bulger, and the crack his aide made
about Teddy Kennedy.

AFAIR, he refused to postpone a tax cut; but preferred instead
to cut aid to cities and healthcare. That was in spite of studies
which showed that MA these days has one of the LOWEST state
tax rates in the region. Later, he had plenty of money to fund all
the BS Homeland Security unfunded mandates. Never met a
GOP program he didn't like, never met a Dem one he did.

This makes him "not so bad" in the most liberal state in the union?
He is another disaster shopping himself for national office.

----

Yes. The old Dems are totally corrupt, and the Liberal Dems are
totally disorganized. But the GOP are still the Cult of the Soulless.
They will say anything to get elected, and do as they please once
elected because the media, even the Boston Media, give them a
free pass. If I see one more Herald headline like "Mitt Wins One",
I swear I'm going to throw the newsbox in front of a truck.

arendt

arendt

[Lexingtonian]

16. oh, please

It's all just resume-building, Party-line obedient hokey for future campaign ads. With Mitt there is always pure rot in the details.

Look at what this "initiative" is. The one idea is to 'educate' parents to take charge of their kids' keeping up with schoolwork. It just happens to be that the targeted school districts are all heavily minority and minority immigrant urban areas, just a little above slums, where parents all work two or three jobs without benefits. The idea here is that the few who are upwardly mobile get pushed upward, the others really get nothing except more annoyance and paternalism out of the exercise.

The other idea is "full time kindergarten", iow government-run day care. It sounds good, but the Legislature has never funded this sort of thing before and is too conservative to do it now. Predictably it'll get offloaded on the cities, who can't at the moment afford even afford schoolbooks or minor school repairs, so it won't get funded at all. So there will be some kind of money moved over from job program-based child care services, for two or three years, and it will be a miserable failure that gets cut as soon as Mitt has gotten all the PR value out of it.

As for the so-called MCAS exam, of course it is slowly being strangled and hasn't really achieved anything of value I can think of. It quantitated stuff clued in people already knew perfectly well and penalizes all the wrong people.

Massachusetts is presently something of a Republican experiment in ruling/managing urban areas/states outside the Bible Belt. Watching them go along their learning curve ever so slowly and foolishly to the obvious is just wierd.

[Loonman]

18. He's alright, better him than O'Brien

O'Brien only got her treasurer job due to patronage and cronyism.

Yes, Air Jane made me sick.

[Beer Snob-50]

22. Funny!

I thought the treasurer is an elected position? You are elected by how you can show you help others.

[Tracer]

19. Dear Bombtrack:

Can you please explain which of Gov. GoodHair's policies that you like. Or Ñ more to the point Ñ what legislation has he enacted that makes life better in the Commonwealth?

It seems to me that he spends an awful lot of time explaining away the "misstatements" of his staff. (Eric Kriss being the latest).

[Loonman]

20. He cuts costs

He trims the fat from the state budget, something Mass. Democrats never do.

[ibegurpard]

21. He is a Republican

And as long as the Republican party is welcoming to people like Tom Delay, then even the most moderate Republican deserves nothing but my scorn.

[Beer Snob-50]

23. He is better than jCelluci and Swift

But Weld was superior to all three. Romney is a moron who is trying to balance the states budget on the backs of the cities and those in need.