Question of the Day: How Did Ted Kennedy Beat the Mittens Out of Willard Romney Back in 1994?
Today I’d like to spend some time taking a look back to the 1994 Massachusetts Senate election, where Ted Kennedy beat the mittens out of Willard Romneycare.
I was in high school during this campaign, but I remember how ugly a year it was for Democrats — and also remember how hard President Clinton campaigned for Democrats coast to coast…even having to spend an unusually large amount of time in Massachusetts to help the Kennedy Dynasty cling to its seat in the Senate.
1994 was the Republicans’ best chance of defeating Ted Kennedy: the stars aligned and the Fates conspired to produce the perfect storm that could have snatched “the Kennedy seat” away from the aristocratic spiders of Hyannis Port…but Willard Mittens Romneycare lost — and lost BIG — to Kennedy.
Why was that?
Let’s spend this Sunday digging into the 1994 election between Kennedy and Romneycare, because I have a feeling the Left has already done just that…and they’re prepped to use many of the same attacks from back then on Romneycare should the “Tolerant Left”, the agenda-driven media, and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment succeed in making Romneycare the Republican nominee for president in 2012.
I remember how terrified the Kennedy Family was of losing “their seat” in 1994…until Romneycare was the GOP nominee, and then everyone started to breathe much easier. The Kennedys spent an absolute fortune on the race, but they would have lost that seat if the GOP had run someone other than Romneycare that year (despite it being “his turn”, evidently, to have the Senate nomination in Massachusetts).
In a year when Democrats were being trounced coast to coast, Romneycare lost when pitted against the “Tolerant Left’s” standard bearer…in much the same way that Romneycare would be matched up against the new Leftist embodiment of Barack Obama in 2012 (should the Cocktail Party Establishment have its way).
So far, I’ve discovered some of what the Left ran against Romneycare that really sunk him with voters:
1. As CEO of Bain Capital, Romneycare was responsible for the loss of thousands of jobs — particularly in Indiana — because Bain Capital was an entity that bought companies for the purpose of shutting them down…and this alienated Romneycare from voters who were struggling economically (just like the way people are struggling now, and will be in 2012).
2. The Kennedy Family — despite its near unlimited wealth — was able to successfully depict Romneycare as an out of touch, extremely wealthy man who was a classic caricature of suit and tie Big Business. Despite the lavish spending and general decadence the Obamas have demonstrated while in Washington, expect Democrats to use the same caricature to alienate Americans from Romneycare again in 2012.
3. Ted Kennedy harped on being “a public servant” and claiming the Kennedy Family had dedicated itself not to making money, but for working for the people…and contrasted that with Romneycare being the CEO of Bain Capital (which is one of the most unfortunately evil sounding corporations I’ve ever heard of existing in the real world, and not, say, in a 1980s cartoon of some kind (where it could have, for instance, been the front company of COBRA on GI Joe or the like)). I bet it will be easy to do something like this to Romneycare in a matchup against Barack Obama, since Obama’s never had a real job and will claim to be a humble “community organizer” again, while Romneycare’s continuing to run away from his record as Massachusetts Governor (this week, at least) and will have a hard time claiming his Bain Capital stint as a positive once the Occupy Wall Street thugs heat up their rhetoric again in 2012 (as it’s pretty clear what they did this fall was just a warm-up to what’s coming in the actual election).
If you’re a Republican voter who keeps buying the Cocktail Party GOP establishment’s line that “Romneycare’s the most electable!” then I’d love to hear from you in comments below…with an explanation of why Romneycare wasn’t electable at all back in 1994, when the Tolerant Left put forward its Leftist champion and the Cocktail Partiers awarded Romneycare the nomination…only to lose an election that was indeed winnable…if only they hadn’t made Romneycare the nominee.
What are your memories or researched insights into the 1994 Kennedy vs. Romneycare Senate race?
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Research shows that Kennedy pulled the same Dem campaign tactics against Mittens that we've seen consistently (and will continue to see) from BO and the left: 1)The race card; 2 The union card. Chappaquiddick Teddy argued that it was fair to question Mittens' LDS church's past of not allowing blacks to serve in its priesthood; he showed clips of angry union workers at firms Mittens' company had bought. The Dems used a broad brush to successfully paint Mittens as 1) potentially racist; and 2) callous toward the needs of workers and the middle class. Despite Mittens' initial lead in the polls, Chappaquiddick Teddy prevailed. (The leftist union goons are still the enforcers helping BO and the Obamacrats keep all the identity-driven voters on the Dem plantation.)
…and contrasted that with Romneycare being the CEO of Bain Capital (which is one of the most unfortunately evil sounding corporations I’ve ever heard of existing in the real world, and not, say, in a 1980s cartoon of some kind (where it could have, for instance, been the front company of COBRA on GI Joe or the like)).
lol, classic.
Hopefully Americans are paying more attention than they were in 1994. The internet has changed everything when it comes to politics.
That being said, it's interesting how "silent" the mittens campaign has become.
Laying low is an understatement.
He is Dede Scozafazza on steroids. No need to campaign – his win is a "given" because he assumes the election will be handed to him. I suspect he will be surprised come primary day.
I voted for McCain in the 2008 Michigan primary..I hated Romney back then. Romney still took Michigan, but not with my vote.
Kevin, I live on the west coast, so I was far from this race, but I do remember the growing displeasure we felt as we watched it unfold.
The initial waves of illegal immigration and its effects washed over us, while most of the country had yet to feel the impact we in the border states with Mexico were feeling. Our warnings and pleas for reason were largely ignored. The media took up the cudgels against us and labeled us racists. Political correctness metastasized and spread virulently.
Folks across the country were so disgusted with the economy and what Chappaquiddick Teddy represented that Ross Perot received a lot of support, and for the first time in my memory there were three presidential candidates as a result.
Watching from our distant perspectives out west Mitt seemed barely better a choice than Kennedy. It seemed like a choice between the lesser of two evils.
Today he still seems to be in that same place, barely a better choice than obama, but the stakes are much, much higher than they were in that race.
Today it's a much more dangerous world and a much deeper economic decline than we had then. We have a much more dangerous man in our White House and a much deeper threat of terrorism than we had then. We have an infinitely more dangerous media today and a much deeper level of government dependency on which half of Americans now live.
But it seems we have the same old mitt, with no discernible indications he's up to the job, and an electorate inundated with voter fraud and a rabidly ignorant views.
Yes, Teddy's gone, but his tactics live on. It appears Newton's Second Law has kept the dynamics of the '94 Senate race in motion and we'd be deluded if we didn't recognize it and be prepared for an onslaught unlike anything in our lifetimes, perhaps even in the history of our Republic.
Will we as a nation survive? Will we rise to meet the challenge and prevail? Can we restore America and provide a future for our posterity as our forefathers did for us?
Only God knows, but I believe we can, because we're Americans with a strong Judeo-Christian heritage and the spirit to overcome the evil we presently face; and because we have people like Governor Palin and places like hillbuzz to help lead and inspire us.
God bless America and all who serve her.
Wow! Reading that just got me psyched for the week!
We are on the precipice of destruction as a country and most people are too ingorant to see it. It's up to us to show them what is really going on and show them what we can do to get back to greatness.
We've got some work to do HillBuzzers!
I am relentlessly trying to wake up Obamazombies and republicans who would be manipulated into supporting Romney or Huntsman. It has not been easy. Hell it's been awful. But I know I am right and I know God is on our side.
Sadley it was probably money that helped murderer Ted Kennedy beat Romney. Americans fall for the same bought candidates again and again. When will they learn. Today it's as easy as going to Opensecrets.org,Sunlight foundation to see who took all the Goldman Sachs money for their campaign. You can visit Thomas.gov to read laws passed by congress and the senate and to see how your reps and senators voted. But people are sheep and I am really afrais that they will be fooled once again. If so they will get what they desearve-to be slaves to Goldmann Sachs.
Just kidding. Romney will lose the primary. Republicans are not nearly as stupid as democrats.
Crowd gathers before @mittromney rally in Nashua.
http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/Markhalperin/sta…
I remember very clearly..Ted K wanted to ban guns. Mitt Romney said "Me Too!!!". So much for having any core constitutional values. I guess that's where the term flip flop comes in again
How did he beat Romney? He got more votes.