Why was Romney so hated in the Midwest

[darklordoftech]

The auto bailout.

[darklordoftech]

The auto bailout.

It didnt help the Dems there in 2010

The 2010 Republicans weren't around to have opposed the bailout.

[darklordoftech]

"Mitt Romney looks like the guy who comes to lay you off" - Mike Huckabee.

A lot of his problems stemmed from that 2009 article about how to handle Detroit. What he described in the article was a structured bankruptcy backed with US gov't money to hold them over. However the headline conveyed the equivalent of DROP DEAD NEW YORK!!! from Gerald Ford's days.

I spent years splitting hairs on this point to defend Romney between 2009 and 2015, but at the end of the day it was a mess he could have easily avoided just by keeping his mouth shut.

Romney also stepped in it with his book, similar to Jeb Bush on immigration, but on health care. What this illustrates is the danger of political books, and the fact they take a few months to get out into circulation and politics moves much faster. Just as Jeb was embarrassed by his book claiming to support only a path to legal status after Rubio had been working the grounds on a 2013 compromise that included a path to citizenship.

Romney contrasted Obamacare from his MA healthcare plan on the basis that Obamacare had a public option, and Romneycare did not. This was the case when the book was composed, but not by the time it hit the shelves. The public option had been dropped making Obamacare hard to differentiate from Romneycare Oops, back to the drawing board. Romney then failed to come up with a consistent narrative after that point. His best bet was a Federalist approach of letting states design their own plans and giving them the money to help facilitate that.

But beyond all of that, it would have been rather difficult for Romney to overcome his Bain Capital days in any case. Too many displaced workers and too many video clips that wrote themselves.

Were it not for social issues, lingering Gay Marriage opposition and the War on Coal narrative, Romney would have done even worse in the Midwest.

Ironcially though in 2008 primaries pundits were calling Mitt the strongest  Republican candidate for states like Michigan and the Midwest in general. They believed he would be weaker in the south though(In 2012 it turned out to be the opposite)

They probably thought that Romney being the son of a Michigan Governor would help him there while him being a Mormom would hurt him in the South. Also keep in mind that they might have known who the Democratic nominee would be.

[darklordoftech]

Hate is a strong word. Bush in 1992, Dole in 1996, and McCain in 2008 all did worse than Romney in the midwest. So the posters in here saying it was because of his plutocrat image are overthinking it.

HW Bush was also seen as a plutocrat and was NAFTA's primary negotiator and proponent, Dole was seen as a Goldwaterite, and McCain was so unpopular that he lost Indiana.