Jeff Smith

Photo Here

Recovering Politician

THEN: State Senator (MO), 2006-2009, Candidate for U.S. Congress, 2004 NOW: Writer Full Biography: link
 

Jeff Smith: Is Romney in a Defensive Crouch?

In politics as in life, money can fix all sorts of problems. And in both politics and life, Mitt Romney has taken advantage of that fact.

Money can produce lovely television ads and glossy mailers, but the beauty of presidential campaigns, as Richard Ben Cramer showed us in “What it Takes,” is that they penetrate the veneer and expose candidates for who they are, good and bad. And no amount of money can make Republican primary voters like Mitt Romney.

(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)

 

Jeff Smith: Should Obama have led the supercommittee?

He should have played a more active last fall by working with Sens. Durbin and Coburn – both friends of his – to build some modicum of bipartisan consensus around the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission that he created.

It’s not inconceivable to think that something could’ve passed during the 2010 lame duck session, when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed with the support of several Republicans. By the time the supercommittee got down to work, it was probably too late; opinion had congealed on both sides.

(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)

Jeff Smith: Can the Newt Boomlet last?

This is just the tip of an oppo iceberg that would make Herman Cain’s look like a pebble.

With the prospects of a vulnerable president and a Senate that’s clearly within reach, I just can’t imagine Republicans nominating someone so noxious among independents, someone with so much baggage. But Newt’s boomlet is yet another sign of the fact that this was really Rick Perry’s nomination to lose – something Perry’s worked diligently to do almost since the day he entered.

Every day this media-manufactured boomlet persists is another day that some enterprising journalist will dig a little deeper into Newt’s past. Like Cain, he’ll claim that the liberal media is trying to bring him down, when in reality, it will be his own pattern of reckless personal, political, and profit-seeking behavior that will do the trick.

(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)

Jeff Smith: Will President Obama Lose His Job?

The 51 percent approval is definitely problematic. But remember that while the president’s struggles have been dissected in every way possible for the past three years, the inept Republican presidential field has yet to lay a glove on Mitt Romney. Democrats are likely to ensure that he is unrecognizable a year from now.

There are a lot of angry unemployed people in the country who blame the president for their plight, but it may be hard for Republicans to rally swing voters around that sentiment, given the fact that the economy wasn’t exactly humming along when the president took office.

Conversely, there are thousands more who, after being laid off by the profit-hungry Bain Capital machine, blame Mitt Romney. Their sentiments are, I think, more likely to move voters; I suspect that many of their heartbreaking stories will emerge.

Jeff Smith Hits the Public Radio Airwaves

Our own contributing RP, Jeff Smith, once again is hitting the international public airwaves, the subject of a lengthy interview on National Public Radio on his jail experience and recovery.

Click here to listen.

Jeff Smith: Should Mississippi ‘personhood’ proposal pass?

So, this turns some commonly used forms of birth control into murder. What a great idea!

Given everything else on the nation’s plate right now, a focus on this seems so 90s. It will inevitably result in many years of costly litigation.

(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)

 

 

Jeff Smith: Can Herman Cain Survive?

Facing an Iowa Republican caucus electorate that

  1. 1) to put it diplomatically, has traditional views on gender relationships, and earlier vaulted to frontrunner status a woman who advised other women to “submit” to their husbands;
  2. 2) finds any item about a conservative politician originating in the MSM to be dubious; and
  3. 3) has appeared to penalize candidates only when they do or say anything that receives MSM plaudits (i.e., Perry’s position on in-state college tuition for immigrants, almost anything Huntsman has said), I’m not so sure this episode hurts Cain.

That doesn’t mean I think he’ll get the nomination. At some point, common sense will prevail.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)

Jeff Smith: A Fresh Start for Rick Perry?

Perry just needs to not mess up for eight weeks. I can’t imagine the numbers working on an optional 20 percent tax rate but I’m no economist. It’s not that important that the numbers work; what’s important is that he sound credible and serious defending it.

If he can do that and not get distracted by other issues, Cain will implode. Bachmann will quit shortly after Iowa and file for reelection. Gingrich will go back to selling books and speaking for $25K a pop or whatever he gets. Santorum will go back to annoying people.

And without all those candidates who’ve just been renting five to 20 percent of the voters, they’ll be up for grabs, and if anything is clear after the last five years, they aren’t really feeling Mitt Romney. So I think those voters break 2:1 or 3:1 for Perry.

Whether that’s enough will depend on his performance, and where Paul’s five to 10 percent end up. (Huntsman’s one to two percent splits between Romney and Obama – not enough to have an impact.)

By the way, I think Huckabee could swoop in tomorrow and scoop up enough of those “rented” voters to take the nomination.

(Cross-posted, with author’s permission, from Politico’s Arena)

Jeff Smith: Can Mitt Romney Take a Punch?

Jeff Smith

Perry’s attack itself may not have been that effective, but the reply he elicited from Romney was sure damaging: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake,” Mitt said he told his contractor. “I can’t have illegals!”

Debates are about moments that (appear to) crystallize candidates as human beings. After the hostage crisis and other blows to American prestige, people craved strength in 1980, and so when Reagan boomed, “I paid for this microphone!”, it suggested that he could be provide America the backbone it wanted at that moment. When George H.W. Bush looked at his watch in the 1992 town hall, it indicated that he just wasn’t that concerned with people’s plight – as opposed to the famed Clinton empathy to which a recession-weary nation responded. A simple gesture spoke volumes, because it comported with what Americans suspected was true: Bush was out of touch with their suffering.

In that vein, “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake – I can’t have illegals!” Romney offered a window into his character: ambitious, practical, hands-on, and utterly lacking in principle. Let’s see if Perry can capitalize on this gift in the coming days.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)

Jeff Smith: Can Romney Take a Punch?

Perry’s attack itself may not have been that effective, but the reply he elicited from Romney was sure damaging: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake,” Mitt said he told his contractor. “I can’t have illegals!”

Debates are about moments that (appear to) crystallize candidates as human beings. After the hostage crisis and other blows to American prestige, people craved strength in 1980, and so when Reagan boomed, “I paid for this microphone!”, it suggested that he could be provide America the backbone it wanted at that moment.

When George H.W. Bush looked at his watch in the 1992 town hall, it indicated that he just wasn’t that concerned with people’s plight – as opposed to the famed Clinton empathy to which a recession-weary nation responded. A simple gesture spoke volumes, because it comported with what Americans suspected was true: Bush was out of touch with their suffering.

In that vein, “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake – I can’t have illegals!” Romney offered a window into his character: ambitious, practical, hands-on, and utterly lacking in principle. Let’s see if Perry can capitalize on this gift in the coming days.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)

The Award-Winning Documentary about Jeff’s Early Career (2006):

The Recent New Republic Article About Jeff (2011):

Jeff’s Links: