Divisive Convention Could Help GOP, Says Strategist

Many Republicans shudder at the thought of a brokered national convention, but one of the GOP’s most accomplished political strategists believes it could improve the party’s chances of ousting President Obama.

“We need a donnybrook of a convention,” Stuart K. Spencer, a onetime key strategist for Ronald Reagan, told me this week. Spencer says that if neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Santorum goes to the Republican convention in Tampa with sufficient delegates to be nominated, their supporters might unite on an outsider nominee because they share the common goal of “beating Obama.”

To those who say that a contested convention would split the GOP, Spencer responds that the party is already badly divided and that the current candidates, even the relatively moderate Romney, have alienated independent voters.

There is some empirical evidence for that assertion. As late as January, the Pew Research Center found that Romney led Obama among independents by 10 percentage points...

Spencer believes the declining favorability of Republican candidates among independents can be attributed in large part on the emphasis given social issues in the primaries. He calls these issues, such as abortion, “Democrat issues” adding, “Republicans can’t win campaigning on the other side’s issues.”

This is hardly the fault of Romney, who would prefer to talk about the economy but has been forced to compete on social issues by a series of insistent conservative challengers, most recently Santorum, and media interlocutors intent on ginning up conflict.

In a Gallup survey this week, independent voters viewed “social issues such as gay marriage and abortion” as less important than eight other issues. Eighty-nine percent of independent voters said the economy was the most important issue and 79 percent said unemployment was. Only 35 percent of independents said that social issues were extremely or very important...

That's why the Tea Party has emphasized economic issues. However, social issues can be a double edged sword for the rats.

While the yute vote favors gay marriage, they have trended prolife lately, IIRC.

There's a reason the rats have kept away from Second Amendment issues. With the exception of Obama and Holder, they know it's a loser.

Even if the pubbies shy away from Fast and Furious, although the head of the RNC said they will make it a campaign issue, I'm sure the NRA et al. will make it an issue.

As founder of Spencer-Roberts, he and his firm have managed over 400 political campaigns.
Stuart Spencer served in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1946, and then graduated from the East Los Angeles Junior College with an AA, and from California State University at Los Angeles, with a BA degree in Sociology in 1951.
Spencer-Roberts & Associates, Inc., was established in California in 1961 with Bill Roberts. They were among the first professional campaign managers.
In 1962 he managed Tom Kuchel’s campaign for United States Senate in California. After that, he managed Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign of 1964, and Don Riegle’s run for Congress, Michigan, in 1966.
He ran Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial campaign in California in 1966. That year, it was to Spencer that Reagan said “Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.” He also ran Reagan’s gubernatorial campaign in 1970, and his presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984.
Stuart Spencer became the sole owner of Spencer-Roberts in 1974. In 1976 he served as Deputy Chairman for Political Organization in Gerald Ford’s presidential re-election campaign. When he served as Reagan’s campaign manager in 1980, he suggested that he choose George H. W. Bush as his running mate, but later recounted that Reagan wasn’t keen to the idea, apparently because Reagan didn’t like Bush. “There was no way he was going to pick Bush,” said Spencer. “It was chemistry.”
In 1985, his firm allegedly received over $350,000 to run the Panamanian presidential campaign of Eric Delvalle, and in 1988 he was assigned to improve Dan Quayle’s image. In October of that year he remarked on the difficulty of the task, saying “First we had to shut that John Birch father of his up, and then the National Guard thing hit.”
Karen Spencer joined Spencer-Roberts in 1989 and expanded the firm’s roles into public policy, avocation, and political strategic planning. She registered as a California state lobbyist and as a federal lobbyist in Washington, DC.
Stuart Spencer has had a long friendship with Dick Cheney, having worked with him as far back as the Ford administration. In 1993, he speculated that Cheney would seek the presidency in 1996. He told “Human Events” magazine, “Look, I’m pro-choice and Dick is pro-life but I’m for him if he runs. He’s like a brother to me.”

Folks, many republicans are falling 100% for the media/DNC disinformation (lies) campaign.

Oh, people “like” Obama personally (they do not), the economy is “improving” (8.3% unemployment prob actually 15%), the republican primaries are ruining the “brand” and Obama will win easily - Then how come I see polls every day that Obama LOSES to multiple republicans???

Five dollar gas, the democrats pushing hated Obamacare and socialism, even birth control for 30 year old elite law students!

Why is anyone even listening to the liberal lies, Obama should lose in a landslide and the republican candidates are fine. Far better than that smarmy left wing idiot.

Oh yeah, I left out algae.

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