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Romney’s Vicious Attack Ads Against Conservatives May Doom Romney Now or in November
Conservative HQ ^ | 4-4-12 | Richard A. Viguerie

Posted on 04/04/2012 7:34:47 PM PDT by VinL

Coming off of his primary wins in liberal Maryland and DC and a relentlessly negative campaign in Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s campaign has signaled to the other candidates for the Republican nomination for President that there will be no let-up in the negative tenor of his campaign going into Pennsylvania and the other spring primaries. Mitt Romney As Bloomberg’s Heidi Przybyla noted, the “defining feature of the 2012 Republican presidential primary race” has been Romney’s relentlessly negative campaign. According to Przybyla’s research, “Since the contests began, Restore Our Future has spent $35 million on commercials attacking Santorum and Newt Gingrich” and “just $1.1 million promoting Romney.”

According to Przybyla’s reporting, Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, Romney’s super PAC Restore Our Future aired 16 negative ads 41,612 times in GOP primary states such as Michigan, Florida and Colorado.

Romney’s negative ads, many of them factually questionable, have carpet bombed the conservatives in the race. As Romney has unleashed this wave of negativity, the campaigns of conservatives from Rick Perry, to Michele Bachmann, to Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have withered, leaving Rick Santorum as the last conservative standing to bear the brunt of Romney’s attacks.

However, these attacks have done nothing to build support for Mitt Romney, especially among movement conservatives, and to the extent that Romney can claim front runner status it is because he has come to be seen as the “least worst” alternative by rank-and-file Republican primary voters.

Romney’s campaign has already made clear that it will employ the same hard-edged tactics that he used to crush Newt Gingrich in Florida and overtake Santorum in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, to defeat Santorum in his home state of Pennsylvania.

Whether Romney’s slime machine campaign will work against Santorum in Pennsylvania remains to be seen – it didn’t work against Gingrich in his home state of Georgia where Newt buckled down and ran like he was running for county sheriff to neutralize the charge that he was an out of touch Washington insider.

Even if one accepts the fuzzy math that Romney claims puts him half way to the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination – and we don’t – his negative campaign has left him with a substantial enthusiasm deficit, and no real base upon which to mount a winning campaign against Barack Obama.

As long as Romney relies solely on negative advertising to tear down his more conservative Republican opponents, without making the positive case for his own bona fides to be the Republican standard-bearer, conservatives will have little reason to support him.

Given the huge hole that leaves in the Republican base, the other candidates should prepare to stay in the race all the way to Tampa, knowing that if Romney’s delegate count doesn’t give him the nomination on the first ballot, conservatives whom he has failed to convince during the primaries will continue to look for an alternative until the roll is called and the last vote is counted.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: backstabberromney; gingrich; nevertrustromney; romneyattacksgop; romneysucks; viciousromney
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To: isthisnickcool
I’d prefer the Republican nominee to be Newt but at the end of the day I don’t care who it is. I’ll vote for any of them. Not me. I'll skip the top of the ticket and just vote everything beneath it. Let Williard see a massive undervote in CA (which he won't win in Nov. anyway) and he and the Republican Establishment might see that we don't just fall in line.
41 posted on 04/04/2012 8:01:49 PM PDT by CarmichaelPatriot
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To: Reily; Shery
One of the problems about reading this site is you start thinking that all GOP’ers think like people here. Bad news is they don’t! There is a surprisingly large number of GOP’ers who have bought into the GOP elite line regarding Romney. Superficially Romney makes sense. In 2008 I bought into the notion that Romney was more conservative then McCain. (Probably my dislike for McCain biased my viewpoint!) My 80 year long time GOP Parents (GOP party workers and former local & state officials!) are pro-Romney and refuge to consider anything negative about him! At work a majority of GOP’ers I know are pro-Romney and why ‘all others are too radical or too mean and Romney is electable’. Contrary facts and arguments don’t fly, so I have given up discussing it with them.

Except the primaries that have already happened don't support your conclusion.

Romney has done well in states that he will not win against Obama and has mostly only either broken even or done horribly in states he should win in November.

The base is absolutely not supporting him.
42 posted on 04/04/2012 8:02:43 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: dinoparty
“I am so F@@@@@@ sick of those Conservative Utopians$ we need to defeat Obama. Period. We don’t need a hero. We need ANYONE who will dave us from. Obama. Wake up freepers.”

AMEN!

Running against a lying moronic ignoramus communist Muslim [who is mentally ill] is pretty simple. Just put the description of the WH occupier in every Republican and PAC advertizement

BTW: I hope all conservatives are campaigning and voting in their respective Republican primaries for the real conservative if the incumbent is a RINO.

43 posted on 04/04/2012 8:03:38 PM PDT by texican01
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To: mylife
He has made it clear that he will go scorched earth on us if he wins again.

He's going to go scorched earth on Romney if he is the nominee.
44 posted on 04/04/2012 8:03:44 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: texican01
Running against a lying moronic ignoramus communist Muslim [who is mentally ill] is pretty simple. Just put the description of the WH occupier in every Republican and PAC advertizement

Your problem, and everyone else supporting Romney, is that he is a LYING, left-wing, Progressive Liberal as his record shows, and you can bet your house Obama and the media will be using that day in and day out to destroy the candidacy of Romeny.
45 posted on 04/04/2012 8:05:20 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: dinoparty
We don’t need a hero.

Well we sure as hell don't have one in Romney!

46 posted on 04/04/2012 8:05:27 PM PDT by Eaker (Remember, the enemy tends to wise up at the least convenient moments.)
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To: SoConPubbie

It looks pretty bleak regardless of the nominee.
That is why the house and SENATE are so important.


47 posted on 04/04/2012 8:06:04 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: SoConPubbie

Mark Levin was covering this tonight. 91% of Romney ad dollars went to smearing GOP candidates and not promoting himself or bashing Obummer. What a swell guy. What burns me is that the GOPe is going to blame Conservatives that it is our unwillingness to roll over and allow Milt to be the nominee now that is damaging to the party. BS. Romney is the one who has singlehandedly destroyed party unity and any good will towards him. He can screw.


48 posted on 04/04/2012 8:07:27 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: citizen
Romney’s ads will play just fine against Obama.

No they won't. Been here before, the press will start hammering the negative thing over and over again until Romney can't use his attack ads. There will be polls saying the people are sick of negative campaigning (which by the way is true) and the attack ads will be impossible to run.

So what does Romney do then? How does he campaign when his Alinsky ads are gone?

49 posted on 04/04/2012 8:07:35 PM PDT by Kenny
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To: quantim
That's nuts. Don't buy into it. Obama has a record 10 Romneys and all that hate him wouldn't want.

It doesn't matter.

The DNC base doesn't care, but the GOP base actually has scruples, standards and morals, they do care.

Enough of the base and the conservative independents won't touch Romney with a ten-foot poll after Obama and his media get through pounding Romney with his OWN record and beating his candidacy into a bloody pulp.
50 posted on 04/04/2012 8:07:50 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: dinoparty
We need ANYONE who will dave us from.

Dave me, Dave me, Dino!


51 posted on 04/04/2012 8:07:56 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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To: Lazlo in PA
Mark Levin was covering this tonight. 91% of Romney ad dollars went to smearing GOP candidates and not promoting himself or bashing Obummer. What a swell guy. What burns me is that the GOPe is going to blame Conservatives that it is our unwillingness to roll over and allow Milt to be the nominee now that is damaging to the party. BS. Romney is the one who has singlehandedly destroyed party unity and any good will towards him. He can screw.

We need to push back hard against the GOP-E and the willing conservative accomplices when this occurs.

We need to make sure they own the problem, since they are the ones who created it.
52 posted on 04/04/2012 8:09:54 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: VinL

Statist Romney or Socialist Obama? Hmmm. That’s like giving me a razor blade and giving me a choice to slit my wrists or my throat.


53 posted on 04/04/2012 8:10:26 PM PDT by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, than to consent to wrong.)
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To: Lazlo in PA

Do not fool yourself into thinking that Santorum and Newt wouldn’t have run vicious attack ads against Romney, if they had had the money. They would have done so in a heartbeat.

And it seems to me that the anti-Romney people on web-sites, blogs and Twitter are just as vicious; they just don’t have the money for a wider range of ads.

Politics is not tiddlywinks. This is the reality of extended primaries, and it is a repeat of what happened in 2000.


54 posted on 04/04/2012 8:12:54 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Miss Marple; Lazlo in PA
Do not fool yourself into thinking that Santorum and Newt wouldn’t have run vicious attack ads against Romney, if they had had the money. They would have done so in a heartbeat.

Sorry, but nothing of either Newt's or Rick's character or demeanor or their records support your contention.

Furthermore, Romney's lies and character assasination efforts are well documented and pervasive.

Not buying it for a second.

Romney is a lying, left-wing Progressive Liberal as his own documented record shows quite clearly.
55 posted on 04/04/2012 8:19:34 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: dinoparty

Fighting liberalism isn’t just about fighting one man, it’s about fighting an ideology. And if you let that ideology infect your own side at the highest levels how do you EVER put up a fight against it EVER again? What would have been more dangerous when fighting the Soviets, the Cold War as we fought it, or the Cold War if we elected a Soviet party member as our own president?


56 posted on 04/04/2012 8:22:38 PM PDT by JediJones (The Divided States of Obama's Declaration of Dependence: Death, Taxes and the Pursuit of Crappiness)
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To: Reily
One of the problems about reading this site is you start thinking that all GOP’ers think like people here. Bad news is they don’t!

Actually, in this case, it is good news that they don't. Otherwise Obama would be reelected. Any Republican, even Ron Paul, is preferable to another Obama term and his appointments/executive orders/destruction of our military. He was caught on an open microphone conspiring to betray our missile defense system. He wants to strip us of our ability to prevent a nuclear attack and to respond to the same. There is no way I can take anyone seriously who equates any of the Republican nominees with this socialist traitor.

57 posted on 04/04/2012 8:25:15 PM PDT by af_vet_1981 (The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began,)
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To: mylife
It looks pretty bleak regardless of the nominee.
That is why the house and SENATE are so important.


Amen!
58 posted on 04/04/2012 8:26:41 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: Miss Marple
Do not fool yourself into thinking that Santorum and Newt wouldn’t have run vicious attack ads against Romney, if they had had the money.

No way. Tell me what election cycle where one of the candidates spend 91% of their ad budget on attacking the other candidates. It never happened. All the money to destroy the other candidates and all he can muster is 41% of the GOP vote thus far with Rick coming in close in contests with a limited budget.

The other huge issue with Milt is that you can go down the list of the other three candidates and list at least 2 issues you know are important to them through their messaging. Milt has nothing. Even his economic plan is 59 points of muddy garbage. Romney is a huge loser that the GOPe is pushing hard for and they can't even give Conservatives a reason to vote for him other than he isn't Obummer.

59 posted on 04/04/2012 8:26:59 PM PDT by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Miss Marple
Do not fool yourself into thinking that Santorum and Newt wouldn’t have run vicious attack ads against Romney, if they had had the money. They would have done so in a heartbeat.

They wouldn't have run dishonest, lying ads. Of course with Mitt, they wouldn't have needed to. Just look at the ads they did do on him. They pointed out his liberal record truthfully. Meanwhile the lefty liberal progressive Romney put out lying ads claiming Newt and Rick were liberals. Truth matters.

60 posted on 04/04/2012 8:28:03 PM PDT by JediJones (The Divided States of Obama's Declaration of Dependence: Death, Taxes and the Pursuit of Crappiness)
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