Romney Is Central Target of McCain Counterattack (Political Strategy]

NYT ^ | June 4, 2007 | MARC SANTORA and MICHAEL COOPER

[Sleeping Beauty]

Senator John McCain, facing increasing anger from fellow Republicans over his support of the immigration bill in Congress, is ramping up his counterattack against a main rival in the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, by accusing him of “pandering for votes” in opposing the measure.

Mr. Romney, in speeches and in early campaign commercials, has portrayed the proposal as being soft on illegal immigration — a sensitive red-meat issue for the Republican base — and condemned it as offering “amnesty” to illegal immigrants.

In fighting back, Mr. McCain is challenging Mr. Romney and other opponents of the Senate’s immigration plan to offer counterproposals explaining what they would do with the nation’s illegal immigrants, which he estimates could number 12 million. And his campaign has taken to pointing out what it calls Mr. Romney’s shifting stances on immigration, and his lack of specificity on any workable alternative.

Mr. McCain’s speech is to be delivered today in Florida, where a large number of Cuban-American Republicans have a different perspective on the immigration issue. While he does not mention Mr. Romney by name in the speech, McCain advisers say Mr. Romney is the target of the criticism.

“I would hope that any candidate for president would not suggest doing nothing,” Mr. McCain plans to say. “And I would hope they wouldn’t play politics for their own interests if the cost of their ambition was to make this problem even harder to solve. To want the office so badly that you would intentionally make our country’s problems worse might prove you can read a poll or take a cheap shot, but it hardly demonstrates presidential leadership.”

“Pandering for votes on this issue, while offering no solution to the problem, amounts to doing nothing,” Mr. McCain plans to say. “And doing nothing is silent amnesty.”

[Safetgiver]

to offer counterproposals explaining what they would do with the nation’s illegal immigrants,....The old nut. Just enforce the amnesty law of 1986.

[George W. Bush]

That's a great statement, brief and to the point. But it needs to be fleshed out.

Mitt needs to slam this one out the park tomorrow night in a way he can't back away from later. He's being a little cagy about committing absolutely to some of his positions.

We in the base don't like ambiguity and room for hedging on certain issues. Guns/sodomy/abortion/borders/illegals/taxes/small-government, these are issues where the base demands clarity and unambiguous statements.

Mitt secretly met with Pat Buchanan over the weekend. We'll see tomorrow night if Pat gave the proper advice on taking strong enough positions to do his campaign some real good. Romney's ambivalence is his real problem. There's no good reason he should be trailing nationally to the extent he is. It's fear of commitment. But he'd better get in gear before Fred sucks all the air out the room.

MITT AND PAT (Romney meets with Buchanan on immigration)

[Wallace T.]

Mitt Romney does not appear to have mastered conservative rhetoric and has not expressed his newly enunciated ideology with consistency or real passion. Other politicians such as Spiro Agnew and George W. Bush have been able to transform their political image into one of conservatism, though the latter is morphing back to his family’s Rockefeller Republican roots. The same is true of former moderate to conservative Democrats like Dick Gephardt and Al Gore, who moved leftward to accommodate their national ambitions. I hope he isn’t this decade’s equivalent of Dan Quayle, a physically attractive candidate who is inarticulate and gaffe prone.

[MozarkDawg]

It is rumored that Rudy is headed over to the Vietnam memorial to claim that there was no need for those 58,000+ Americans to die, and he would have prevented that war. Then he is going up to Gettysburg and tell the Pennsylvania voters that there was far too much bloodshed there, and he would have stopped that, just as he did on 9-11. Did you know that Rudy was actually in New York City on 9-11?

Aww, c'mon ... he did sign the Declaration of Independence, after all; it's not as though he's completely anti-war.

[WOSG]

” As far as I can tell, the “far” left Democrats and La Raza are against this bill.”

Well, they wrote the bill, so who are they to oppose their own handiwork?

This bill has a few bones thrown to conservatives. La Raza greedily wants not only amnesty for 12 million, but continued chain migration so another 20 million relatives of those 12 million can come in. They want the Mexicans to hog all the slots for immigration so we cannot have diverse high-quality immigration from aroud the world, but instead import the equivalent of Mexico City to the US. And let htem speak Spanish while they become dual citizens of US-Mexico. That’s what they want.

Once te Senate passes this bill the House will make a more left-wing version, and then into conference they will go, making mincemeat of whatever shreds of conservativeness in the bill.

The outcome will be horrible for anyone who wants an orderly immigration system. Great for La Raza though.

[hunter112]

McVain could at least be fair and attack Duncan Hunter too.

McVain hasn't seen his polling numbers see-saw with Romney.

[Sleeping Beauty]

I hope he isn’t this decade’s equivalent of Dan Quayle, a physically attractive candidate who is inarticulate and gaffe prone.

Oh gawd, did you have to say that? Now I won't be able to erase that image.

Although I would not say that Mitt is inarticulate. His problem is that his sentences are too long -- with too many qualifiers. People on either side if the aisle end up thinking he's on their side. It's sort of weird.

[WOSG]

Romney is very smart and very articulate. I dont think he’s a Dan Quayle, although this is only his third major race so he’s got some campaign learning to do (otoh, Bush only had 3 elections under his belt too).

You nailed it here: “Mitt Romney does not appear to have mastered conservative rhetoric”

He’s not a hard-right consrevative ideologue. He is doing more than any candidate I know in recent memory to position himself smack dab in the middle of the Republican party on all issues, though. How much is sincere and how much will be wiped away when he runs in the general or faces stiff media resistance?

This is why vague rhetoric does NOT cut it. “Where’s the beef?” We need Mitt to tell us what he believes we should do about it, not just bash the current bad bill.

If it (a) works and (b) he lives up to his promises and rules as he is running, it will be a thing of beauty to behold. Romney as Reagan? Or maybe that is letting hope triumph over experience. Too many people are pointing out his RINO heritage and convenient position shifts.

[hunter112]

But he'd better get in gear before Fred sucks all the air out the room.

He's done enough to get a lot of positive exposure. McCain's attack on him is only going to elevate Romney in the eyes of the base, at least those who are not concerned about his religion.

I see this coming down pretty quickly to Romney vs. Thompson, with McCain and Giuliani receding to the middle tier.

[George W. Bush]

Well, they wrote the bill, so who are they to oppose their own handiwork?

Standard propaganda. They wrote it, then they scream to the media that it's evil and harsh while libmedia suppresses any mention of their authoring of it. Then the libmedia can be "balanced" and report that it's equally opposed by both the Left and the Right so it must be just about right for the country.

Standard libmedia/Lefty joint triangulation operation.

[Paulus Invictus]

I think the Bush/McCain/Kennedy immigration bill is the worst thing to happen to the Republic since the Civil War. If it passes both houses as written, the Republic is toast and this legislative abomination will finally demonstrate that Americans have no power over the government and never will again, especially if the RATs win control over the Presidency, and keep the House and Senate.

Don't give up calling your reps and senators and complaining about the bill, however. There's still a slight chance they might listen. Right now Bush and his RINO contingent are not listening nor do they care for our conservative opinions.

[George W. Bush]

I see this coming down pretty quickly to Romney vs. Thompson, with McCain and Giuliani receding to the middle tier.

I agree. But only if Romney makes much more concrete statements that satisfy the base. Otherwise, Fred just walks away with it.

Mitt's numbers aren't bad but they're doomed if he doesn't get in gear. And this is his own fault (and his campaign's). His meeting with Buchanan makes it clear that he and his staff finally grasp this and are looking to correct it. I'm a little disappointed it's taken so long.

[lgwdnbdgr]

It's amazing to me that McCain and Romney are spending so much energy fighting with each other, and totally ignoring the party's biggest flaw -- Rudy Giuliani.

It's probably because McCain and Romney don't consider him a serious threat. They know that he'll crash and burn as soon as voters get to know what he really stands for. It's the same reason why Hillary and Obama don't bother attacking Kucinich -- it's a waste of time.

[WOSG]

“Standard propaganda. They wrote it, then they scream to the media that it’s evil and harsh while libmedia suppresses any mention of their authoring of it. Then the libmedia can be “balanced” and report that it’s equally opposed by both the Left and the Right so it must be just about right for the country.”

You are partly right. Taking the left position to an extreme so that a very liberal bill looks like a ‘compromise’ when it is nothing of the sort.

An additional factor is the
“Ask for twice of what you want, compromise to half of what you want, then whine and demand more after the compromise and say that it isnt enough.”

What La Raza is signalling is this: Once we give them the thing the liberals want - amnesty - the left will be more than happy to screw the conservatives on the paltry things they are doing to marginally make a few things better. The “tell” is in the timing of it all. They plan to change from chain migration, but are waiting 8 years to do it. Why? They need a backlog cleared. No doubt they will ‘fix’ that 8 years to 18 years and then forever, so La Raza keeps the chain migration forever.

Seriously, we conservatives really need to learn from the leftists and the Palestinians. They know how to make the other side compromise everything away without giving anything up.

[WOSG]

Could make a good multi-choice question:

“I think the Bush/McCain/Kennedy immigration bill is the worst thing to happen to the Republic since ... “

(A) Jimmy Carter’s Presidency
(B) FDR’s New Deal
(C) Milli Vanilli
(D) The Civil War
(E) The Fall of Constaninople 500 years ago

[George W. Bush]

If we don't learn and take action, we are facing permanent GOP minority status.

As you must recall, comments like this on Xlintonian triangulation used to be routine fare at FR. I hope more people learn to see through the machinations of the Left and libmedia.

[WOSG]

“It’s probably because McCain and Romney don’t consider him a serious threat. They know that he’ll crash and burn as soon as voters get to know what he really stands for. It’s the same reason why Hillary and Obama don’t bother attacking Kucinich — it’s a waste of time.”

LOL... McCain is crashing and burning *RIGHT NOW* due to his horrible views on immigration.

As for Rudy, his polling is well above Kucinich. He is wrong for the party.

I for one can’t wait for the front runners to be Romney, Thompson and Hunter.

[Badeye]

‘The entire article describes an interesting political gamble that McCain is launching today in Florida — by directly condeming Romney over immigration. ‘

McCain’s campaign is crashing, this is a hail mary at best. It won’t work, for the simple fact McCain was despised by conservatives - rightly so - for dozens upon dozens of issues, like CFR for example.

“The fact is — the immigration bill will probably pass ths week. Will this give McCain a political victory because he was “right” about current events? “

I’m not so sure the Amnesty bill will ever pass. We’ll see.
As for the second part, NO, it won’t make any difference. Even without the Amnesty bill, McCain had no chance of gaining the nomination. I suspect he’s recently realized that, and being McCain, he will now attempt to smear any GOP candidate that does have a chance....because he’s now in the same position Bob ‘Its My Turn, Damnit!’ Dole found himself in in 1996.

‘McCain is letting Bush be the wind under his wings — in matters where Bush has the power — Iraq and immigration. ‘

Pssssst. Even those of us that voted for the President twice don’t support his Amnesty bill, and we are pretty upset that the President in effect ‘coasted’ in Iraq til the day after he lost both the House and Senate. Firing Rummy the day after just made the ‘base’ even angrier, not to mention the House and Senate members think if it had been done BEFORE the election, they might have held onto one or the other.

‘What do you think?’

I think McCain is toast, and my President has lost his freakin mind.

[WOSG]

“As you must recall, comments like this on Xlintonian triangulation used to be routine fare at FR. I hope more people learn to see through the machinations of the Left and libmedia.”

Our estwhile leaders do the Clinton-in-reverse... divide their own base, give something away to the Dems and hand them a policy and political victory all in one. Doh!

[Vigilanteman]

Then the libmedia can be "balanced" and report that it's equally opposed by both the Left and the Right so it must be just about right for the country.

You nailed it! Enemedia opposition has all the sincerity of Br'er Rabbit begging not to be thrown in the briar patch.