Replies

You mean the guy who will lead in the delegate count after tonight? It’s all about delegates. Coming in #2 in 10 states is better than one in two, three in five, and four in three. But it’s funny to watch people get all worked up about what they think is a Romney loss.

You as much as anyone knows that this stage of the primaries is an expectations game. Romney invested a lot of time, effort, and money (including over $17M of campaign debt backed by his personal wealth -- and that's just through September) into Iowa and New Hampshire, hoping to build momentum from there. 2nd place in Iowa hurt, but not as much as failing to win New Hampshire, which is in his own back yard.

Now, despite the delegate count (which is pretty inconsequential compared to the number of delegates needed to win) that has Romney, he's badly lost that expectations game. How does it impact his fundraising? How much more of his own money has he already pumped into his campaign and how much more will he need to to keep going?

Honestly, he's lucky that there's still several primaries ahead of the Jan 31 FEC filing date, because without a win or two under his belt, I imagine his Q4 report would only make matters worse.

>but not as much as failing to win New Hampshire, which is in his own back yard.

I think that’s easy to understand. Romney has been dissing Mass since he left. If I lived in that area, I’d be a little put off that he didn’t give a little more respect to the state that propped him up.

This could absolutely be true. Yes, primaries CAN be about expectations---but again, that's in a "normal election year." This year, it is almost certain we will have a non-governor win (breaking tradition---unless Mitt or Huck pulls it out); it is likely we will break recent tradition and have a primary season that means something well into February or March, and if no one drops out soon, it is even possible we go to a convention without a clear candidate.

So it's too early to cite precedent in Romney's case. But I have never heard of anyone who was leading in delegates throwing in the towel---course, you might know election history better than I, so I'm open.