Wow, you're a veritable Michael Barone, fieldmarshal.
The general election is to be decided in the North and midwest. The swing states from 2004:
Posted on 01/08/2008 6:15:03 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BEDFORD, N.H. - Mitt Romney pledged to "fight across this nation" for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday after a second place finish in New Hampshire, the same spot where he finished in last week's Iowa caucuses. He likened it to another silver medal in his quest and praised GOP victor John McCain for a "first class race."
"I'd rather have a gold" medal, the former Massachusetts governor told supporters. He vowed to stay in the race and set his sights on the primary in Michigan in one week. He was raised in Michigan and his father George Romney was president there.
"There have been three races so far. I've gotten two silvers and one gold. Thank you Wyoming," said the one-time Olympics organizer.
"I will fight across this nation. On to Michigan and South Carolina and Florida and Nevada," he said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BEDFORD, N.H. (AP) — Mitt Romney pledged a long fight for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, regardless of finishing second to John McCain in the New Hampshire primary after posting another second-place finish to Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses.
In between was a weekend win for Romney in the Wyoming caucuses, which the former Massachusetts governor said was testimony to his 50-state strategy.
"I'm going to stay in this race to win," Romney told reporters after beginning his day at a polling station in Manchester. "I don't think the Republican Party wants to have only one person in this contest until the very end. I expect to be one of the two that's in it to the very end."
During the final 24 hours of the New Hampshire campaign, Romney and his aides largely shed their recent inhibitions, openly predicting a come-from-behind-victory against McCain. They claimed independents were breaking their way based on Romney's performance in a pair of weekend debates.
Nonetheless, Romney chided McCain and Huckabee for cherry-picking contests, with Huckabee having focused on Iowa while McCain focused on New Hampshire. Romney spent more than $7 million on advertising in each state, and held as many, if not more, events in both places than any of his GOP rivals.
Romney, 60, is a former venture capitalist who made hundreds of millions before taking over the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Olympic Games and returning them to profitability. He failed in his first bid for elective office, a 1994 effort to oust Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. But in 2002 he rode his wave of Olympic glory to a four-year term as the Bay State's governor.
A Mormon, Romney aggressively courted Christian conservatives — some of whom consider Mormons members of a cult — and in doing so brought the issue to the fore in the 2008 campaign.
Romney traveled to the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas last month to deliver a speech spelling out his views on faith in American politics.
Interviews Tuesday with voters exiting their polling places showed that about a fifth of New Hampshire GOP voters said they were born again or evangelical voters, compared to the six in 10 who said so in last week's Iowa Republican caucuses and boosted Huckabee to victory there.
Most New Hampshire Republicans said the top quality they were seeking in a candidate was someone who shared their values and is authentic. Romney was the big leader among those naming values, McCain among those seeking a candidate who says what he believes. About a quarter named experience, an area where McCain had a slight edge.
McCain was viewed as the strongest leader and most qualified to be commander-in-chief.
Romney, who aired ads critical of Huckabee and McCain in Iowa and New Hampshire, was seen more than the others as having waged a negative campaign, the exit survey found.
New Hampshire was a pivotal state for Romney, who predicated his campaign on starting fast with wins here and in Iowa and using that momentum to steamroll his opponents in later contests in Michigan — his birth state — and South Carolina, Florida and the two dozen states voting on Feb. 5.
Romney warned Republicans that with Barack Obama surging against veteran senators on the Democratic side, Republicans would make a mistake to nominate another Senate veteran in McCain.
"I don't have years and years of favors I have to repay, lobbyists who've raised all sorts of money for me, deals I've worked out in the cloak room," he told New Hampshire voters. "I come in from the outside."
Every time I see Romney, I expect him to tell me that his watch cost more than my car, then snap that “coffee is for closers!”
Yup. Especially since said candidate will not carry the GOP states necessary to win the general. Massachusetts liberals have a nasty habit of not winning in the South. Just ask Mike Dukakis or John Kerry. We need to get behind the only viable Conservative in this race, Fred Thompson. The only man who can unite all the wings of the party.
Wow, you're a veritable Michael Barone, fieldmarshal.
The general election is to be decided in the North and midwest. The swing states from 2004:
Yes, I am.
"The general election is to be decided in the North and midwest. The swing states from 2004:"
I'll repeat again. Put up Massachusetts liberal Romney and he won't win the South. He isn't going to win any rodent states, and how's he going to win without the South ? Where are these Conservatives that are magically going to turn out for him ? I won't vote for him under any circumstances, and neither will millions of others whom are being ignored by the party's tack to the far left.
I was born and raised in Michigan but never knew our state's political system including a president. ;-)
Mitt is a class act and is the most qualified candidate out there. Success is the best experience...
Why do you bother? Either Thompson will win South Carolina, in which case it will be a Thompson/Romney race, or else Thompson will lose in South Carolina, and this place will be like a morgue.
Remember when the Fred supporters made fun of Duncan Hunter and his 1% showings?
Maybe Romney can’t win. If he can’t, I thought I had a backup plan with Thompson, but that doesn’t seem to be working out. I’d rather have a 1st and 2 2nds, than a 2nd, a 3rd, and a DNF.
But maybe Thompson will catch on in South Carolina. I certainly am hoping he can, even though I support Romney. But so far he still doesn’t show he’s willing to do what it takes.
Fred does much better in solid conservative states. In Wyoming, he finished a respectable 2nd with 25% of the delegates to Romney’s 66%.
The number of votes that Romney got compared to those below him was very telling. Can’t win them all, but you really don’t need to.
And contrary to some of the severely deranged spin around here, one of the nicest candidates and the cleanest, hardest working campaigners around.
You act like the south will just vote for the republican no matter what. That’s wrong. It’s not a given.
Question: Is there a “rules of the primary process and political conventions” somewhere that I could read? This is the first time that I have had the time to follow the primary process. (30+ year of working left me in a who-cares mode before.)
Romney currently leads in the delegate count. If he would continue to come in 2nd with a 1st occasionally while the others keep splitting the 1st place prizes, could he be nominated with the largest total.
Romney will have to make an inspired VP pick, someone who can bring the south. Maybe not anybody currently running.
If it was me, I’d want Dick Cheney for another 8 years. But I don’t think that will help us win very much. :-)
Had Thompson gone to the phone booth to change yet? I'm eagerly anticipating his miraculous comeback campaign.
Why ? You’re so anxious for your liberal RINO to run our party straight off the cliff, just like he did in Massachusetts.
To the contrary. I'd welcome a Thompson nomination and have consistently said so. Too bad he's dead on arrival. Give it up.
From the talk of Thompson supporters, one would think Thompson was the clear poll leader in South Carolina...come to find out he's getting 9 freaking percent of the vote there so far.
Pardon me for not getting enthused.
I’m not giving up being a Conservative. Why are you so quick to sell out to liberals by supporting RINOs of mass-destruction ?
Take a look at Romney’s statements. When it comes to taking both sides of an issue, I can’t tell the difference between him and Clinton.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1950635/posts
Most of us think the Ma. GOP kind of deserved to be run off the cliff. In fact, a lot of us spent last year running our entire national party off the cliff — it’s why we have almost no republican congressmen from the northeast now.
So to the degree that Romney helped the process, and frankly I don’t credit him much, he was just doing the work most of the conservtives here wanted to be done.
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