Posted on 01/20/2008 9:34:59 AM PST by barryg
Mitt Romney had it all — money, looks, organization, endorsements and a seasoned staff.
But he still couldn’t crack South Carolina. There was something about the former Massachusetts governor that turned off Palmetto State voters.
He couldn’t connect with them no matter how hard he tried.
“He came across as a luxury car salesman,” said Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a Republican.
Romney spent about $280,000 a week to make his name known across South Carolina.
That was $3 million last year, in South Carolina alone.
He still flopped.
Realizing he couldn’t win here, Romney fled South Carolina last week with no plans to return. He hopped a plane to Nevada to claim his caucus win there Saturday.
The way South Carolinians saw it, Romney was ceding the state to three rivals — U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.
Romney made a mistake earlier in the month when he pulled all of his money out of South Carolina to go campaigning in Michigan, said Clemson University professor Dave Woodard.
“His timing was just terrible,” said Woodard, a Republican. “It couldn’t have been worse. What Romney was saying was, ‘I really don’t care about South Carolina.’
“He left us at the altar.”
Romney’s campaign never did catch fire here. After a brief period leading in S.C. polls last fall, he lost steam, slumping to third, fourth or fifth in the polls.
Why? Three reasons.
Romney is from Massachusetts, automatically making him suspect in South Carolina. Voters here don’t trust politicians from the home of Teddy Kennedy, Mike Dukakis and John Kerry.
Voters also questioned Romney’s conservative credentials. His flip-flopping on key social issues — abortion and gay rights —caused S.C. voters to wonder about his claims of being a conservative.
Among S.C. voters who told exit pollsters Saturday the main reason they voted for a candidate was because he “says what he believes,” Romney finished last among the five candidates who actively campaigned here.
Romney’s Mormon faith also hurt him among evangelical voters in the Republican primary. Many Southern Baptists, who comprise the largest denomination in the state, see Mormonism as a cult. Romney ran fourth among S.C. voters who identified themselves in exit polls as born-again or evangelical Christians.
However, Thigpen rejects the notion that Romney lost South Carolina because of his faith.
“It wasn’t his faith,” he said. “It was his phonyism.”
Romney’s decision to pack up to Nevada and its caucus were an attempt to build on his lone primary victory, in Michigan. Romney also won Wyoming’s little-watched caucus.
His departure from South Carolina served to lower expectations for him here, even though he started to advertise again in the primary’s days and made a get-out-the-vote effort.
The other high-profile Republican candidates decided to ignore Nevada in favor of South Carolina with its history of creating and demolishing Republican hopefuls.
For Romney, Nevada presented a particular opportunity. His faith was an asset in that state with its large Mormon population.
One in four Nevada caucus-goers was Mormon; 95 percent supported Romney, according to entrance polls there.
Romney aides have attributed their candidate’s Iowa caucus loss to suspicion about his faith among evangelicals, who rallied behind Huckabee, a Baptist preacher.
Thigpen said Romney made a wise decision to travel to Nevada.
“Why kick a dead horse?” he asked, referring to South Carolina. “Why waste your money on something that doesn’t look promising?”
But in essentially declaring that South Carolina didn’t count, Romney missed a chance to prove he can be a winning candidate nationwide.
South Carolina is “a test-tube state,” said Chip Felker, a Greenville-based Republican consultant. “If you win here, you have shown you can win elsewhere.”
False. Untrue. Check the link. He changed or added nothing in Massachusetts which was already a permanent AWB. What you are saying is simply wrong.
It’s ironic that you lie about Mitt Romney’s record then bandy about claims about him being ‘dishonest’...
Governor Mitt Romney has signed into law a permanent assault weapons ban that he says will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on these guns.
“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony on July 1 with legislators, sportsmen’s groups and gun safety advocates. “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”
http://www.iberkshires.com/story.php?story_id=14812
Romney’s shills are getting shrill trying to spin this away.
Florida, as a swing state, may make a better make-or-break state. And it will do so this primary season.
If Romney can win Florida, he can come back and win the nomination. If not, then our nominee is John McCain. (I dont think Rudy has a chance, even if he does win Florida).
Same with Hillary v obama.
A friggin nut case and a hick snake oil salesman. Yeah, thats a ticket to rally behind. We are sooo screwed!
I have decided to cast my 2008 vote for Romney. Smartest left, and good looking to boot!
So he signed up a month ago to bash Romney?
hmmm. Obviously motivated to have a say on primary race.
Shill for McCain or a different candidate?
Who are you FOR barryg?
In 1994, Romney supported the Brady Bill as well as the federal ban on assault weapons. He remarked that, “That’s not going to make me the hero of the NRA.” In 2004, when the federal ban expired, then-Governor Romney enthusiastically signed a permanent ban on assault weapons in Massachusetts.
http://amspec.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11120
I believe going forward that there will be more and more ‘swing’ states as a whole.
But both John McCain and Mike Huckabee are also not really conservative Republicans!
I am hearing them refer to Romney as the front runner. He has more delegates in his pocket.
I want someone I can trust and I just don’t trust romney. Rudy is a liberal but at least he doesn’t try to change his convictions just to get the nomination. Romney was just as liberal as rudy except without the record in crime and the economy.
Repeating a falsehood doesn’t make it true.
Massachusetts AWB was passed in the 1990s and was never set to expire. Romney didn’t pass the AWB.
That leaves McCain and Huckabee.
Isn't McCain also weak on the 2nd Amendment, too? I refer to Jim Rob's post.
“Of the 13 states I’ve lived in, South Carolina Republicans are the most diligent, critical, discerning and discriminating voters.”
Minus a sarcasm tag...how do you explain the results?
uh huh.
That explains closetted RINO Senator Lindsey Graham, fmr Gov Beasley, this Bauer character who is LT Gov but apparently is a flake (explains the Huck endorsement), .... and voting the RINO mcCain and the non-conservative tax-and-spend populist Huckabee #1 and #2 in the GOP primary.
I am flummoxed.
“Of the 13 states I’ve lived in, South Carolina Republicans are the most diligent, critical, discerning and discriminating voters.”
OTOH, maybe you are just saying it only gets WORSE in other states.
The South has changed in the last 8 years IMHO.
Many people don’t even consider Florida the South any longer.
Don’t count Romney out in the remaining Southeastern states.
I believe Independents can’t vote in the remaining states and this will show how strong McCain can be in the remaining primaries without Democratic “independents” or true independents.
I understand that. I was musing about a local election in an economically depressed area in which a businessman running on the GOP line won big time in a Democrap district.
South is overrated. The Republicans better start concentrating on the west or we will never win an election again. Start getting the northeast back again would not be bad either.
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