Posted on 01/31/2008 2:49:42 PM PST by Leisler
Former Gov. William F. Weld says fellow Republican Mitt Romney can withstand a hometown snub by Bay State voters in presidential balloting next week by simply dismissing the diss as little more than moonbat mania.
“I think people understand when you’re a red governor in a blue state that you have to work with the Democrats, which I think is a good thing,” said Weld, who was governor from 1991 to 1997.
Asked whether his State House successor has to win Massachusetts in his bid for the presidency, Weld, a Romney backer, said, “Not in my view.”
In fact, the former governor predicted, Arizona Sen. John McCain has a good shot in this region.
“Sen. McCain will probably run well in the Northeast; Gov. Romney will run well around the country,” said Weld in an interview with the Herald yesterday from California.
Few polls have been conducted in the Bay State. Romney led among Republicans in a State House News Service survey released Jan. 16. But unenrolled or independent voters - who outnumber Republicans and are key in the Bay State primary because they can cast ballots for either party - prefer McCain 47 to 20 percent.
The independents who helped Romney beat Democrat Shannon O’Brien in 2002 have largely turned on Romney, said Suffolk University pollster David Paleologos.
“And now, they basically have the ability to determine whether Romney will carry Massachusetts,” he said.
A Jan. 24 SurveyUSA poll conducted for WBZ-TV found Mitt Romney with a stronger lead at 50 percent followed by McCain at 29 percent. Romney also led among independents in that poll.
Weld projected the race for GOP nominee would go all the way to the Republican National Convention, scheduled for September in St. Paul, Minn.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Romney would be “laughed out of the race” if he can’t carry his own backyard.
Romney supporter and state Sen. Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) said he considered that Romney might not take the Bay State, but added, “It’ll certainly be embarrassing if he doesn’t.”
Hedlund blamed both the media and Romney’s handlers. “There’s definitely been a conscious effort to package (Romney) differently, but McCain has reinvented himself a number of times and hasn’t been called on it,” Hedlund said.
But Greg Mueller, a GOP strategist and ex-aide to former conservative presidential hopefuls Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes, also believes Romney can survive a home-state loss.
“Massachusetts isn’t a conservative state, and I don’t think Romney is trying to appeal to those center-left states,” Mueller said. jvansack@bostonherald.com
(Seriously, for 15 years I have been saying, "accelerate the revolution, become part of the problem." Sort of an aggressive Atlas Shrugged becomes Atlas shoves his way into the trough.)
I have yet to see a Romney shortbus rider “tell it like it is.” They couldn’t find their butts with both hands.
Y’know, the funny thing about Bill Clinton, if I were an active Democrat, I’d have accused him of being a paid Republican agent. That guy managed to do what we couldn’t for 42 years, hand us a Republican Congress on a silver platter. If I were a rodent, I wouldn’t want him or his wife anywhere near the Democrat party leadership. I’m absolutely amazed they didn’t run them out of DC on a rail after his first term.
Not only that, he went in on welfare reform. Sort of. But better than any Republican had done. Who’da thunk?
I guess that's supposed to be some clever comeback. Wallow in your bitchin' - it's ALL you ever do on this forum irregardless of the subject.
Well said - great comments.
Eww, dude. ;-D
The only bitchin’ is comin’ from your end, Hoss. You folks all gonna jump off a cliff when your RINO messiah crashes and burns ? Let me know so I can grab some popcorn and a lawn chair. :-)
I know two people from the state of Massachusetts, both I would classify as moderately conservative. One worked as a volunteer in Romney's race against Kennedy and both supported Romney in his gubernatorial race. Both of them are adamantly opposed to him now.
The only positive I can say for McCain is that he may choose SC Gov. Mark Sanford as his running mate.
Kerry bruited the name of John McCain as his running mate; there's precious little to keep McCain from returning the favor! What do they disagree on, really? They agree that the two of them are the only politicians who came out of Vietnam honorably, and that questioning anything they say or do is unpatriotic. They are both long-time senators (no one has ever been elected POTUS without attaining national office within 14 years of attaining statewide office), and they both are know-nothings on the economy. And, for that matter, both divorced their first wives and married money.Bush has done many things right, and many things wrong. Hardly anything that he did wrong was in disagreement with John McCain. The big things that Bush got right were often in opposition to McCain.
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