Posted on 05/11/2009 1:38:02 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON (CNN) – In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures and a likely frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Now Romney's team is hitting back.
Steele, guest-hosting on Bill Bennett's radio show Friday, cast doubt on Romney's conservative bona fides and blamed the Republican base for rejecting Romney last year because "it had issues with Mormonism" and was unsure of Romney's commitment to opposing to abortion rights. Those comments aren't sitting too well with Romney's political team.
"Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you miss the target," said Romney spokesman Eric Ferhnstrom. "This is one of those times."
A Romney aide noted that the former Massachusetts governor won the Conservative Political Action Conference's annual straw poll the past three years, won 11 presidential primaries and caucuses, and earned 4.2 million votes by the time he left the race in February of last year.
The RNC chairman made the comments when responding to a caller who claimed that Romney, if he was the nominee, would have been a stronger candidate against Obama than John McCain. The caller argued that Romney never got a chance to be the nominee because "liberals" and the media pushed hard for McCain to win the Republican nomination.
But Steele disagreed.
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Memo to Mitt: Go away.
Is his whole cult going to hit back, too?
Well, the GOP better take Steele’s word to heart that it was because Rommey was a Mormon that he didn’t get the GOP nomination. That’s something that all in the GOP better know for sure, as soon as possible.
If not, the GOP, if they run Rommey on the ticket will simply make sure that a goodly portion of the Christians in the GOP will never vote for a cult-group member. That’s all that will happen with Romney. The GOP will be guaranteeing the loss to a Democrat.
I hope the GOP is smarter than to run a cult-member for President of the United States.
Romney would have been the ‘stronger candidate’ no real disputing it.
But that race not happening was due to Mikey Huckabee, nobody else.
Don’t forget McCain received 37% of Republican votes in the primaries ‘when it mattered’ and Huckabee and Romney split the remaining 63 (SIXTY THREE0 Percent of the Republican vote.
No GOP nominee will EVER win a national election cycle when they come in with less than forty percent Republican Primary support.
We have to retread this all again?
And, for the record, conservatives did not pick McCain. The MSM and the RINO Party did.
What's with all the confusion?
It seemed last year that very few cared that Mitt was a Mormon. Did Steele get this data by survey, or was this from the seat of his pants?
Michael Steele, you might be getting your legs now. Hopefully you are starting to understand what candidate will cause all kind of problems for the Dems and that is a true conservative.
Don’t you think the Dems would not put up a fight against conservative candidates (ie Palin) if they knew she could not hurt them?
There isn’t any doubt Romney lost some support because of his religion. There also isn’t any doubt Romney picked up some support because of his religion. Sayint it isn’t so is just ignoring the obvious.
How it would play out in a general election I don’t know. If Romney was a Democrat I don’t think it would be a problem. I suspect though, as a Republican, the MSM would be doing exposes about Mormanism that would cast it in a very negative light (with the underlying message of “should someone that believes in this be president?”
Steel just seems to have an ongoing case of “foot in the mouth” disease.
I suppose telling a Mormon to “try decaf” would be in poor taste, so instead I’ll suggest that Romney “chill out”.
“who claimed that Romney, if he was the nominee, would have been a stronger candidate against Obama than John McCain”
well, this is quite obvious. the campaign needed
1) money
2) aggressive strategy
3) realization that MSM is not your friend
As for 1) Romney would have had more than enough money to compete against MSM/Obama. McCain did not have money and was a victim of McCain/Thomson/Feingold CFR.
As for 2) and 3), Romney was ready to attack aggressively and not rely on honesty of MSM. McCain was naive.. e.g. sending Sarah to ABC and CBS interviews was a major strategic mistake (should have used Fox News or talk radio to introduce her better to American public).
I think McCain really believed that NYT and other MSM were in love with him. McCain speculated once that maybe he attacks O wrt Wright and Ayers (but he never did). Undecisiveness is fatal in politics.
I found Mitt Romney unacceptable because he is way too STATIST.Another RINO.
The problem is that Steele should be trying to bring us together to fight the UnAmerican Democrat Party and Hussein.
Why is he hosting a talk show?
“If not, the GOP, if they run Rommey on the ticket will simply make sure that a goodly portion of the Christians in the GOP will never vote for a cult-group member.”
I hope these disgraceful racists leave the GOP. Sooner the better. Hope they take Huckabee with them. Racists should go to hell.
A good example of how Huck helped MCain was in WV. In the caucus, Romney ended up with the most votes and Huckabee gave his votes to McCain in a backroom deal to derail Romney. Having said that, the ‘serious’ GOP candidates last year were the sorriest group we ever had.
To paraphrase Dr. Kissinger, it's a shame they all can't lose.
hmmmm, if you’re anti-Mormon you’re a racist? Didn’t know Mormonism was a race.
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