Posted on 10/21/2011 10:02:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
In a new web site, in a controversial ad that was launched and then quickly pulled from sight, and in Tuesday’s now infamous debate touching episode, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney is handling rival Rick Perry as if the Texas governor’s poll numbers were not at a paltry single-digit. With mounting evidence, he is, in short, treating Perry like Perry has Herman Cain’s numbers.
[snip]
If Romney can fatally weaken Perry now, it would allow him to dominate in the early primaries. Strategically, a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses would be followed by an anticipated victory in the New Hampshire primary, resulting in strong momentum as the voting shifts to South Carolina and Florida.
“You’ve got the guy down a bit, you don’t want to let him up off the mat,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant. “A mistake for a lot of campaigns is the front-runner doesn’t engage, and when they do, it’s too late. Particularly when Perry has the resources to go up in the air with negative ads, I think it’s smart for the Romney campaign. I think the Romney people are making the educated bet, probably the right bet, that there’s no one else in the field that can rise up and can be a sustainable long-term challenger.”
A source close to the Romney camp said, “One of these two guys is going to be president. You learned a long time ago in this business that when you’re getting attacked, you better answer.”
That Romney could be vulnerable to Perry’s millions, or the millions raised by his super PAC, lends a peremptory, inoculative quality to his elevated pressure on Perry. “If you’re Romney and you’re looking around the field you’ve got there … the only one who’s proved he can raise any money is Perry,” said Andrew Smith, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. “He has to make sure that Perry isn’t able to consolidate his position as a front-runner in polls, because he’s certainly a front-runner in fundraising.”
The stepped-up offensive comes at a curious time, with Perry at his lowest point in the polls since he entered the race in mid-August. Romney is trading the above-the-fray persona he has cultivated at the risk of elevating Perry, putting him on the same plane as the front-runner. A NBC News/Marist poll of likely South Carolina primary voters published last week had Perry at 9 percent, just three points higher than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is not a serious contender for the nomination.
The flare-up during Tuesday’s debate in Las Vegas stemmed largely from Perry confronting Romney over his hiring of a lawn care company that employed illegal immigrants, prompting Romney to recycle his criticism of a Texas law that Perry signed granting tuition discounts for the children of illegal immigrants. But Romney went beyond policy, taunting Perry by pointing out he had already had “a tough couple debates,” and reaching out to touch his shoulder — a personal space invasion that’s a no-no during debates.
Romney also irritably appraised Perry’s debating style as discourteous: “You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. And I suggest that if you want to become president of the United States, you have got to let both people speak.”
[snip]
Perry Communications Director Ray Sullivan called Romney’s aggression “not a new phenomenon,” but said “this week’s high-profile activities” were proof of Romney’s nervousness about Perry.
“The Romney camp and Governor Romney himself know that Rick Perry is the most likely candidate to be the conservative standard-bearer, given his record,” Sullivan said. “They’re threatened by Governor Perry’s strong record as well as fiscal and social conservatism, and they realize that we have the campaign organization and financial resources to win. Despite all of the efforts to belittle and dismiss, the Romney people know that Rick Perry is a very serious and credible threat to their now six-year-long presidential campaign.”
[snip]
LLS
Perry needs to pull out that hard-hitting stuff - like the Obama ad they ran a while back - and wipe the floor with Mittens “Obama” Romney.
It says a lot about Romney that he’s going after a guy who hasn’t got much of a chance of winning, while ignoring the real elephant in the room.
As anyone who has played chess knows, sometimes to get to the king you have to take out a key pawn.
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That, and in the wild, who does the predator take down first, the strong or the weak?
Take down the weakened, so you can focus on the strong.
After Perry and Cain, Mitt has no real strong adversaries left in the race.
Your own candidate is proving you wrong with each passing day.
Cain has started attacking Romney as well. Try again.
Romney is finished.
I guess I missed that. Got any links, ads, etc we can look at?
I don’t think Romney should go after Cain just because of some meaningless polls - fighting money with money is a better idea. Intrade has Mittens around 67% to win the GOP nomination, Perry is second at around 15%.
I think you’re right. A couple weeks ago Cain after making all that noise about going after Romney in the next debate did nothing. Perry has been the only one to really push Myth, with the exception of Santorum.
Cain for some reason seems to find Romney acceptable, which goes back to at least 2/03/2008. No true conservative would support Romney, something stinks here. Romney is right to go after Perry, Cain is going to leave Romney alone. .
I’m not married to my position here. I honestly think the odds are you are correct. However, we are in a serious transition period. I’ve seen things go viral with virtually no financial backing. I also believe that money is not the god of elections. I like to say that no amount of money would get Hitler or Stalin elected president of Israel.
I think we are going to test the power of the internet next year.
And in the “FWIW” category, I honestly don’t think it matters all that much who is our president in 2012. It’s too late for the winner to make much of a difference. I believed that in 2008 as well. I think I was right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2793447/posts
“I don’t think he’s a staunch conservative because he’s changed his position on too many things over the years. The other thing is, if you just look at Romneycare in Massachusetts, no matter how much he tries to pretend that it was supposed to be good for Massachusetts, a conservative would never have signed that Romneycare legislation in Massachusetts.”
Too much of a difference = too much of a difference FOR THE BETTER.
Important nuance.
That is very true.
Both are Big Government candiates, and as such, those who support either of them will be in a snit if someone like Cain gets the nomination, and are extrememly unlikely to vote for the Republican candidate in the general election.
If Cain gets the nomination, will YOU vote for him?
That’s quite the attack./sarc
I think he sees Perry as his long term adversary that will gain power with time, while he sees Cain as a flash in the pan, and easy to destroy when he can focus on him. So he needs Perry out fast, and then is free to bring all guns to bear on Cain, where the first salvo will reduce him to dust.
At least, I suspect that is how Romney sees it. I think he is wrong though. The kind of support Cain has is not something easily destroyed.
If it happened numerous times in 2010, why is it impossible in 2012?
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1110/19/pmt.01.html
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