Posted on 01/16/2012 3:48:16 PM PST by SeekAndFind
How exactly has Mitt Romney managed to attract a polling surge in the middle of the attacks from Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry over his Bain Capital days? According to a new Rasmussen poll, it’s because Republicans appear to be ready for a downsizing artist in the White House. And Republicans don’t appear to be alone, either:
Voters are closely divided over whether Mitt Romney’s business career is a plus or a minus, but most Republicans see it as a plus. Additionally, a plurality of all voters think he would do a better job than President Obama dealing with the economy.
The Republican presidential front-runner has come under increasing attack from some GOP rivals for his work at Bain Capital, a major investment firm, and 34% of Likely U.S. Voters now think Romney’s track record in business is primarily a reason to vote against him. However, slightly more (39%) feel that business record is primarily a reason to vote for him, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are undecided.
As Saturday’s critical South Carolina Primary approaches, it appears the criticism of Romney by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry, in particular, is not resonating with Republican voters nationally. Fifty-five percent (55%) of those voters believe Romney’s record in business is primarily a reason to vote for him versus only 20% who see it as a reason to vote against him.
Forty-eight percent (48%) of all voters think Romney would do a better job than Obama managing the economy. Thirty-nine percent (39%) believe the president would do a better job, and 13% more are not sure.
That low number for Obama is a huge problem, especially since it comes in the middle of the Republican food fight. The economy will be the biggest issue of the election, and Obama can’t get to 40% on it against a mixed field in the GOP. Imagine where his numbers will be once the GOP unites behind a single candidate. On the question of which candidate would do better with the economy, a majority of independents give the edge to Romney by a wide margin, 52/30.
The internals have even worse news for Obama, especially if his team takes the Bain bait. Pushing the fact that Romney has extensive business experience is a big plus among Republicans, as Rasmussen’s summary notes, but it’s also a 15-point plus among independents (42/27). A majority of Democrats go the other way, but not as strongly as Obama would need at 19/56, with 25% unsure, especially since Republican approval would almost assuredly go through the roof if Romney wins the nomination. The older voters tend to be, the more positively it is viewed as well — and even among the youngest two demos, opposition doesn’t rise above 38%. Interestingly, the lowest income demo has a plurality favoring that experience for Romney (40/33); only the $20-40K demo opposes it. Even the government-employee demographic favors it by double digits, 38/27.
Small wonder that Mark Thiessen tells Romney that he should thank Newt Gingrich for launching this self-defeating attack:
When they meet in the green room before Monday night’s debate in South Carolina, Mitt Romney should probably give Newt Gingrich a big thank you. In just a few days’ time, Gingrich has managed has to do something Romney has tried and failed to do for more than five years: rally conservatives behind Mitt Romney.
Rush Limbaugh has called Gingrich’s attacks on Romney’s record at Bain Capital “indefensible,” “sad,” “absurd,” and “the language of leftists like Michael Moore and Oliver Stone.” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola declared them “disgusting” and called on Gingrich to “apologize to Governor Romney.” The Wall Street Journal wrote that those like Gingrich attacking Romney’s business record “are embarrassing themselves” and “taking the Obama line.”
Voters in South Carolina appear to agree. At a candidates’ forum hosted by Mike Huckabee on Saturday, Gingrich was booed lustily when he tried to defend his Bain attacks. Hilton Head resident Donald Harespoke for many when he was asked by the New York Times this weekend if he is supporting Romney and replied “I am now. What Newt did convinced me.” A new Insider Advantage poll this weekend shows Romney gaining ground with an 11-point lead. It appears the former speaker’s anti-capitalist attacks have only helped, not hurt, Romney’s campaign.
Why has Gingrich’s ploy backfired so badly? The attacks have undermined the main message of his campaign: that he is the principled conservative in the race, while Romney is a flip-flopper who will say anything to get elected. In parroting Barack Obama’s class-warfare rhetoric, Gingrich has managed to turn himself into the candidate who abandons his conservative principles to get elected — while Romney is now positioned as the principled defender of free-market capitalism. That is quite an achievement on Gingrich’s part.
It certainly is, but it might be more basic than that. It could be, as Larry Kudlow suggests, that voters who want to reduce the size and inefficiencies of the federal government think experience in this area is a plus:
There’s a very troubled company out there called U.S. Government Inc. It’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And it badly needs to be taken over and turned around. It probably even needs the services of a good private-equity firm, with plenty of experience and a reasonably good track record in downsizing, modernizing, shrinking staff and making substantial changes in management. Yes, layoffs will be a necessary part of the restructuring.
A quick look at the income statement of this troubled firm tells the story. Just in the past year (FY 2011), the firm spent $3.7 trillion, but took in only $2.2 trillion in sales revenues. Hence its deficit came to $1.5 trillion.
Just in the first three months of the new year (FY 2012), the firm’s troubles continued. Outlays for all purposes came in at $874 billion, but income was only $554 billion. So the shortfall was $320 billion. No hope of a self-imposed turnaround here. Indeed, both the senior management and the board of directors show no signs of making major changes to their business strategy.
Hope for future profits? That’s out of the question. The firms only chance of survival is a takeover. … So now the question is, will America Inc. ask this former turnaround CEO to prevent the bankruptcy of U.S. Government Inc.? Isn’t a Bainful turnaround exactly what America needs?
The effect of these attacks might just be that outcome. If Democrats are licking their chops now over Bain, they may find themselves doing facepalms in a few months instead.
With so much ammo to use, I'm confoozed as to why NO ONE is even addressing these issue???
You don't have to tell me. My first career was in banking right out of college. I went through 3 buyouts where all the bigger banks wanted was the deposit base. They promptly fired all the redundancy and overhead and many people lost jobs each time. It is what it is. In the end those smaller banks probably wouldn't have made it anyway. In fact, they were probably created with the sole intention of being bought one day and making a lot of money for the board/large shareholders.
This line of attack from Perry and Newt was just dumb. Bain may not be all puppy dogs and sunshine, but it is largely a necessary part of capitalism. Many large companies exist today which employ a lot of people because of Bain and venture capital firms like it. This whole attack put conservatives like Rush, Hannity, Levin, etc, in a position of defending capitalism itself and associating it with none other than RINO Mitt. These attacks were exactly what Romney needed in a GOP primary and the end result is probably a big net positive for Romney who is the least conservative candidate in the field. Just dumb.
Why is no one saying he has zero experience on protecting this country! This haven't even brought it up at all have they?
It is Limbaugh who should apologize for sabotaging Newt's campaign. It was absurd to portray criticism of one company as an attack upon the entire capitalist system. Bain Capital is fair game especially in a contest where Romney has not hesitated to go negative. Newt's message did not catch on because of its unified rejection by the MSM with MSM hack Limbaugh leading the way.
Because at one point Newt supported Romney care...but then he has un supported it too and he has semi supported it and semi un supported it
Newt likes to cover the bases
That’s interesting. So, all the homeless and broke people in MA are in prison? How many? When do they get out? As soon as they are out, won’t they just be arrested immediately for, um, you know what?
In my case it was industrial but its essentially the same thing.
The board of directors looked at the company and saw that we were profitable but not in a huge way and compared it with a scenario of buying us out and shipping the work off to another one of their companies. The buy and close option was the more profitable option so it went to a vote among stockholders and that was all she wrote.
In fact they worked us hard for about a year while increasing the number of employees and cutting nearly everyone back to part time as a means of getting rid of employees cheaply.
why dont you just blame Bush? its spelled like Rush
Romney will be the nominee. Live with it.
If you are right (and I think you are) what happens on FR in the months ahead?
LLS
I'm sure that was the point, but it didn't come across that way. Newt gambled big and lost. And then Perry joined in -- followed reluctantly by Santorum. The "clown car" was finally full.
Newt ended up turning Romney into a victim. His decision (aided by the big money he couldn't resist) will go down in history as one of the biggest political miscalculations ever. What a stupid, stupid thing to do.
I guess it will be like the Underground Railway. In the grand scheme of things, I’d rather have Mitt appoint a Supreme Court Justice than Obama.
I was willing to look past Newt’s excessive baggage (e.g., the sofa scene with Pelosi) to support him, but he has definitely jumped the shark.
Put a fork in him. He’s done.
Well, look at it this way: if you're in prison, you get free medical care.
For now. Just wait til the Dems get a hold of this and our clueless electorate tunes in. This line of attack is hardly over.
Yeah, I saw that silly quote endlessly as well. Unfortunately Newt chose to use an absurd, lie-filled pseudo-documentary worthy of Michael Moore. It was so rapidly debunked that Newt was asking its producers to make major changes within days of posting it.
Obama will show the guys how to do it right this fall. He’ll make Bain an albatross around Mitt’s neck like Ted Kennedy did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.