Posted on 01/21/2012 9:34:41 PM PST by raccoonradio
Howie Carr thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column, "All Goes Wrong For Dudley Do-Right". Excerpt: (more below)--
Mitt Romney just can’t close the deal.
Twelve days ago, Mitt was the toast of the GOP. This morning he’s just toast.
Twelve days ago, he’d won a “historic” two in a row — Iowa and New Hampshire — and he had a double-digit lead in South Carolina.
Now it turns out Mitt didn’t even win Iowa.
All goes wrong for Dudley Do-Right
By Howie Carr | Sunday, January 22, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo
Photo by Nancy Lane
Mitt Romney just can’t close the deal.
Twelve days ago, Mitt was the toast of the GOP. This morning he’s just toast.
Twelve days ago, he’d won a “historic” two in a row — Iowa and New Hampshire — and he had a double-digit lead in South Carolina.
Now it turns out Mitt didn’t even win Iowa.
Mitt had the governor of South Carolina with him, but Newt Gingrich had the two real power brokers — Juan Williams of Fox News and, more importantly, John King of CNN. Those were his foils in the two South Carolina debates.
Two minutes into the two-hour Thursday night debate on CNN, Gingrich had won the primary. And the reporter who threw Newt the hanging curve, John King, is from Massachusetts. That’s the kind of week it’s been for Mitt.
On the message boards, they’re calling him “Mittens” again, or “Myth.”
A little more than a week ago, there were rumors that Gingrich might pull out of the fight and throw his support behind Rick Santorum. A few days later, Newt was demanding that Santorum get out.
Mitt’s still got an 18-point lead in Florida, or did before last night’s Newt landslide. But he’s got to learn to lie better in these debates. That lame story of his about why he didn’t run for re-election in Massachusetts in 2006 was bad enough, but on the question of releasing his income tax returns, he squirmed like a gaffed fish. He was drowning in flop sweat.
Why is Mitt ashamed of having a lot of money? If Newt, the born-again Catholic, can brush off his cheating past, how come Mitt can’t explain coherently why it’s OK to pay a 15 percent capital gains rate on money you’ve already paid the top 35 percent income tax rate on when you first earned it?
This is Mitt’s problem: He comes across in these debates as a wimp. Dudley Do-Right didn’t play in South Carolina. He’s afraid of his own shadow. He’s overtrained.
The Republican primary voters have this dream of a snarling Newt disemboweling Barack Obama in the debates this fall. Talk about myths. How many debates is Barack going to agree to? Two maybe, tops, and both of them will be MSNBC-style — “Mr. Gingrich, when did you stop beating your first ex-wife?” Follow-up: “When you did you stop beating your second ex-wife?”
To the “Jersey Shore” MTV crowd, Newt would come across as a fat, nasty, pasty old man. They’re not going to realize what a boob Barack is, because they’re boobs, too.
Mitt Romney began this campaign season with a career electoral record of 5-17. This morning, he sports a not-so-gaudy 6-19 mark. I guess running Bain was a lot easier than running a national campaign.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists//view.bg?articleid=1397834
Howie misses the big point about how Newt can throw the medias BS right back at them. He will debate Obama whether he is there or not. He will not be afraid to call him out unlike John McCain for example.
“Mitt Romney began this campaign season with a career electoral record of 5-17. This morning, he sports a not-so-gaudy 6-19 mark. I guess running Bain was a lot easier than running a national campaign.”
Ohhhh Doctah!
Howie is getting... whiney.
EXACTLY! He's not going to fall for the "that question's been answered, let's move on" line.
Message boards? Plural?
Actually, Job One for Howie is not getting it right. It's Ratings! This opus will not hurt ratings.
Come Monday, I'll be especially interested in Howie's talk radio colleague Mr. Severino's analysis of Saturday. He's a more rabid Mittwit than Howie ever was. It will be instructive to hear his struggle with denial.
The Republican primary voters have this dream of a snarling Newt disemboweling Barack Obama in the debates this fall. Talk about myths. How many debates is Barack going to agree to? Two maybe, tops, and both of them will be MSNBC-style — “Mr. Gingrich, when did you stop beating your first ex-wife?” Follow-up: “When you did you stop beating your second ex-wife?”
Newt has an answer to that:
Howie had hitched his wagon to Mittens because he thinks it will benefit him personally down the road if Mittens wins (Presidential interviews, visits to the white house, etc...) but now that Mittens is on the ropes... all of that is up for grabs and Howie will, true to form change his tune regarding Newt. Before you know it Howie will be saying "Mit who?"
Howie now runs with the establishment blue-bloods.
His radio show is almost impossible to listen to the past few weeks since he, the Colonel, and Sandy are all Mitt, all the time. And they trash any other Repub in the field.
Howie has jumped the shark with this Primary season.
He means FR and the Herald’s messageboard etc
from Red Mass Group: Tim Murray, the other shoe drops
http://www.redmassgroup.com/diary/13811/tim-murray-there-goes-the-other-shoe
>>Been hearing rumors for a while that multiple Globe reporters were still chasing the Tim Murray/Mike McLaughlin/Late Night Car Crash Story. This morning, the other shoe drops hard. Here is the worst of it:
(QUOTES GLOBE)
-—To hear Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray tell it, former Chelsea housing chief Michael E. McLaughlin was just a campaign volunteer. Though phone records show that the two men called each other 193 times over the past two years - including one call on a Sunday at 1:30 a.m. - Murray aides insist that McLaughlin played no special role.
But a Globe investigation shows that the former Chelsea housing chief ran an extensive political operation for the lieutenant governor right up until McLaughlin resigned in November amid an uproar over his $360,000 salary. The FBI is investigating whether McLaughlin broke federal laws, questioning housing authority employees about McLaughlin’s political activities and management of the agency.
Murray “felt betrayed. He felt played’’ by McLaughlin, explained one person close to the lieutenant governor. Restless, Murray went out for an early-morning drive to clear his head.
The drive ended abruptly at 5:26 a.m. when his state-owned Crown Victoria slammed into a rock ledge along Interstate 190 at a speed in excess of 90 miles per hour, rolling over twice and triggering the political crisis of his career. Murray’s shifting accounts of how he came to be driving so early in the morning and why he crashed have raised so many questions that he recently hired Ferson, a crisis communications specialist, to handle the fall-out.
http://www.criticalmassachusetts.com/2012/01/tim-murray-there-goes-other-shoe.html
He at least seems to be doing the occasional column to
give Mitt the needle on a night like last night. Mitt and
Newt have each been on Howie’s show, but Mitt didn’t seem to have time to call Howie often it seems—while Gingrich was on the night of the NH primary and Howie came at him right away with
criticism of Newt’s apparent opposition to capitalism lately. Make of that what you will.
Howie seems to be saying Mitt is the lesser of the 2 evils,
but if Newt wounds up being the nominee I’d think he’d support him.
Who do you think Howie would support, in the end, Obama (like Col. Hunt did)?
I’m sure Howie likes doing his show but I wonder if he
dreams of becoming “President Romney’s Press Secretary”.
Howie coming out behind that THE WHITE HOUSE podium for
the daily briefing...
>>This is Mitt’s problem: He comes across in these debates as a wimp. Dudley Do-Right didn’t play in South Carolina
That doesn’t sound like Mitt rumpswabbery to me. At least he’s maybe playing devil’s advocate here.
If that means debating an empty chair, then great.
Bill Hudak announcing now on talk 1200 - he is suspending his campaign and will NOT back Richie Tisei -
Was just about to mention this—had heard Hudak on RKO
and Jeff Katz’s facebook says:
>>bill hudak announces he is dropping out of the gop primary for congress but will not endorse rich tisei - he made the announcement FIRST on the jeff katz show
I was half asleep and only caught the very end of Hudak on RKO (my guess is, no money?) By co-incidence or maybe this had something to do with it, Holli Robichaud in the Herald
said the GOP should clear the field and have Tisei go after
Tierney and have Hudak run for a different office.
I helped to interview Hudak in 2010 on Salem State Radio. Tierney declined to come on. As for Tisei, I think Howie did a fundraiser for him early in his career though Howie at first mis-pronounced his last name, saying it as “Tissy” not “Ti-SAY”.
Hudak announcement, via Salem News:
It is with a heavy heart that I write to advise you that I have decided to suspend my campaign for Congress for 2012. I intend to continue the fight in 2014.
I do not make this decision lightly – in fact, it is the most difficult I have made in 2-1/2 years.
Running for Congress is an extremely costly venture, as you all know. A business opportunity has presented itself to me, which in addition to my active law practice will involve substantial amounts of my time and effort for the balance of the year. This will allow me to recoup what my family has invested in this race so far, and then some – allowing me to return stronger than ever in 2014.
A run for Congress involves a full-time, focused commitment. While I can continue to raise awareness of issues, and relish the opportunity to debate Richard Tisei and John Tierney vigorously, you have the right to expect that your efforts and donations will be rewarded by the very best effort I can put forth. At this moment, I cannot promise that to you. Which means that my effort would leave things incomplete – and you deserve nothing but the best.
Although my family is fully supportive of my continued run, there are needs here too as I have put my campaign first, too often at their expense. And they need to be first for awhile.
The prospect of not following through and forcing Richard Tisei to be honest with his true record and motivation for running was one of my most difficult struggles in coming to this decision. I relish the opportunity, and will in 2014, because I’m sure you all know that little will change if he is elected. Worse, I know that this leaves most of you no real choice at all in this District in 2012.
I heartily and openly endorse and ask all of you to turn all your attention for the next six weeks to help three candidates for State Committee running on March 6, 2012: Kim Incampo (North Andover), Carlos Hernandez (Saugus), and Rob Aufiero (Wakefield).
Also state reps: Dwight Caufield (Lynn area) and Karin Rhoton (North Andover area).
I also heartily endorse Scott Brown. Put aside everything – and remember that he stood up when no one else in Massachusetts had the character to do so. He was not a career politician (yet), and has the character and fortitude to stand on his values and defend the votes he takes.
(BILL HUDAK)
Tissy is about right.
Paterno in death pool?
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