All goes wrong for Dudley Do-Right
By Howie Carr | Sunday, January 22, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
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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
“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.
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?"