Replies

Is Gingrich just mccain reincarnated? I honestly don’t know. I do know that with all the infighting, it is chipping away at the ammo the Democrats have in their bag of tricks to help bring the empty suit to victory.

I am a great believer in Free Enterprise. One of its core tenets is that "competition improves products". If Romney survives to become the nominee, it will be because these early tests made him a better candidate.

As for Newt being 'another McCain', it depends what you mean. I wouldn't have minded McCain at all if he was swinging all the time at Obama every second of every day from the Iowa caucuses to election day. In 2010, McCain ran the most vicious, intense campaign against JD Hayworth that I've ever seen. And I wouldn't have minded that if he had been half as brutal against Obama.

By that standard, the one candidate in this race who is most like 2008 McCain is 2012 Romney. If Romney wants to win, he needs to amp it up. He can't give non-answers about when he's going to release his tax returns. He can't continue with simply saying that Obama is a nice guy who's slightly over his head.

At the very least, Romney has to start interacting with conservative grass roots media more. I heard every other Republican candidate being interviewed on a talk radio show last week - even Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry. But I didn't hear Romney. Romney won't even call in to Hugh Hewitt, and Hewitt wrote a book about him.

I agree with your point on the market sharpening things. If Mitt comes out blazing this week, defending his record and money making ability, he can then position himself better for the fall general election.

On the other hand, if he stumbles like he did this past week, better that we discover that now.

Romney really hasn’t been tested over the past six months. He’s always benefited by seven or eight other people being in a foodfight while he sat back and looked Presidential. This campaign is finally now Mano v Mano with Newt versus Mitt.

Romney needs to somehow get that extra 30 percent of the GOP primary base that he has been completely unable to convert. I’m not sure he gets it.

I just hope the anti Newt crew doesn’t cry and then run a third party candidate. Newt hasn’t been my first choice by a longshot, but if he wins, we need to align behind him. Same with Romney. A third party run kills us.

At the very least, Romney has to start interacting with conservative grass roots media more. I heard every other Republican candidate being interviewed on a talk radio show last week - even Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry.

Very reminisicent of how Chris Wallace had been pounding him a month or two ago for not going on the Sunday talk shows for something like a year up to that point. You can go back further to how many of these candidates regularly appeared on FOX or other news channels as pundits or guests over the last 5 years. People like Newt, Santorum, Bachmann, Cain, Palin, even McCain have done political talk shows regularly for years, sometimes as hosts and sometimes as guests.

It's just more indication that Romney is an empty suit who is either afraid of the voters finding out who he really is or simply agnostic about politics, and willing to say whatever he needs to to get elected in whatever campaign he is running. It also indicates he does not feel prepared to discuss a broad range of issues, and is only willing to go into the fire zone when he has been carefully coached, prepped and prepared by his professional handlers.

I should also add that can you IMAGINE Romney even guest hosting a political talk show of any kind? The man appears to have no core values and speaks about the issues only in carefully scripted platitudes. Any of those other candidates I mentioned could credibly host an opinion show.

Romney would actually make a great TV news anchor. He’s got the looks for it and for once we would have an anchor with no core values and no strong opinions, someone who you really couldn’t tell where they stood on the issues. That’s a rare talent in this day and age and a career he ought to look into after he loses the election.