Posted on 02/06/2012 10:30:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Generally speaking, political campaigns don’t waste time or effort attacking competitors who pose no threat to their standing. The Mitt Romney campaign has mostly focused on Newt Gingrich for its attacks, which made sense in December and January, as Gingrich had the poll standing and the cash to pose a serious threat -- a threat fulfilled in South Carolina. Now, however, the Romney campaign has a new target:
The campaign has sent out three press releases attacking the former Pennsylvania senator in the past 24 hours — and is trotting out lead-surrogate former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to attack Santorum in a conference call this afternoon.
“Rick Santorum is a nice guy, but he is simply not ready to be President,” Pawlenty said in a statement released by the Romney campaign. Pawlenty also attacked Santorum for his record as “pork-barrel spender” who is not as conservative as he presents himself to be.
The new focus is a response to Santorum’s strong position leading up to Tuesday’s Minnesota caucus, leading Romney 29% to 27% in a Saturday poll by the Democrat-leaning Public Policy Polling.
Additionally, Santorum has been the only candidate who seems capable of tripping up the usually-unflappable Romney. In the two Florida debates, Santorum drew blood with attacks on the Massachusetts health care law Romney championed. The Romney campaign issued a separate list of Santorum’s “false attacks” on Romney’s signature legislative achievement in the Bay State.
As it happens, pork-barrel spending is one of the issues on which I disagree with Santorum, DADT being another. Santorum has defended the practice in general in the same way that Ron Paul defends it, which is to highlight spending authorizations as a Congressional responsibility, and one that is in theory more accountable than allowing executive-branch agencies to make those decisions. In theory, Santorum and Paul are correct. In practice, however, Congress has had very little transparency on earmarks until very recently, and they ended up mostly being used to flex their muscles in home districts in order to boost their advantage as incumbents. That has allowed a culture of corruption to flood Washington from both Republicans and Democrats alike, and Congressional reforms to the process have been halting and half-hearted at best.
That specific attack line indicates that Romney has begun to see Santorum as an increasing threat. Nate Silver agrees, to a point:
A contiguous block of eight swing states containing 95 electoral votes — Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — determine the winners and losers in most presidential elections. When at least six or seven of these states are added to the state bases of the Democratic or Republican candidate, he or she is all but guaranteed a victory. (Barack Obama won seven of them in 2008). Only when they are about evenly divided, as in 2000 or 2004, do swing states in other parts of the country — like Nevada or New Hampshire or Florida — tend to make much difference.
Mr. Romney lost Iowa to Rick Santorum, albeit by about the narrowest possible margin. He will have two more opportunities to win a Midwestern state on Tuesday, when Minnesota has its caucuses and Missouri holds a primary. (The Missouri primary does not matter for delegate selection: the state will hold a separate caucus for that purpose in March.)
Mr. Romney could be vulnerable in both states. A survey released on Sunday by Public Policy Polling, which has had fairly accurate results so far in the primary season, had Minnesota as a toss-up between Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum, with Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul not far behind.
And in Missouri, where Mr. Gingrich is not on the ballot for the “beauty contest” primary, it had Mr. Santorum ahead of Mr. Romney, 45 percent to 34 percent.
Imagine that Mr. Romney were to lose both states. That would make him zero for three in the nation’s most important swing region. It would raise questions about his performance in Ohio, probably the most important state to vote on “Super Tuesday,” March 6. Polling there also shows a competitive race.
If Romney loses both, he would still have not lost any delegates. None of the contests before Arizona this month produce delegate allocations except Nevada; they’re all non-binding. But it would raise questions about Romney’s ability to connect in “flyover country,” and would highlight Santorum’s ability to play in the Midwest.
Bill Kristol believes a Santorum-Romney fight would produce a more “serious and constructive” battle in the GOP primaries:
In Minnesota and Colorado, the caucus system will result in a proportional allocation of delegates among the various candidates. But with polling showing Santorum even with Romney in Minnesota and second to Romney in Colorado, a strong showing for Santorum would do the most to slow the Romney juggernaut. It would also of course help Santorum’s chances to replace Gingrich down the road as the alternative to Romney—an outcome that, I suspect, might well result in a better race for the nomination and a healthier situation for the ultimate Republican nominee.
A final point: vote. The Romney-Gingrich slugfest of negativity seems to have produced a low turnout in Florida and Nevada. But the choice before you remains no less important than it was before all the negative ads started airing. Indeed, you who will vote tomorrow have a chance to get us beyond the unseemly spectacle of the last couple of weeks. You can put Romney on a likely path to the nomination. Or you can create the possibility of a serious and constructive Romney vs. Santorum race.
Obviously, I agree with this assessment. Given the new focus on Santorum, it looks as though Team Romney now sees Santorum as a considerable threat. We’ll see how Santorum responds, but he’s been undaunted by all of the twists and turns so far.
Rombama plays dirty just like his mentor, the kenyan.
Romney is a snake....
Willie Mitty is trying to get Rick to drop out
He needs all the Conservative votes that Rick has...
The liberal Willie Mitty desparately needs some psuedo conservative creds...
Boy they are afraid of Santorum big time. I love it. Most FREEPERS are too.....this is turning out more beautiful than I expected. I love it when the true 100 percent moral conservative wins. Go Santorum and don’t hide under the table crying about how mean it is to have little commercial’s against you like another famous candidate does AND don’t complain about the unfairness of anything. Just do your job and become President.
"Pawlenty also attacked Santorum for his record as “pork-barrel spender” who is not as conservative as he presents himself to be."
Another exercise in deflection to try to portray the liberal former governor and father of Obamacare as a "Conservative" .
How is that possible, Romney bans all the ones that are most effective?!
To be able to breathe through my nose while voting for president would be glorious.
Romney plays by the same playbook Obama did... clear the field to win.
I hate Romney and he will never get my vote.
(((((PING)))))
The Patriots lost, and so will Ricky. Sorry, but he doesn’t have the conservative chops (even though in his memememeememeeeee rants he claims them), he doesn’t have the maturity or the base to conquer Mittso. He does play the arse kissing spoiler role to a tee however.
Will that get him a VP slot with Myth in the end? Nope. Obamney will treat Rick the same way he treated Bachman’s debate coach. Out on his rear in the alley for all his hard work. (see like Bachman’s debate coach, dishing out the dirty for Myth will get him a fat paycheck, but that’s it. It will ruin his political career)
Your logic is more tortured than I imagined. When folks spend 30 million attacking Newt, it’s because he deserves it - when they spend 30 seconds attacking Santorum, it’s because they are “scared” of him.
Please, don’t bother to try and explain.
My guess is the Bimbo explosion against Hermann Cain, like the stealth attacks on Gingirch in Iowa, were launched by the big money political pacts supporting Romney. They attacked him with accusations that were unprovable and simultaneously incapable of being refuted.
Romney is running a vicious, dirty campaign against all the conservative candidates. And he has offered conservatives NOTHING - NADA. He has NOT extended any olive branch or promises to us as he feels we are too stupid to realize who hhe really is - and based on some of the voting thus far, he’s right.
He feels he is “entitled” to be President.
Why? Because that loser John McCain (who is supporting him) stopped him lat time around. Also his big Daddy George Romney, saw his presidential aspiration expire when Goldwater cleaned his clock at the 1964 convention.
If Romney wins the primary and manages to beat Obama (questionable) he will be George Bush III. Better than Obama, but still a far cry fr4om what the Tea Party people and real philosophical conservatives want FOR A CHANGE in the White House.
When that happens and if Rick says nothing, he'll be just another asterisk in the 2012 primaries.
but...but...Ricky is working for Romney....he said so, or so I was told.
Yes, Cain and Co. blamed the wrong perps. And now the Mittens attack dogs aren’t even trying to cover their tracks by mixing up their strategies.
It’s just Saul A. 101. Target, freeze, destroy.
Don’t worry...little Ricky won’t.....
Since it seems obvious that neither Gingrich or Santorum has the sense to work together, at least their campaigns could informally collaborate by firing out attacks against Romney every time he attacks one or the other of them. Make Romney shoot in two directions at the same time!
That's a tad selective. While I applaud Santorum for his consistent pro-life position, he is not, nor has he ever been, a true 100 percent fiscal conservative. Actually, quite the opposite. This has been touched on in a few of the debates, but because Rick has been mostly away in the corner, no one has paid close attention.
Also, his endorsement of the TRAITOR Arlen Sphincter and his loss in the last Pennsylvania Senatorial race by 18% insures he will never be taken seriously.
It's nice to sit off to the side (exactly how he won Iowa) and shoot at the guy who is second, but now young man we will see how thick-skinned you really are.
Go Newt Go!! ...You know, the thick-skinned one.
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