Posted on 04/04/2012 7:34:47 PM PDT by VinL
Coming off of his primary wins in liberal Maryland and DC and a relentlessly negative campaign in Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s campaign has signaled to the other candidates for the Republican nomination for President that there will be no let-up in the negative tenor of his campaign going into Pennsylvania and the other spring primaries. Mitt Romney As Bloomberg’s Heidi Przybyla noted, the “defining feature of the 2012 Republican presidential primary race” has been Romney’s relentlessly negative campaign. According to Przybyla’s research, “Since the contests began, Restore Our Future has spent $35 million on commercials attacking Santorum and Newt Gingrich” and “just $1.1 million promoting Romney.”
According to Przybyla’s reporting, Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, Romney’s super PAC Restore Our Future aired 16 negative ads 41,612 times in GOP primary states such as Michigan, Florida and Colorado.
Romney’s negative ads, many of them factually questionable, have carpet bombed the conservatives in the race. As Romney has unleashed this wave of negativity, the campaigns of conservatives from Rick Perry, to Michele Bachmann, to Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have withered, leaving Rick Santorum as the last conservative standing to bear the brunt of Romney’s attacks.
However, these attacks have done nothing to build support for Mitt Romney, especially among movement conservatives, and to the extent that Romney can claim front runner status it is because he has come to be seen as the “least worst” alternative by rank-and-file Republican primary voters.
Romney’s campaign has already made clear that it will employ the same hard-edged tactics that he used to crush Newt Gingrich in Florida and overtake Santorum in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, to defeat Santorum in his home state of Pennsylvania.
Whether Romney’s slime machine campaign will work against Santorum in Pennsylvania remains to be seen – it didn’t work against Gingrich in his home state of Georgia where Newt buckled down and ran like he was running for county sheriff to neutralize the charge that he was an out of touch Washington insider.
Even if one accepts the fuzzy math that Romney claims puts him half way to the 1,144 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination – and we don’t – his negative campaign has left him with a substantial enthusiasm deficit, and no real base upon which to mount a winning campaign against Barack Obama.
As long as Romney relies solely on negative advertising to tear down his more conservative Republican opponents, without making the positive case for his own bona fides to be the Republican standard-bearer, conservatives will have little reason to support him.
Given the huge hole that leaves in the Republican base, the other candidates should prepare to stay in the race all the way to Tampa, knowing that if Romney’s delegate count doesn’t give him the nomination on the first ballot, conservatives whom he has failed to convince during the primaries will continue to look for an alternative until the roll is called and the last vote is counted.
It looks like in the fall, the Mittster will still be struggling to win the republican base. Even John McCain had the base active with his selection of Sarah Palin. Mitt will probably be the only one in recent history, who loses with a significant portion of the base not supporting him.
"GOP, you could have been a contenda."
Dick Viguerie gets it -- ever since Ronnie's first campaign, maybe since Barry's.
Good man to have on our side, with all the six-legged RiNO's crawling out of the woodwork now, and Hugh Hewitt bellowing at conservatives to quit being wiseguys and losers and get on board with The Man, Bishop Willard.
(First time I've shouted at my radio to go eff itself in a good while.)
Speaking of hectoring .....
I cannot consider someone who won’t vote for the Republican nominee against Barack Obama to be a conservative or a patriot.
So now we're being TOLD to back Romney ..... or what?
It's a long way to the convention, pal. And a lot can happen between now and Wyoming's casting its delegates' votes.
I expect that, if Romney is the nominee, the final outcome will look a lot like McCain's in 2008, only worse. Romney has given conservatives a real pounding, and he has lied to us copiously and relentlessly.
What a repugnant man. And he's going to beat the Lying King of the Welfare State?
You think that Obama’s ads against Romney will be devastating-—maybe they will, time will tell. On the other hand Romney should be able to create some quite devastating ads against Obama himself. If gas prices remain high Romney could pound him for that and his reluctance on the Keystone Pipeline and his wacky idea about using algae for energy. That’s an ad that even the Obama supporters could understand. He can nail him on the stimulus fiasco and the debt increases, something that the independents are usually concerned about. The list goes on and on and on....
Going by Mitt's record in MA, he'll want a running mate who will be subservient to him. You think McCain's people muzzled Sarah? Watch Mitt.
Bears repeating!
Are you counting in the dollar value of constant MSM cheerleading for Obama?
Many of them post here on FreeRepublic and try to intimidate anyone who dares to express reservations about Bishop Romney
Romney will lose deservedly.
He is a backstabbing RINO,and a poser for the DNC.
Funny I dont see anything in the Article how romney is Going to carpet Bomb Obama,with, He is In over his Head,and He is A nice Guy and Has a Fine Family.
That will work with Obama calling Romney Mad and wanting to Kill seniors,more Dirty Air throw the Poor into the Streets,Let everyone lie in their own Vomit because they are taking away their Health Care. Good Luck MITT
I hesitate to provide counterpoint to the “Mitt is unelectable and won’t take on Obama the way he’s taken on his competitors” groundswell I’m seeing here - until the esteemed owner of this fine site, sends some sort of signal it’s time for the teams to congratulate each other for a hard-fought campaign, shake hands and take on our real adversary.
I’ll just post this link, without comment:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-usa-campaign-romney-obama-idUSBRE83314120120404
“With new momentum, Romney accuses Obama of hiding”
“I am thinking of sitting out the election this year”
There are too many important down-ballot elections to do that. Those candidates need our votes.
“Romney’s negative ads, many of them factually questionable, have carpet bombed the conservatives in the race. As Romney has unleashed this wave of negativity, the campaigns of conservatives from Rick Perry, to Michele Bachmann, to Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have withered, leaving Rick Santorum as the last conservative standing to bear the brunt of Romney’s attacks.”
This cycle started with me disliking Romney, now I loath and fear him. This Repub WILL NOT support Romney in a general election, regardless of his VP pick. I will leave the ballot blank. In my eyes, he is not an improvement over Obama....both are unacceptable. The RNC just doesn’t get it. I have voted for he GOP candidate every time (liked or not) since 1976. I won’t do it in 2012 anymore.
You are going to see the lowest turnout of GOP voters in history this November because Romney is on the ticket and many of us refuse to back him, even against the evil Obama.
You are right. Maybe I will skip over the vote for president.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the RATS and the MSM are supporting Romney, knowing supporting him, will help obamma win.
Liberal cheerleading for Democratic candidates doesn't really vary from election cycle to election cycle. McCain was outspent 3 to 1 in 2012 before factoring in media cheerleading for Obama, but came within 5% of Obama's vote count. How close would he have come if he had spent the same amount? Or more?
Romney's record is less conservative than McCain's, although his stated positions are more conservative. If we give Romney the benefit of the doubt and average out his record and his stated positions, we could say that Romney is more or less McCain II. But Romney is apparently willing to spend tens of millions of his own money, and may have GOP contributors willing to chip in hundreds of millions either in the form of Super PAC money or direct contributions. Bottom line is that Obama will have no money advantage this year. So we get to re-run 2008, with a GOP moderate running yet again, but with either funding parity or a money advantage.
“I have a sneaking suspicion that the RATS and the MSM are supporting Romney”
IMHO, the MSM is supporting Romney, mainly because he’s the least conservative Republican running. You may remember in 2008, the MSM liked McCain well enough, but swooned over Obama, so they attacked Sarah Palin vigorously because she was a real conservative and effective on the stump, while largely leaving McCain alone. Look for something like that if Romney chooses a great running mate.
In a word, no.
I don't care who Myth's VP would be. It's the top of the ticket that matters and I refuse to vote for Miss Congenality again.
Either a conservative drives the bus or I find a different ride. And any conservative who tries to put earrings on the hog known as Myth Romney by running with him is dead to me.
For too long the Republican Party has treated conservatives like battered spouses. We'll come back because we have nowhere else to go. No more.
Myth Romney needs me a hell of a lot more than I need him, but he's gone out of his way to give me the middle finger. Fine. There's a consequence for that.
To me Romney is just a cipher, an appratchik if you will. He takes on the political views of whatever the dominant group is in the room. Romney is not a conservative or a liberal; Romney is a Romneyian. Essentially he is a salesman, he reflects back his customer's personality and interests in order to sell the product, himself. Some may argue that this is hypocritical and in a perfect world it is. But almost all successful salesmen do this! Some are naturals some have to be trained. I think he is the consummate salesman all sales all the time and doesn't even know it! (Truth in advertising I had to take sales training once and these types of things were taught. However ENTJ engineers with the N and the J off the charts are horrible at such things! Yep that's me!) He is not a deep thinker, not a man with vision, he is strictly a “follow-the-program” manager. I am not saying he is stupid. He clearly is not! But his not an anti-American Marxist ideologue like Zero who as you pointed out might leave us defenseless.
At best he will be the John Anderson administration that never was. (Not a good thing in my opinion!) At worst another Jimmy Carter, a prickly micro-manager incompetent. However again I don't think he is the "See-me-look-at-me-See-I-am-smart-and-capable-and-I-matter" buffoon that Jimmy Carter has morphed into.
Another 4 years of Zero and we could be a permanent 2nd class to 3rd class power, at best Britain or France at worst Spain or Greece. Romney will not do this! Now Romney will manage our decline optimally so its slower, he won't have a clue how to change it. Instead of racing off to be the next “Greece” at the 1000 mph and accelerating, we head there at 300 mph with the rate of acceleration decreasing.
Mainly he does this by not being Zero, which won't require a lot of thought on his part.
To get control of this run away freight train first you have to slow it down, if Romney leaves us with at least that then OK.
Truth in advertising I prefer Gingrich mainly because ideas matter and I think major changes have to be made and he is the only one who has articulated them responsibly. .
.
(Responsibly is the key word that excludes Paul! I wish Paul would realize there are two stampedes headed right at us, he understands one, the economic problem. However he fails to acknowledge the other Islamism. It doesn't make any difference in what we do, or don't do appease or don't appease. They hate us and want to kill us because we exist. It's that simple! World war is coming because of the chaos that Islamism is causing, we need to get the economy back on track and prepare. I can't decide if its like 1920 or 1930.)
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