How The Romney Campaign Decided To Take The Gloves Off

Buzz Feed ^ | 07/18/2012 | McKay Coppins

[nhwingut]

IRWIN, Penn. — Standing before hundreds of roaring partisans in this sweltering Pittsburgh suburb Tuesday, Mitt Romney delivered a 30-minute speech that sounded, at times, like a greatest hits compilation of his favorite Obama-knocking stump speech lines. The president was, Romney said, "out of ideas," and "looking for someone to blame," and a "crony capitalist."

One thing he was not: "A nice guy."

In speeches from Des Moines to Dallas, Romney has always been careful to hedge his tough digs at Obama with a civil nod toward the president's moral character: "He's a nice guy," the Republican has often said. "He just has no idea how the private economy works." But Tuesday's speech included no such hedge — and one campaign adviser said there's a reason for that.

"[Romney] has said Obama's a nice fellow, he's just in over his head," the adviser said. "But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he's really disappointed. He believes it's time to vet the president. He really hasn't been vetted; McCain didn't do it."

[samtheman]

this might enthuse me to send money if he’s serious

Despite my previous optimistic post, I still haven't sent Romney a dime and I won't until it's crystal clear that he really means to fight. And I mean really fight.

It sounds like he's getting ready to, but he's not there yet. Not by a long shot.

When he gets there, he can count on a contribution from me.

[samtheman]

Trump Tweet this morning: @MittRomney needs to make @BarackObama regret that he ever asked for his tax records.

I want to ask you a question about Twitter:

IF I had a Twitter account AND I tweeted those exact words (@MittRomney needs to make @BarackObama regret that he ever asked for his tax records) DOES THAT MEAN that both Mitt Romney's twitter account and Barack Obama's twitter account would receive my tweet and that my words would scroll up with all their other tweets so that all who follow those two accounts would see my words?

I'm just trying to understand how twitter works.

If you know, thanks in advance for any explanation you can give me.

[Flightdeck]

“Romney and McCain are both RINOs, but there is a fundamental difference between Romney and McCain:”

Romney will not veto an Obamacare repeal and Romney will sign a budget written by Paul Ryan. That’s all I care about.

[Steamburg]

A quick look at the screwed up campaign funding scene and it becomes clear that this drip, drip, drip, can’t be turned into a proper flood until after the convention and general election funds are released. I hope that this is merely battlefield preparation.

Timing in politics is as complex as any battle strategy. The only thing that is believed to be certain is the election date (subject to permanent change if BHO has his way.)

The wonder of politics is that with the right set of moves, or imperial misstep, this can all change in a day.

[SamAdams76]

Romney needs to run this stuff in ads to get the any kind of attention in the LSM.

From what I've heard, Romney is hamstrung for the moment with respect to running ads. All the money he is raising now cannot be used until after the convention. There is only a certain amount a presidential candidate can spend (according to election rules) prior to a convention and Romney spent much of that during the primary season.

Obama is subject to same campaign rules but because he did not have a primary opponent, he did not have to spend any of it during the primary season and now that the GOP has a presumptive nominee, he can target all that money against Romney accordingly.

This is the reason Obama has been outspending Romney this summer, making it appear that Romney is not putting up a fight. Once the GOP convention is over, Romney will have access to the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be available to him at that time and then we'll see what happens.

[saywhatagain]

Of course Mitts needs to take Obamination to the woodshed . . .

When he does, all we get to hear from Marxist, is how racist we all are. Guaranteed that will be the next headline upon the first effective attack.

The Rats are becoming so boring. All they have is the racist card and class warfare. Do they have even one single original thought?

Yeah, I know. The masses buy it all the time. Its an easy sell. Does not require critical thought nor an ounce of common sense

[Kay Syrah]

You are correct. The reason the hits got so much attention by the LSM in the Republican primaries was because it was Republicans going after each other.

Now that he is going after Obama, there will be a wall of silence because it will raise questions they don’t want asked. Or will showcase Romney’s message.

Adds only do so much. It takes a lot of money to compete with the contribution in kind from the media. I don’t know if the conventional way of getting the message out is enough. I am not sure how to beat the media at their game. There must be a way, but I can’t think of anything.

The alternate media does a lot, but it is hard to break the message control of the LSM.

It is going to require some strategic creativity. I hope they are working on this. It is really about the message and how how it is smothered by design...

[JustSayNoToNannies]

"I mean, this is a guy who admitted to cocaine use, had a sweetheart deal with his house in Chicago, and was associated and worked with Rod Blagojevich to get Valerie Jarrett appointed to the Senate," the adviser said. "The bottom line is there'll be counterattacks."

The reference to Obama's past drug use seems to suggest that former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu wasn't going off-script after all when he dinged the president for spending "his early years in Hawaii smoking something" during a Tuesday morning Fox News appearance.

If Sununu was on-script, the script needs a rewrite. Marijuana is not cocaine; 56% of Americans favor legalizing marijuana - the Reefer Madness dog won't hunt anymore.

[paudio]

Romney has already attacked Obama more than McCain and Bush campaigns combined did. That Obama still only down several points today shows the strength of his minions and MSM. Those guys you mentioned melt down against Romney, partly because they didn’t have strong defenders like Obama does and partly because there were several of them splitting conservative votes. In any case, if they couldn’t win against Romney, what pray do they have in winning against Obama in November?

[paudio]

Romney has already attacked Obama more than McCain and Bush campaigns combined did. That Obama still only down several points today shows the strength of his minions and MSM. Those guys you mentioned melt down against Romney, partly because they didn’t have strong defenders like Obama does and partly because there were several of them splitting conservative votes. In any case, if they couldn’t win against Romney, what pray do they have in winning against Obama in November?

[Principled]

Romney has already attacked Obama more than McCain and Bush campaigns combined did.

That's like saying the border now is safer and more secure than ever...

I'm not advocating for a change in nominee - it's too late for that. I am advocating a stronger fight from our nominee.

[RedEyeJack]

He needs to just call the jive-talkn’ cokehead a JIVE TALKN’ COKEHEAD... the jive talkn’ response will prove the point.

[samtheman]

I think you’re right and I think the reason is that basically Romney has no principles and will do whatever he feels like. He just might feel like doing the things you mention.

McCain has principles, very strong principles. They basically involve giving BJ’s to people on “the other side of the aisle”. That’s his religion “the other side of the aisle” and he’s spent his career down on his knees to his Lords and Masters.

He spent his entire career giving BJ’s to “enemies” while stabbing “friends” in the back. There’s was no way he was going to change in 2008.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Number one, Obama is not a nice guy, he never was. He is an evil hearted America hater from his head to his toe!!! Romney and the Pubbies should attack & destroy, politically, this anti-American con artist, Obama and his America hating wife Michelle. These two people and their Democrat ilk have no love for this country or any of our people in it, including all Black Americans. Shame that so many Black folk cannot even see one iota how this guy Obama and his wife are doing them in for many years to come. Sad....but true!!!

[Vigilanteman]

The Mrs. dragged me to the event yesterday. I only went because I was led to believe we would be in a fairly intimate venue with only 200-300 people and I might actually get a chance to ask a good question.

Instead, there were well over 1000 and additional tickets were being distributed at a tent outside the venue. Every seat in the place was taken 20 minutes after the doors opened and there were almost as many standing.

There were lots of people wearing TEA party gear like hats and T-Shirts with the Gasden Flag. Mitt could not have missed them. Traffic crawled when the event ended and we stopped at a nearby McDonald's to give it a chance to disperse further. The CNN news there already had clips of the speech up and its reporters were wailing about the nasty, personal attacks which waited until October last election cycle and it was only July. They weren't talking much about Obama's nasty personal attacks, of course.

Let's hope this sweltering hot yesterday in July in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania will mark the time that Mitt actually discovered the stones to take off the gloves against the enemy.

[jcsjcm]

You are able to follow people and receive their tweets. But, unless someone is following you as well - your tweets will not be seen by Mitt or Bambi

[nhwingut]

You are able to follow people and receive their tweets. But, unless someone is following you as well - your tweets will not be seen by Mitt or Bambi

Not true. If you include their twitter name, i.e. @MittRomney, they will receive your tweet. However, they can block you too if your tweets are determined to be unwanted. This would not happen unless you started spamming them.

It is true if they don't follow you they won't see any of your other tweets, only those directed at the user.

[pallis]

Obama is not a nice guy. He is retrained by necessity. Don’t allow those restraints to come off, because Obama will make Hitler look like a Boy Scout. Maybe Romney has had a taste of that.

[tcrlaf]

Very true...
Also, Obama is not hamstrung by silly things like LAWS...
Those are just for mere mortals.

[kevkrom]

The conundrum here is that Obama is skating by on not being properly vetted and called on his sordid past (and present, for that matter). However, from a tactical political position, there is a lot of danger in any kind of personal attack against Obama, no matter how true -- it will rally emotional support to him, regardless of logic, and he is strongest when appealing to the emotional.