Re: Romney’s Close (Watching in Alarm at Mitt's Negative Tactics in FL)

The National Review ^ | January 29, 2012 | The Corner: Daniel Foster, Andrew Stuttaford, Rich Lowry

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Daniel Foster: "Re: Romney’s Close"

I’m sorry but, on purely tactical grounds, what a bonehead move by the Romney campaign. Negative attacks, especially in a primary, have to be run on a careful cost-benefit analysis, and what exactly is the upside here? That at least Tom Brokaw isn’t Dan Rather? Romney is comfortably up in the Florida polls in large part because his campaign (with the unwitting collusion of NBC News!) managed to turn Gingrich’s flank on the wealth issue and cut him off from reinforcement via a Newt-versus-the-establishment-media moment. He now affords Gingrich such a moment with juuuuust enough time before the polls close to be impactful.

I’m not saying this is going to cause Romney the primary or anything, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s hard to see what at all this could have done to help him win it.

__________________________________

Andrew Stuttaford: "Re: Romney’s Close"

Rich [Lowry: "Romney's Close"] whatever one may think about the Romney campaign’s use of that old newscast, the NBC response is a little odd:

Via POLITICO’s Reid Epstein, "NBC News and Tom Brokaw are loudly objecting to the Mitt Romney campaign’s use of footage from the 1990s in an ad blasting Newt Gingrich over his House ethics charges.

Brokaw, whose statement noted he was speaking on his behalf, said, “I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”

“The NBC Legal Department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads,” NBC News said in a statement, which added, “Similar requests have gone out to other campaigns that have inappropriately used Nightly News, Meet the Press, Today and MSNBC material.”

I would have thought that footage of the type that Romney is deploying was part of the historical record. If, of course, Tom Brokaw and NBC believe that the way it is now being used distorts what Brokaw was saying back then, they should explain why.

[battletank]

NEWT is a “whining P*ssy”??

What planet are you on anyway?

[Psalm 144]

Smart kid.

[nathanbedford]

… excuse Newt for attacking Ryan when he came out bravely with his road map to a balanced budget?

There is a difference between attacking Ryan and attacking Ryan's plan. Indeed, if one accepts Gingrich's explanation, he was not even attacking Ryan's plan.

He attacked it as right wing social engineering.

I believe Gingrich made the observation that right wing social engineering is no more desirable than left-wing social engineering. This is a proposition with which few conservatives would differ.

Newt is as nasty and devious as Mitt

Gingrich made his remark extemporaneously during a cross examination on national television. There is no evidence that it was premeditated. It certainly was not devious in the sense that it was clandestine. In other words, Gingrich did not enlist a group to bring charges against Ryan as proxies. There is nothing in Gingrich's words which possibly could be construed as being "nasty."

we are screwed

Rubbish!

A pox on both their houses.

In other words, a pox on our own house. Primaries are not a mutual suicide exercise, rather, they are a procedure by which our candidate is selected which means that other candidates are rejected. We are not nominating Miss congeniality and the process is rough but it does not mean the party is "screwed."

[mimaw]

I don't buy it. Ryan was not socially engineering from the right. When a politician like Ryan makes a valiant attempt to correct the structural deficit and puts all the sacred cows on the table with well thought out ideas and an actual plan to achieve it and is attacked by a fellow conservative who offered nothing as well thought out or studied. It was a headline grabber something Newt excels at. We are drowning in debt and have obligations out there as far as the eye can see and Newt talks about colonizing the moon for the love of Pete. Yes he and mitt talk about tax cuts and eliminating cumbersome regulations but I haven't heard much from either of them about the how to go about reigning in the horrific entitlement debt we face.

[freeangel]

Romney’s LIES now rival that of hussein’s.

[nathanbedford]

I agree with the substance of your last post while noting at the same time that it is far different from your first post.

[dixiechick2000]

“Shouldn’t Marco Rubio [VERY PUBLICLY] call on Romney to pull this unfair ad?”

I guess we will see the mettle of this man. He absolutely, and very publicly, should demand Romney pull this ad. It’s almost as disgraceful as the Romney campaign has been.

Excellent graphic, Phil! You do such good work, and I always feel privileged to see them.

[Slim Pickens]

Earth, Genius. I may be the only one on this site not on planet Newt, but crying about the audience and about how unfair your opponent’s attacks are is WEAK.

Be a man, start recognizing a p*ssy when you see one.

[Slim Pickens]

Cry me a river, Junior. Or don’t, the excuse-making around here is hurting my ears.

[Slim Pickens]

I have defended no one, Imbecile. I’m merely pointing out the weakness in Newt. God bless you for buying the lies he sells... you must be a very special person...

[battletank]

I’m definitely recognizing a pussy when I see one.

[Slim Pickens]

Sorry for the late reply, I get nervous when an internet toughest calls me a name...I wonder if you are so brave face to face..