Ah, those were the days. :)
Posted on 01/31/2012 7:39:19 AM PST by no dems
Apparently, many voters see it otherwise, that’s all I’m saying.
As for the effect on the down ticket, I think in this cycle the nominee won’t have that much effect. We KNOW we need more conservatives in Washington, no matter who the President is.
However, my concern is with the mid-term. If we have a GOP President who is very unpopular with his base, that could create a down-ticket problem in the mid-terms, for various reasons.
No, I think many voters were already thinking that Romney was the most electable and Gingrich's flat debate performance in Florida sealed it. THEN, yes, the ads had the effect of hardening that sentiment.
Remember that one of the huge demographics in Florida is seniors. Those folks were middle-aged when Newt was Speaker. They lived through the whole thing and they had already formed an opinion of Gingrich from (so to speak) personal experience.
That meant that anything that tended to reinforce observations they had already formed about Gingrich -- say, that he was prone to get into political trouble -- become doubly powerful.
And the stuff thrown at Gingrich is more easily viewed as affecting his electability as opposed to the stuff thrown at Romney.
I agree with you also that Romney's appearance (being more youthful and vibrant-looking) played a role, but again, probably because it boosted the perception that he's the more electable. Not only because he "looks good," but because he looks like he would be better able to endure the rigors of the campaign than Gingrich, who appeared almost exhausted and red-faced at the debate.
Well, of course we wouldn’t.
But that may not be avoidable, the way things are going.
The other thing is that as much as some people love Newt because he’s a street fighter, the fact is that he has pushed Romney to start brawling, too.
One thing the Romney campaign has learned from this is that he has to fight if he wants to win.
That, actually, was what I thought Sarah Palin originally was saying when she said if she were in SC, she’d vote for Newt to “keep things going, iron sharpens iron.”
Ah, those were the days. :)
I bet he would have gotten on the Virginia ballot.
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