He lost Iowa.
He lost South Carolina.
He lost Missouri and Minnesota.
So far he’s lost almost every Southern state. On Tuesday we saw landslides for Gingrich in Georgia and Santorum in Tennessee. And states that should be “easy” Mitt wins, like his home state of Michigan, he only squeaked by after spending millions in attack ads there.
The state he’s won handily, he did so by running brutally negative ads against his fellow Republicans.
Ed Rollins, the genius behind Reagan’s brilliant 1984 re-election, said on Fox News the overall voting trends for Romney are not good.
Rollins observes that Romney has done really well in blue-state primaries. But Republicans won’t win these states this November. Rollins adds that Romney loses badly in many red states — ones he must carry in November.
So Romney has almost all the money, all the big endorsements from the Washington and New York insiders, and a well-oiled campaign machine, and yet he’s being beaten by Rick Santorum who has a clipboard and whistle, and by Newt Gingrich who has a podium.
What’s the message here? A supermajority of the Republican party — about 65 percent at this moment — either don’t want Mitt Romney or are not comfortable with him as their nominee.
The leaders who make up the conservative movement across the nation consistently tell me the same thing: Mitt talks a conservative game, but he has yet to walk it.
The truth is that his policy advisers and campaign staff are filled with moderates who are out of step with the base of the Republican Party.
One Romney adviser told The Wall Street Journal that as president he would consider doing away with “carried interest” which drives investment and entrepreneurship in the country. The Journal said Romney was embarrassed by the fact he pays so little tax himself.
Another Romney aide, a healthcare adviser, has stated a Romney administration will keep key parts of Obamacare.
On the campaign trail, the candidate tells a different story, one that is consistently Reaganesque and vehemently opposed to programs like Obamacare.
But the Reagan picture Romney paints isn’t backed up with a cast of conservative characters around him that would demonstrate his intent.
“People are policy” and conservatives have needed that reassurance from Romney for good reason. Romney has flip-flopped on so many key issues so often, he needs not a new Reagan speech but a Reagan team.
For those who don’t like to click on links/Full read.
Certainly conservative opinions are not on the tip of his tongue. He is always bending his ear to an aid to know what answer to give. Trying to game the decision.
Romney is going to lose Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky,Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia with the other states he already has in the loss column. Just wow.
Take away line from the article.
Beyond the states that Romney has won (which he will not win in the general election), the great preponderance of counties he has won fall into the same category -- unwinnable in November. Surely the Republican establishment is looking at the same maps as Ed Rollins.
He's got 39% of the vote so far, but 53% of the delegates. Both those percentages could shrink, but the WTA rules in some states are benefitting him and are what makes it possible for him to squeak out a nomination despite the weak support. It's a terrible road map to winning a general election.