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.
I'm in, until Newt is out.
Willard needs to hire S! as VP.
From a related article by Byron York—
“Another woman, Whitney Riley of Sparks, Maryland, held a $50 check made out to Newt.org as she waited in line to meet Gingrich at the car dealership. On the line noting the check’s purpose, Riley had written, “We the people thank you.”
Of those donors, Gingrich says, “We owe it to them to not take a dive.”
“To not drop out?”
“Right.”
*************
Newt’s not quitting.
Not even Sarah could make this guy palatable to conservatives.
Romney’s ads will play just fine against Obama.
Boy has he got it right concerning Mitt.
It will come back to haunt him.
Many people won’t vote for him, even though they are hectored by GOP-E types, because of the character assasination he practices on both Rick and Newt.
In fact, a lot of the very people he needs to support him and work for him to get out the vote, won’t just not be working to help get out the vote, they won’t even be voting for him.
This is what amazes me. How can Romney win over and over with such disgusting tactics? You’d think that by now people would tune out and stop voting for him. It makes me wonder who his voters are...democrats? Communists? What? For Republicans to run to the nastiest man on the block tells me that something is not quite kosher. That, in spite of the revelations coming out about his record in MA, his conniving to get gay marriage in MA. This and his pro-abortion stance, etc. How can he be winning the conservative vote? Now, that just floors me!
I was told huff-n-puff was glorious.
I am thinking of sitting out the election this year, as I am becoming more and more convince that he and obamma are bosom buddies.
the Romney people and the GOP insiders can go screw themselves. They are vermin.
I am only supporting selected conservative candidates. The rest of them conservatives should not give a crap about.
I am so F@@@@@@ sick of thos cponservatoive utoppianism$ we need to defeat Obama. Period. We don’t need a hero. We need ANYONE who will dave us from. Obama. Wake up freepers.
.
The Willard has removed all doubt as to the depth of his abject moral turpitude. He is absolute scum. If The Willard somehow forestalls an open convention - the chimpanzee wins by ten points. For the good of the republic, The Willard should throw his support to a true conservative candidate.
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting between Mitt and Newt and also during the meeting between Rick and Newt.
This thing is far from over, especially if Newt and Rick team up. That may happen. Time will tell.
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting between Mitt and Newt and also during the meeting between Rick and Newt.
This thing is far from over, especially if Newt and Rick team up. That may happen. Time will tell.
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting between Mitt and Newt and also during the meeting between Rick and Newt.
This thing is far from over, especially if Newt and Rick team up. That may happen. Time will tell.
I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall during the meeting between Mitt and Newt and also during the meeting between Rick and Newt.
This thing is far from over, especially if Newt and Rick team up. That may happen. Time will tell.
ON, NTSA
This is all a bunch of crybabies who want us forget the real electoral target is Obama.
I dont care who they put on the ticker- still cant be as bad as the con man we have in there now
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