Let me tell you the only primary in 2012 with a motivated voter base and a huge turn out.......SC....and it was won by a guy who never even so much as let out a little peep about the other Republicans.........
This “weaken your opponent “crap doesn’t apply - because in a primary season, the real opponent is the other side - NOT the other players on your team. The best way to win is to fight the other team better than anyone else on your team is fighting the other team.
Sadly Newt forgot that after SC. It was down hill from there, for Newt, and for turnouts in every single state.....down down down. There was only one real primary last time - and none of those idiots figured it out.
Big Picture people are interested in the big picture ... but not all of us are involved in Presidential politics at some high level.
The successes are built brick by brick. Many campaigns fail because they wouldn’t do the nuts and bolts. Some campaigns excel at the nuts and bolts and still fail.
My original point about 2012 was that some conservatives failed to support Newt in FLA and some failed to support RS in OH and ILL and WISC. Mitt won those states, making him unstoppable.
Why did Newt get 8% in N Dakota and RS won with 40%? Cuz Newt is a big picture guy who HIRED big picture staffers who didn’t believe in nuts and bolts.
Newt showed up in NH with his grand ideas, played to the cameras, and hired people with the same mindset ... and they forget that they needed real votes from real New Hampshire-ites.
Huntsman got the concept, hired competent people who did all the ground work. I wandered into a Huntsman event in the hamlet of Washington in western NH. Great event, until the candidate got up and had nothing to say except “I’ve got the best wife, great kids, ain’t America wonderful? Thanks for inviting me to your cute, little town.” (His primary day numbers in that town then lagged behind his countywide percentage.)
http://news.yahoo.com/years-eve-parties-huntsman-across-nh-150127933.html
The moral of the story: incompetence is not a virtue even if you’re the candidate with the best message and the best resume.