Read it and weep:
Folks... I know I can sound like a broken record.
Folks... I know that what's done is done.
Folks... yes... I'm gonna vote for Romney (and Nan
Hayworth) though neither is trustworthy; it's simply that 2012 is like no other
election save perhaps 1860. The fate of the nation depends upon not allowing
the Leftists of the Democratic Party to retain the presidency nor retain
control of even one house of congress - never mind both!
Byron York lays out a powerful case in today's Washington
Examiner. Allow me to excerpt and as usual comment within the piece.
A few days before the January 31 Florida Republican
primary, a number of Mitt Romney’s top aides took to the pages of the New York
Times to brag about how they had destroyed Newt Gingrich.
The former House Speaker had beaten Romney badly just a
few days earlier in South Carolina; a loss in Florida might have unalterably
changed the GOP race. So the Times reported that “a team of some of the most
fearsome researchers in the business, led by Mr. Romney’s campaign manager,
Matt Rhoades, spent days dispensing negative information about Mr. Gingrich.”
That was an understatement.
Team Romney not only dropped "oppo-research" on
Gingrich; before it was all over, Romney and his SuperPAC allies spent about
$15 million on ads in Florida, three times what Gingrich and his supporters
spent.
And all — literally all — of it was on negative
advertising.
“The only positive Romney ad aired over the past week was
single Spanish-language radio ad,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported when it was
over. Romney’s assault completely dominated the airwaves; 68% of all ads aired
in Florida were Romney attacks on Gingrich.
It worked; Romney won Florida handily.
And thus... (*SIGH*)... the situation we find ourselves
in today.
All thanks to Romney... all thanks to Romney's
"allies" (of convenience... who with good reason feared Gingrich) in
the mainstream media as well as his (true) allies within the unprincipled GOP establishment
media.
No matter who they supported, many Republicans felt
uneasy as they watched the intra-party war unfold.
Many — voters and insiders alike — remarked that when the
general election campaign came around, Romney had better attack Barack Obama
with the same ferocity he attacked Gingrich. (And, at other times in the
primary season, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.) Otherwise, it would look like
Romney took more relish in attacking fellow Republicans than in taking on
Obama.
(*SHRUG*) (*PURSED LIPS*)
Romney had won the Republican nomination in significant
part by operating a death star — a machine that could rain down holy hell on
opponents, if that’s what winning required. He had better give the same
treatment to Obama.
Look around you, folks... has he? And even if (when?)
Romney does go on offense... well... unlike Romney's attacks on Gingrich,
Perry, and Santorum, does anyone supposed the New York Times, the Washington
Post, the TV networks, and the rest of the mainstream media will
"faithfully carry" Romney's attacks and treat them as factual and
legitimate?
(*SIGH*)
Now, the general election campaign is here, and the talk
is of the Obama killing machine, not the Romney death star. By most accounts,
the Romney campaign is not displaying the super-aggressive effectiveness it
showed in the primaries. Why? Here are
five factors:
1) The facts. Romney’s business history and taxes are two
issues left unresolved from the primary campaign. During the primaries,
Republicans didn’t want to hear fellow Republicans criticizing Romney’s record
at Bain Capital.
Oh, yes... as I well remember! (Stupid... stupid...
stupid Republicans...)
(*SIGH*)
Some characterized attacks on Romney’s Bain history as
attacks on capitalism itself. Democrats and many independents don’t feel the
same way, and Obama and his SuperPAC allies are relentlessly slamming Romney’s
business history both nationally and in key states around the country. Likewise,
while most Republicans were satisfied with Romney’s release of one year’s tax
returns, and promise to release one more, that minimalist offering has met less
success in the general election fight.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
2) The media. In the primary race, a lot of Romney’s
attacks on his GOP rivals were highlighted by the Drudge Report and picked up and
commented upon by liberal-leaning media that were happy to focus on divisions
inside the Republican party.
(*NOD*)
Now that the race is Republican vs. Democrat, there’s a
different dynamic at work. Except on days when terrible economic news is
released, Obama has been remarkably successful at getting much of the media to
talk about what he wants them to talk about — namely, Romney’s flaws and not
the Obama economic record. Whether Romney can change that dynamic remains to be
seen. Right now, it’s hurting the Republican badly.
Folks... the dynamic isn't going to change. If anything it'll
get worse. The Left knows that if they can retain the presidency for another
four years that it's game, set, and match.
(*SIGH*)
3) The SuperPACs. In recent days, Romney’s aides have
dropped hints that they believe pro-Obama outside groups — SuperPACs — have
done a much more effective job against Romney than pro-Romney SuperPACs have
done against Obama.
Ya think...?!?!
Some Democrats agree.
“The real surprising thing of the
campaign is the Democratic Super PACs have been more influential thus far,
Priorities USA, American Bridge,” said Democratic strategist James Carville on
ABC last Sunday. “They have driven the debate in this campaign much more than —
than the Republican Super PACs … As of July 15th, it’s the Democratic Super
PACs that have basically driven this whole Bain, tax return, whatever it is.” Romney
officials don’t complain for the record, but they don’t believe the GOP
SuperPACs have been nearly as tough as they should have been. (But given
Federal Election Commission rules against coordination between a campaign and
its supporting SuperPACs, they can’t just come out and say what it is they
want.)
4) Campaign finance laws. Romney officials believe this
is the most under-reported aspect of the ad war so far. Until the Republican
National Convention, which begins August 27, Romney is forbidden from spending
the money he has raised for the general election. Instead, he is using money
left over from the GOP primary race. Of course, Romney spent a huge amount of
money — about $85 million — to win that primary race. Even though he has been
raising vast amounts for the general election, he doesn’t have gobs of cash to
use right now. Obama, on the other hand, didn’t have to spend any money winning
a Democratic primary. The result is that Obama is hugely out-spending Romney in
key states. A recent Washington Post report said Obama has outspent Romney in
Florida $17 million to $2 million, as of July 6. The numbers in Ohio were $22
million to $6.5 million, and in Virginia, they were $11 million to $3 million. That
is a huge, huge advantage for Obama — not unlike the advantage Romney enjoyed
over his Republican rivals during the primary season.
5) Romney’s complaining. Newt Gingrich complained loudly
— some called it whining — when Romney first hit him with a negative ad barrage
in Iowa. Then, when Romney attacked on a far bigger scale in Florida, Gingrich
reacted badly again.
Romney lied. He lied time and time again. He outright
lied! (Folks... it's all documented in the archives here at Usually Right.)
Privately, the Romney campaign, which at times seemed to
delight at kicking the hell out of a Republican opponent, had no respect for
Gingrich’s tendency to complain when attacked. Just take it and hit back harder
— that was the way they saw it. Now, however, Romney is complaining about
Obama’s attacks.
(*SIGH*)
Folks... this is the man who is the GOP standard-bearer...
our "champion" against Obama and the Left. God help us...
Romney is far more self-controlled than Gingrich, but the
effect is the same; he’s whining about the other guy treating him badly. It’s
the same thing that happened in the primary campaign, only with Romney on the
hurting end.
So at least at the moment, the vaunted Romney death star,
the machine that flattened his Republican opponents, just isn’t working.
Romney is trying to get traction — this week, he’s
focusing on Obama’s crony capitalism — but he is struggling.
To fix things, he’ll have to put out more facts about his
own record, plus capitalize on more bad economic news for Obama (that’s a sure
bet at this point), plus gain access to the money he’s raised for the general
election, plus find a way to sharpen the SuperPACs’ games.
And then he’ll have to regain the back-against-the-wall
fighting spirit he had in the Florida primary.
If he doesn’t, the Obama campaign will run over him.
No comments:
Post a Comment