Romney's Mistake: He's Been Too Negative

Romney can still be fine. But his campaign better wake up and realize politics is more than going negative on your competition. Anyone inside this game knows the back story. It's been so bad, I even wrote a contact telling them I thought they should knock it off. Romney was running in Iowa, for months, has he appeared to stand for anything? To have any message except for how bad the other guy is? Not so far as I can tell.

Huckabee is going into New Hampshire - five days straight, starting tomorrow. That will end the McCain / Huckabee love fest.

If Romney and his people have any sense at all, they'll begin to promote a candidate that stands for something, as opposed to a campaign dedicated to tearing everyone else down. Romney's support is solid in New Hampshire. If he gets positive, he can reap the benefits of McCain and Huckabee competing for the rest.

But if he doesn't start standing for something positive, assuming he actually does, he's done.

They'd do well to go to school on Obama's positive messaging aproach. So much for Republican establishment wisdom.

Comments

[Kaitian]

It turns out that over 60% of the voters in Iowa were evangelicals and Huckabee exploited that factor by playing the "God's spokesman" which he came out ahead in that aspect.

60%~ were Evangelical voters which voted 45-19% Huckabee vs Romney
Whereas 40%~ were non-evangelical voters that voted 33% - 13% Romney vs Huckabee.

If the evangelicals hadn't been a factor in this state, we would have saw a Romney victory here.

[Indga]

Yep, that's good advice and Romney'd do well to take it. I'm no fan of his, but Huck's a slime on the sole of the national shoe. I've never seen a candidate use Christianity as despicably as he has. If, by some nasty quirk of fate, Huckabee wins the GOP nomination (God forbid!!!), the GOP will not get an electoral vote from Utah because the nasty game Huckabee played alienated every Mormon and every non-Christian. Huckabee needs to remember that the separation of church and state is a Christian ethic: render unto Caesar.

[Richard Cook]

Yep, people want to hear that happy talk. If Obama is the next president we are so screwed. Man indga - way to misuse scripture. That scripture had nothing to do with seperation of church and state.

[Richard Cook]

Keep talking that happy talk. If Obama is elected President we are so screwed. Man Indga - way to misuse scripture. Render unto Ceasar has nothing to do with seperation of Church and State.

[richard Cook]

R-

When I posted got a "Page cannot be displayed at this time" error. Hence the double slightly different posts. Had to rewrite it.

[Islamollama]

"If, by some nasty quirk of fate, Huckabee wins the GOP nomination (God forbid!!!), the GOP will not get an electoral vote from Utah because the nasty game Huckabee played alienated every Mormon and every non-Christian."

So if Huckabee takes the nomination, Utah will suddenly flip to a blue state? I somehow doubt that, but its a happy thought.

"If Obama is elected President we are so screwed."

Democrats = Worse! Good to know the conservative principles still hold strong, regardless of a complete lack of argument or reasoning.

[Richard Cook]

Damn! Just said Obama and now its the whole Dem party. Maybe you are the one that should take a couple of logic courses. Perhaps epistemology for starters. Followed by reasoning.

[John]

Romney actually made up ground on Huckabee when he came out with the negative ads, so he kept them up. This was Huckabee's state with it's core evangelical base. Romney came in STRONG second place, and that is a success overall. He'll be fine. Huckabee is only going downward from here. Romney is going up.

[M. Simon]

Olama,

Not blue. Think Keyes vs Obama '004. Bush got 45% of the vote Keyes 25% (don't have exact figures in front of me but that is about right).

Obama already know how to beat a religious nutter.

[TheSpartan]

"If the evangelicals hadn't been a factor in this state, we would have saw a Romney victory here."

And if Grandma had balls she'd be Grandpa.

[Wahoo Willie Sez:]

My goodness you partisans give up easily. Kinda says something about weak wills I guess. It is curious though that Iowa would be so squarely in the Baptist preacher's corner given thier proximity to mormon world. Obama's big ole lead is surprising too but being the only man in the top three probably has something to do with it. What is totally shocking is that Biden almost got a full percentage point. Surely it was distant family. Look for an upset on both sides in NH.

[seekeronos]

The evangelicals no likey Big Bad Mormon guy with negative nessages.

[Cory]

The mistake isn't that Romney was too negative. The mistake is that the MSM (and even many bloggers) allowed Huckabee to not be called out for his negative attacks thus rendering him the "nice guy" candidate who could claim the high road.

[K T Cat]

Romney lost because he's an insincere, pandering creep. It's the same reason Hillary lost. Romney's going to keep losing, too. He's all resume and no man.

Once Romney gets blown out in NH, Fred will be the only remaining orthodox conservative. Go Fred!

[seekeronos]

The MSM supports Huckabee because he will be easily destroyed by any Dem candidate he faces.

Fox does the GOP much injury in continuing to play the spite game against Fred (on account of Fred's campaign firing Jim Mills, a long time Fox producer earlier as Fred got started) while pumping its whore du jour (currently McCain, though it remains to be seen if Rudy will recover, as he was their golden child to start with).

Aside from Fred, the MSM is comfortable pimping any of the RINOs since they won't stand up well to the horrendous momentum the marxist Democrats are generating. Seasonal electoral gimmickry and outright lies tends to overwhelm the American sheeple, and this is how our republic shall continue to die... because we refuse to think for ourselves, but rather be spoon-fed by the leftist-biased media.

It would be nice if the newsies could keep their traps shut and their opinions to themselves and simply report the numbers objectively, but that would probably be like asking bears not to poop in the woods.

[Tom Grey]

Well, everybody "likes" Huck, even if we disagree on some policy. As far as the independents go, while I wish Huck was even more anti-spending, if the other Reps complain he's not fiscally prudent (=stingy, =in league with the rich), that means he's most likely to win the pro-life, big-gov't middle vote.

So will the small-gov't Reps vote for Huck enough to win the nomination? Probably not, but possibly, especially if he focuses on promises of No New Taxes (at the Fed level).

Romney might not be dead, but with Huck, Thompson, McCain AND even Ron Paul all pro-life, there's no big reason to vote for the rich white formerly gay-supporting Mass. Governor (even if he does have the best economic policy).

And with Op Iraqi Freedom looking better, the need for pro-abortion / pro-mistress Rudy to be "tough" goes way, way down.

Romney has totally failed to win the idea battle with how and why his economics would be better -- he's not fighting for it any more than Bush was really fighting for SS reform after 9/11.

[Tom Grey]

And there will soon be polls on Huck vs. Obama. Wait until the Rep. candidate starts repeating how Obama suppoted Saddam, and probably supports Iran getting nukes.

Obama actually does think the US should allow Iran to get nukes, doesn't he?

I think Reps losing Congress in 2006 was Karl Rove's gift to the Rep dreams of keeping the White House in 2008 -- are the Dems going to complain about Rep corruption and earmarks again? ha!

[Fred Beloit]

"...he's not fighting for it any more than Bush was really fighting for SS reform after 9/11."

Bush did fight for it, but the Dems fought against it and won. Their argument was: You people are too stupid to invest your own money, even a small percentage of it. You must give it to us elected officials who will put it in a LOCK BOX with trust in your heart and we will all be comfortably retired on the Government Retirement Plan (not SS, not us) or dead when the SS dough runs out. This was a very convincing argument to the likes of yyy, nowingker, the Boob, Moe, LOL, chris, and the other smart trolls whose daily visits we so look forward to.

[Nigel Ray]

"If Romney and his people have any sense at all, they'll begin to promote a candidate that stands for something"

You think Romney's people should switch to supporting other candidates?

[seekeronos]

"--- while I wish Huck was even more anti-spending, the other Reps complain he's not fiscally prudent (=stingy, =in league with the rich), that means he's most likely to win the pro-life, big-gov't middle vote. ---"

I'm pretty stingy with my cash, and while not in poverty, I'm far from being in fabulously jet-setting wealth elite club. Yet I still find Fred (and to a much lesser extent, the other FiCon candidates) ideas of small government/low-tax to be a great idea.

Thanks, Big Gubmint Liberals and RINOs... but no thanks: I'd rather hang on to what money I can keep, and invest it as I see fit, with some advice from my trusted financial planner(s). Uncle Sam gets way too big of a cut as it is.

[B-Rob]

Tom, if you cons want to campaign on who was right about invading Iraq (with the loss of a few thousand American soldiers; injuries to tens of thousands of soldiers; and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, added to the deficit, and funded by the Chinese Communists . . . all resulting in the Iraqis blowing themselves up and torturing each other with power tools while al Queda creates a new base of operations in an oil rich country), I am sure Obama will be happy to oblige you! Michelle Obama, of course, will be meeting with her favorite decorators to redo the drapes in the White House . . . .

[B-Rob]

Fred on Social Security:
"Bush did fight for it, but the Dems fought against it and won."

This is pure nonsense. First, neither Bush nor the GOP ever proposed, nonetheless had a vote on, the entire private accounts issue. Second, taking the Social Security trust fund and divying it up into about 150 million teeny tiny accounts is NOT an economically efficient way to invest. If you want to invest funds efficiently, the best way to do that is to have private money managers manage the entire fund . . . that is how Harvard invests its $40 billion endowment.

The real problem: the GOP controlled Congress had driven up the deficit so much, and borrowed so much from the SS trust fund, that there was no way they could have had private accounts skimming off any portion of that SS revenue UNLESS the GOP controlled Congress (a) raised taxes to cover the difference, or (b) reduced spending. GOPers are philosophically opposed to raising taxes to cover their increased spending and they are incompetent at reducing spending, so nothing got done at all!

[Yoda]

Want the job too much, Romney does. Notice this, people do. Play well, raw ambition, does not.

[seekeronos]

"--- Fred on Social Security:
"Bush did fight for it, but the Dems fought against it and won."

This is pure nonsense. ---"

I'd say that Bush and some GOP congressman made a lot of noise about it, and if that counts as "fighting" for it, I'll give that a weak pass. Kind of hard to get the DemCong motivated on that when they are intractable on the war, want socialized medicine for everyone, and all other sorts of federal mandates from everything on education to how you may fold your socks. Oh, and yeah... raise taxes, regardless of the war. Dems seem to like doing that.

"--- If you want to invest funds efficiently, the best way to do that is to have private money managers manage the entire fund . . . that is how Harvard invests its $40 billion endowment.

The real problem: the GOP controlled Congress had driven up the deficit so much, and borrowed so much from the SS trust fund, that there was no way they could have had private accounts skimming off any portion of that SS revenue UNLESS the GOP controlled Congress (a) raised taxes to cover the difference, or (b) reducded spending. GOPers are philosophically opposed to raising taxes to cover their increased spending and they are incompetent at reducing spending, so nothing got done at all! ---"

Smart idea, that's rare coming from a liberal. That's almost - dare I say - enterprising of you.

And yes, there really is little forgiveness to be found for the post-Newt GOP Congress mishandling the budget and raping the SS fund to pay for the shortfall. It may be one of the larger things that will prevent us from seeing another GOP majority for a very, very long time. Perhaps my future grandson will be able to see that day, provided the Republic still stands.

I'd much rather see the SS budget restored with tax cuts (coupled to taxpayers' saving their money in private accounts linked to a government backed savings plan) and greater spending cuts, and the existing SS eventually paid out into those accounts, with something similar to the NDIC watchdogging it to make sure that fat little senators and congresscritters keep their grubby paws off it. That same NDIC-analogue could then manage the accounts as an aggregate fund across a marketbasket of global and national exchanges, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan used for the military and government employees.

The idea being to leverage each person's lifetime earnings against *their own* retirements, and not the current generation working to pay the pension of yesterday's generation.

The above is a vastly oversimplified and possibly misunderstood paraphrase of Fred's plan for the SS funds, and is a critical part of what needs to be addressed to preserve the financial stability of the republic and her people.

Here is the full version of Fred's plan to save the SS:

http://www.fred08.com/virtual/socialsecurity.aspx

[docweasel]

The sooner Romney is rejected and drops out the better for the Republican party. All the outreach President Bush has done towards blacks and other minorities will be wrecked if the Republicans nominate a member of a racist cult that believes dark skin is the mark of Cain, and that as a person becomes closer to God, he becomes more "delightsome and white".

Romney's defeat last night was the brightest spot in the campaign so far. A nice butt-whuppin' in NH will finish him for good. Good riddance.

[BobInStamford]

"All the outreach President Bush has done towards blacks and other minorities"

Hahaha! That's a good one! Wasn't the stammering failure playing guitar while NO flooded?? Just checking. Surge on!!

[Wahoo Willie Sez:]

"Wasn't the stammering failure playing guitar while NO flooded??"

What the hell has that got to do withreaching out to the black folk? Yeah, I know BDSBDSBDSBDSBDS or same old BS however you're phrasing it this week. I guess GW shoulda started by FORCING levee rebuild money to be spent on rebuilding levees rather than syphoned off for other "social" projects. Since Nagin was busy hiding out and unable to initiate his EM office plans, GW shoulda sent in the 82nd Airborne to drive the buses and evacuate the people. But then, it is against fedlaw for the President (any President) to send in the feds without being asked by a Governor (damn that constitution).....Unless, Like Louisiana, the Governor fails to act in a situation of national consequence. Damn, oh yeah, when Blanco sat on her fat ass and did nothing, GW DID spoon feed her with help.