What is your reasoning for Mitt stopping all his ad buys in South Carolina and Florida?
Either he's running out of money and has only enough money left for Michigan and maybe Nevada, or he's preparing to drop out of the race if he loses Michigan.
Either way, he's not seriously competing in South Carolina.
My guess would be conservation of resources, but it also could be strategic.
Right now, Fred is ramping up a major ad buy in South Carolina. Fred will hit a lot of the same themes Romney does, and will do the same damage to Huckabee and McCain that a Romney ad will do. Romney’s base of support has stayed pretty loyal so far, so he may not be afraid of losing them over a one-week period. Meanwhile, if Fred takes votes from McCain and Huckabee, it makes Romney’s job easier.
Romney doesn’t need any more “here I am” ads in South Carolina, they know who he is. He’ll need ads contrasting his positions, and maybe defending — but first he needs to see what he should attack, and what needs defending. Watching how Thompson’s ads go will help, and it may make McCain and Huckabee target each other and Thompson instead of Romney. They won’t have an advertisement to play off of on any such attack.
Some have said that Romney’s taking a more positive approach to ads in Michigan. If that works, maybe he’ll use that approach in South carolina, so he’s holding off ad buys to see how it goes.
It’s not like he hasn’t run ads in South Carolina for months, or that people don’t know he’s running. The only danger in not buying ads is it lets your opponents claim you are giving up on the state.
Of course, when Fred Thompson wasn’t running ads and someone said he was giving up, that was a dirty trick.
Romney’s clearing the way for Thompson to beat the cr*p out of ... HUCKABEE.
You see if Romney wins MI and NV, but not SC, he’s still going to be #1 in delegate and still in the game in FL and beyond. ... the question is then who drops out? ...
It will be Huckabee vs Thompson for the right to be the third wheel in a Mccain v Romney v ??? race.
Imagine if Mccain is #1, thompson #2 in SC ... Huck in 3rd...
Means HUCK IS TOAST.
With HUCK out of the way, Thompson can re-emerge and make his case to the value voters. THE MOST NATURAL VOTER BASE FOR THOMPSON TO WIN ARE THE HUCK VOTERS.
And Romney will help him do it.
It’s clear to anyone that McCain and Huckabee have a ‘deal’ going for #1 and #2. Romney and Thompson need the same deal as well.
And BTW, you were right earlier when you said Romney wasnt going to drop out. There is no sense in him not staying at least through Super Tuesday. After all, this CLUSTERHUCK could end up with no clear frontrunner and a brokered convention. Dont throw the towel in until you are KO’d and your face is bleeding profusely.