Posted on 01/08/2012 7:15:30 AM PST by Kaslin
On Tuesday, Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum by eight votes in the Iowa caucus (maybe). Nervous Romney supporters, who had seen him down by over a hundred votes at different points in the night, were thrilled. Establishment Republicans were thrilled. And media personalities who’ve hoped Obama can get lucky enough to face Romney, instead of real conservative, were likewise thrilled. But Romney’s camp might want to take a hard and sober look at the cloud that accompanies this silver lining: namely, that Romney has been running for president for 5 years now yet 75% of Iowans still wanted no part of him.
If you think of the way Romney’s been portrayed to us—as the “front runner” and as “the only one who can beat Obama”—it stands to reason that many people thought he’d do much better in Iowa than he did in 2008, when he received the same percentage of votes in the caucuses as he did this last Tuesday. Again, Romney has been at this for 5 years now.
Karl Rove is a Romney man because he’s a Republican Establishment kind of guy. Therefore, he has tried to paint Romney’s victory as an almost unexpected one in order to make it look better than it really was. As he wrote after the votes were tallied: “Not long ago few thought Mitt Romney could win...the very conservative Iowa caucuses.” But the problem is that Romney’s win was expected by many, and conventional wisdom held that it would be by a much larger margin than eight votes. Surprisingly, in the same piece Rove pointed out how Santorum should have been done well in light of the fact that he’d “spent a year making Iowa his second home.” (Again, that’s one fifth of the time Romney has spent pursuing the presidency.)
Besides Rove, media personalities like MSBNB’s Alex Wagner are hoping Romney’s “big win” now squashes Republican attempts to find a conservative candidate to run against Obama. While interviewing former RNC Chair Michael Steele, Wagner began talking about the momentum Romney supposedly got from his Iowa win and Steele asked: “Where is it? Twenty-five percent does not momentum make.” And when Wagner continued, by saying “there is some thinking that, at some point, conservatives have to rally around this guy,” Steele let loose:
Why can't conservatives just make up their own mind? Why do they have to sit and wait for you or me or Karl Rove or anybody to tell them who they should want? We saw in this process that the base of the party said we will do this our way in our time. They're in no rush to do this. They want to vet these guys. There's a serious discussion undergoing in the RNC, in the party right now…about the difference between foundational principles versus Big Government Republicanism.
Steele is exactly right on this one. Romney’s great win simply wasn’t that great. He’s been running for the same office for five years yet he only got one out of every four votes cast in Iowa. Seems to me that Republicans are still looking for their conservative.
Romney talks and talks and talks, like Obama, without saying anything of value, like Obama. Romney is actually worse than Obama because we know what Obama is but Romney is attempting to sell himself as a Teaparty Conservative. We know he is a socialist.
>>And Romney is not it<<
Agreed. If, after South Carolina, one of the “conservatives” (in quotes because I question Gingrich’s claim to that label) of Santorum, Gingrich, and Perry have dropped out, and assuming Paul gets his 15%, that leaves 85% to be split three ways instead of four.
Say Romney gets 30%. The 55% remaining would have to split almost equally for Romney to remain the “frontrunner.” More likely, one of the remaining conservatives will get more than Romney’s 30% and become the new frontrunner.
In the end, one alternative to Romney will be left standing, Paul will have faded, and it will be clear that Romney is not destined to be the GOP nominee, in spite of the constant braying by the GOP establishment figures, and the MSM, that his nomination is “inevitable.”
And, should the conservatives never sort themselves out, we’ll have a brokered convention with the possibility that someone not even currently running receives the nomination. Either that, or the Tea Party is indeed dead. But it’s not.
I did a quick search so I don’t know how accurate this is, but it seems that Romney supported ethanol subsidies but did not support farm subsidies. Would the farm subsidy issue explain, at least in part, of the 75% issue?
>>We know he is a socialist.<<
I really doubt he’s a socialist, but there’s little question in my mind that he’s a big government Republican, with a strong tendency to the liberal side on social issues. Nominating Romney would ensure that Obamacare would remain the law of the land because Romney will seek to tweak it rather than abolish it. His continued support of Romneycare assures that.
Yet Romney escapes unscathed in debates. Why? Simply because the conservatives are fighting it out right now. After they sort out the battle for the conservative/Tea Party mantle, the winner will easily topple Romney. Then the real battle, between Obama, a true socialist (or worse, probably much worse), and the eventual GOP nominee.
Oops. Please omit the “of.” Caffeine titer still low.
75 Percent of Iowans Voted For Someone Besides Romney
75% voted for someone besides Santorum
78% voted for someone other than Paul
82% voted for someonother than Newt
90% voted for someone other than Perry
95% voted for someone other than Bachman
Cute...but the fact that Romney is not the choice of most can’t be denied.
The quote from Micheal Steele in the article just flabbergasts me. I don’t recall him having that sort of sentiment as RNC chairman. That quote sounds more like Rush Limbaugh than Steele.
Way back when in Louisianna David Duke got the GOP nod because the RNC field was so crowded. The same thing is happening now with Mittens.
When the candidate that a clear majority considers their LEAST favorite wins occasionally shows that we need to allow negative votes or multi-candidate voting for a single office.
There is a real possibility that we are going to wind up with Romney as the RNC pick even though that outcome would be HATED by likely Republican voters because we were too stupid to prevent it.
Yeah socialist is not what he Romney is but not far off the mark when what we need is a strong conservative candidate. We do know Romney is not going to be as he claims he will be if by chance he did become president. Of course, he would not seek to dismantle Obamacare. And I understand, the conservative candidates are splitting the conservative vote as is always the case and which is why we consistently end up with moderate republican nominees. It appears to me we have a good opportunity to end that trend this election.
“...but the fact that Romney is not the choice of most can’t be denied.”
What can’t be denied is Mitt is going to be the nominee through a process of choice of most votes wins.Period.
Why do you want Romney???
He’s a liberal...who when in office will “grow”...into a full blown leftist.
I don’t want Romney.But I will support him when he locks up the nomination.
You are essentially down to Gingrich and Santorum,Romney.
I would have voted for Rick Perry for dog catcher before last nite.After last nite there should be a restraining order on him not to go near anywhere near a public office.
Romney will be fine with a republican senate and house.
Gingrich can’t help shooting himself in the foot at everyturn.(he just loves snatching defeat from the jaws of victory)
And Santorum is one of those “Jesus made me do it” guys that is an absolute turn off to 65% of the rest of the population.( although I am still rooting for him)
He is my frontrunnuer but I do believe Romney is the ievetible nominee.
All four ‘’McLaughlin Group’’ panelists agreed this weekend that Romney is unstoppable. Get used to it. After he wins SC and FL, there is no jumping off spot for anyone else. Santorum has peaked and fizzled, and the divided field leaves Romney essentially unopposed.
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