Romney's Strategy Isn't Working (It's the Conservatism, Stupid!)

Commentary ^ | 8/10/2012 | John Podhoretz

[mojito]

....The polls suggesting he’s seven or nine points behind are surely wrong, but given that there is only one national poll that shows him ahead, we have to presume Romney is behind. He should presume he’s behind. And given that there’s no good reason whatever for Obama to be leading, one can only presume that Romney’s strategy in July and now in August is not working.

Which is why the “we only talk about the economy” line, while superficially clever, was and is so foolish—stupid, even. Of course Romney wants to focus on that one issue. It’s the one that hurts Obama the most, and the one on which he seems to score the best. He and his team have an idea about the campaign. They need to win independents to win. Independents are less ideological. So don’t press the ideological buttons. Keep it simple....

Romney and his people prefer this strategy because it’s what is most comfortable to them. He is not, at root, an ideological person. Neither, at root, are they. And the data suggest this is not a time for a sharply ideological campaign. The data suggest Romney needs to run as Mr. Fix-It. That is how Romney prefers to view himself. So the two match perfectly.

Alas for him, that’s not how it works. If conservative ideology is a problem with some independents, it also has the virtue of providing those who use it to discuss the nation’s problems with a pulse. Romney has just learned over the past few weeks that he cannot limit the discussion to the topics he wishes to talk about, especially when his rival is spending $100 million trying to destroy him in the swing states and when the media are largely serving his [0bama's] purposes....

[driftless2]

I’ll wait until September after the conventions are done before I take the polls real seriously. Carter actually led Reagan by almost double digits in June of 1980 and ended up getting crushed. Some pollsters even had it close right up to the election.

[ilovesarah2012]

And I think a lot of people are turned off by a mormon.

[tsowellfan]

And another thing I'm getting sick and tired of hearing be said without a response from the GOP, the Conservatives or from Romney is "we already tried it their way and it was their way that got us into this mess".

No, under Bush the unemployment rate averaged 4.7% which was desbribed by the democrats (as part of their daily mantra for 6 years) as "the worst economy since Hoover". 4.7%!

Well, their mantra worked and in 2006 Pelosi and Reid took over Congress. It was then that the economy took its dump and it never came back since then.

No, Obama! We have not tried our way since before 2006

[antonico]

Romney has a strategy?

[Nervous Tick]

>> If you don’t like having to choose between the two liberals running in the major parties, consider Tom.

Great! He can split the three percent protest vote with Virgil Goode and Ron Paul.

Now *there’s* a sound strategy for taking back America.

[Kansas58]

You are ridiculous.

Of course, if Romney was up by 5 you would still be saying Romney was doing something wrong.

No, he is not perfect, as a candidate.

I must say, however, that the anti-Romney crowd sure will not go down as “perfect” conservatives.

Ronald Reagan supported Gerald Ford, after the primary.

That is the way the game is played.

Some of you WANT Obama to win.

[MestaMachine]

“Republicans deserve exactly what is happening to them.”

Except it isn’t ‘just’ the republicans. It’s the entire country...and maybe even the world. Four more years of obama means a probable islamic caliphate and the death of America.

[tsowellfan]

Carter actually led Reagan by almost double digits in June of 1980 and ended up getting crushed

Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan. Because of that fact you had better draw that measuring line of yours quite a ways back closer to today. He's going to need a running start just to get close to where Reagan was in September. Romney is no Reagan.

[Political Junkie Too]

Right now, I think it's a different problem than you suggest.

It's not that Romney doesn't have ideas. I think it's because Romney's faith is preventing him from running the kind of campaign that is needed against Obama. Where McCain was soft because he was afraid, Romney is soft because it's his upbringing.

Romney is running a "Donny and Marie" campaign, while Obama is running a "Gangsta Rap" campaign.

-PJ

[uncbob]

It's my understanding is Mittens has surrounded himself with a campaign team that's only familiar with MA politics and has no clue on how to appeal to a national audience. Mittens is totally clueless because he has no core beliefs nor does he understand what conservatism is (because everyone around him is a MA lib team of RINOs).

So true

[SaxxonWoods]

Romney losing.

You don’t like Romney and won’t vote for him so you should all be happy then.

[roylene]

Romney can’t campaign as a conservative because he is not one.
Every now and then he uses a conservative word but doubt he even knows what the words mean.
He has a record and it is not conservative.

[Nervous Tick]

>> And I think a lot of people are turned off by a mormon.

A little maybe, but not nearly the way I’m turned off by a half-muslim, half-black-liberation-theology racist marxist.

[MHGinTN]

There is a gaggle of vigorous posters at FR who seem to accept that as a fair trade in order to ‘teach the GOPe a lesson’. If you point that out, they rush to accuse you of being a Rombot or having your head up an anatomical orifice of Romney. There is also the small platoon of Obamaroids who will ridicule you for even suggesting that four more years of the little barry bastard commie boy will end free elections, so teaching the GOPe a lesson will be a rather pyrrhic victory.

[cripplecreek]

I was listening.

Rush Goes On the Record with Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren (December 2011)

Here's the big problem, Greta, for the Republicans. And I am a lone wolf on this. The rule of thumb in elections, both parties, 40 percent are going to vote Democrat automatically, whatever you do, 40 percent are going to vote Republican, automatic, no matter what you do. And in the middle, who do we have? The precious, God love them, independents and the moderates. And they are the targets. They are the focus of every election. And our brilliant campaign consultants tell our candidates they are the ones that know how to go get a majority of those independents. And we have, as Republicans, put ourselves in prison to this whole silly notion that you only win elections by moving to the center and getting great independents. Fine and dandy, but if you squander your base in the process, you haven't a prayer.

The Republican Party is trying to do something in this primary that is unprecedented. They're trying to split the conservative vote and win the primary with a moderate, with Romney. It's the other way around. You consolidate your base and then you move to the center in the general. The Republican establishment has decided they don't want any part of conservatism. And this is really not new. People are surprised to hear this, but the Republican Party formative event with conservatism is Goldwater's landslide defeat. That's what they think of when they think conservative. They don't think Reagan. They think Goldwater.

They believe what the inside-the-Beltway philosophy is about conservatives. They're racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, Southern hayseed hicks. They're pro-lifers. They're embarrassing to have to go to the convention with them. And they're just embarrassed to have those kind of people in the party. They're dumb. They're not erudite. They're not educated in Ivy League schools. We'll take their votes on election day, but we really don't want to hang around with them. We don't want anybody in Washington thinking that we're really that close to them and aligned with them. So in the process -- you know, it's a very sophisticated electorate. The Republican primary voter can sense that the Republican Party really doesn't like them, really doesn't want them, thinks that they are the route to defeat. That's the problem in a nutshell. The Republican establishment thinks that a conservative nominee is the route to defeat because they think Goldwater landslides are going to happen because they believe what the popular misconception the left has created of conservatives -- they think everybody thinks that.

[uncbob]

I sure hope Republicans are registering voters in battleground states

Unfortunately Romney does nothing to excite the conservative base where the real workers reside --They may vote for him but don't look for any campaigning effort unless he does something to stimulate this base he is going have a tough time defeating the Obama machine

[tsowellfan]

Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, democrats, republicans.

We're in uncharted territory these days. This is just not one of those typical republican vs democrat elections where if we lose "oh well, maybe next time".

We've been downgraded for the first time in history under this current pResident. The unemployment rate alone should by default put a typical candidate whether it be Ford, McCain or Sarah Palin ahead at least 15%-20%.

Sorry, Romney's running a terrible campaign. There should be no conflicting polls. Somehow what should be a referendum on Obama appears to be becoming a referendum on Romney. That's quite the accomplishment for Obama Team.

Romneybots should be embarrassed.

[ilovesarah2012]

This is from 2006 but probably still pretty valid -

Gallup poll: Two thirds of Americans not ready for a Mormon president
A Gallup poll taken last month has found that 66 percent of people questioned feel that the US is not “ready’’ for a Mormon president and 29 percent said the US is ready. Sixty-four percent said the US is not ready for an Asian president. On the other hand, 61 percent said the US is ready for a woman as president.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2006/10/two_thirds_of_a.html

[uncbob]

And I think a lot of people are turned off by a mormon

Wonder if they know Obama is a Muslim

[Armaggedon]

Romney will win the election. Let us support him and not spout the Obama misinformation. If Obama can get someone to hate or ridicule Romney that is another boost for Lord Obama. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to spread the lies. People are hired to do this work. Millions buys lots of misinformation agents.