Caddell On Romney: "This Is The Worst Campaign In My Lifetime" (video)

RealClearPolitics ^ | September 11, 2012 | RealClearPolitics

[i88schwartz]

"I swear to God, everything we have been saying for months, and I know a lot of the audience doesn't want to hear this, this is the worst campaign in my lifetime," Democratic pollster Pat Caddell said on the Monday edition of FOX News' "Campaign Insiders" web show. "A challenging campaign, with a chance to win. They have set themselves on a course that says, 'We don't have to do anything, we're going to win because they don't like the other guy.'"

"That 50% approval rating -- if the president is at 50% approval, it is hundreds of millions of dollars raised and spent by Republican and conservative consultants and organizations have failed. They have failed because they have no real credibility as a message. If he's at 50%, somebody needs to sit down and rethink," Caddell said.

"Republicans have no response mechanism. Hundreds of millions of dollars, they're still not on the air explaining to people that with the labor participation rate, if it was the same as he came into office the unemployment would be 11.2%. There is a missing case and I watched Romeney yesterday, I watched Romney yesterday, I swear to God, there is no urgency to this man. He is running, as I said this morning, bored," Caddell observed.

[JRandomFreeper]

I don't have any use for Romney, and won't vote for him.

I do expect him to win, though.

I look forward to whipping the GOP liberal candidate supporters every time their boy miss-steps and they can't 'hold his feet to the fire.

/johnny

[muawiyah]

Look, Tom Dewey had two chances to beat both Truman AND Roosevelt. His backers opposed Eisenhower. Worst case was Willkie ~ it is believed he was still a registered Democrat when he was nominated to run as a Republican against Roosevelt.

See, it has been worse!

[aMorePerfectUnion]

RINOmney is running the Dewey campaign all over again. He is trying not to take risks, trying to be an alternative without a message. He isn’t taking the wood to Zero in any meaningful way. Heck, he went after Newt far, far, far more viciously than he goes after Zero. McCain did something similar.

His only bright spot is that Zero has not run Harry Truman’s energetic campaign.

Zero has a simple strategy - get more of each demographic. Give them something to energize them.

Hispanics - Dream Act
Women - Birth Control, Abortion, War on Women
Gays - “marriage equality” (pffft!)

All three cut across all states.

Now, what is RINOmney’s approach?

He is not Zero (strongest appeal to many). He has created jobs at one time.

He has, of course, tried to energize the Paul supporters by saying he’d form a committee to look at the gold standard.

This will come down to 7 or 8 states. The rest is interesting, but won’t matter.

This isn’t over by a long-shot.

... and of course, I could be totally wrong, your mileage may vary, and never wear stripes with plaids.

[but I am absolutely correct - it is a milk-toast, limp, lifeless, weak-wristed campaign. Someone please give RINOmney a shot of adrenaline, or testosterone, or balls.]

[Rytwyng]

I can't help but suspect that RINO candidates -- Bob Dole, John McCain, and now Mitt Romney -- secretly serve the Democrats by intentionally throwing the election.

Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, or even Ron Paul would have a 20 point lead by now, given the incompetence of the incumbent.

[muawiyah]

NO, no, no not the balls ~ that’d mess up his crease!

[Republican Wildcat]

Republicans have no response mechanism. Hundreds of millions of dollars, they're still not on the air explaining to people that with the labor participation rate, if it was the same as he came into office the unemployment would be 11.2%.

I am inclined to agree - why is this fact not hammered home? There is no case Obama can make that his economic policies have made things better with the amount of unemployed increased by this amount steadily over the 4 years of his tenure. Obama isn't even having to respond to it because the charge is not being made.

[Gene Eric]

>> Ye reap what ye sow.

No sense razing the only ground we have to fight on.

[steve86]

Romney just released a statement about the events that happened today, it will probably be posted on this site very soon..he finally rips into Obama

I heard Mitt lost the argument about whether to soften the statement. The initial version was very diplomatic and conciliatory toward the attackers and spoke in deferential terms toward the President. Mitt wanted to say something about there being multiple legitimate points of view on the issues and we shouldn't dismiss any of them. He ended it by saying the President was legally elected and a popular politician and we have to follow his leadership on this issue.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

If Romney does not start KICKING ASS NOW, for sure we all gotta start KICKING HIS ASS...

[fieldmarshaldj]

He is very similar to Willkie (who didn’t really have a shot at beating FDR anyway) in that regard, but this race is very similar to the ‘48 one. Dewey thought he’d coast to victory on the weight of smiles and platitudes over an unpopular President Truman, and that ended up a fiasco for the GOP. When half the GOP voters have a visceral dislike and distrust for the nominee as Willard did coming out of the “fixed” primaries with a motley crew of second tier opponents, you’re going to have a big honkin’ problem in the general. I predicted this disaster over 6 years ago if this toxic individual ever got the nomination.

[fieldmarshaldj]

There’s only an illusion of ground. The party establishment razed it before we arrived. We may find out that, like with Illinois, that a bipartisan cabal/combine with fervent beliefs in statism, big government and spending us into bankruptcy, that this November race was nothing but a sham and a farce and Willard was a ringer from the get-go. Like they say in IL with their annointed nominees, when they’re in, they’re in and when they’re out, they’re still in.

[nathanbedford]

How much more effective Romney's statement would have been had it been made before the fact!

How much more devastating the dismal employment numbers of last Friday would have been had Romney prepared the ground by effectively linking Obama's policies to jobs lost and by the demonstrating how the books have been cooked.

Instead, the campaign is now belatedly attacking Obama after the fact for the events in Cairo in Libya. These things should have been part of Romney's campaign from the beginning so that he would now be in the position of saying, "I told you so." Now, he risks being unpatriotic for failing to rally round the flag.

By forecasting these things rather than reacting, Romney would force the media to at least deal with his allegations rather than ignoring him to electoral death.

Everything Caddell said in this interview is absolutely correct.

[Secret Agent Man]

It appears the disinformation crowd is in full swing now.

I’m not saying our side can’t do better of course. My vote is to remove the Obamahole from the WH. Lame Duck Obama is worse than anyone else.

But already the polls say he’s ahead, which is bullsh1t.

If Egypt and the Pentagon buying 1500 Govt Motors Chevy Blaze (volt) cars broke the same day, a Republican would be asked to just resign today from total ineptness.

[Defiant]

He only fights when he is opposing conservatives.

[submarinerswife]

saving

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

...or balls...”

Not a part of the anatomy of Republican men these days...a few Conservative women have balls...time to crunch nuts and threaten castration.

[Republican Wildcat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puL4NClSKUI

Agreed - it is like Romney is scared of coming across as too “nasty.” You don’t have to be nasty to be tough. See that ad. Is it nasty / harsh in tone? No. Is it very hard hitting and effective? Absolutely.

Ads in exactly that style should be run heavily nationwide, each highlighting an individual issue of the economy’s decline - numerical data to drive the point home, then examples - show some of the towns in WV who’s economies have been devastated by Obama’s policies (causing mines to shut down, power plants, etc.) to show just how much Obama and liberals care about the poor. Example:

“Times are tough in America. But Obama and Biden say our economy has turned the corner. Turned the corner? Millions of Americans have gotten so discouraged they have given up looking for work - with nearly another 400,000 giving up in just last month. Businesses are shutting down. Entire towns now losing their jobs due to Obama’s overregulation...Barack Obama...it’s just not working. Time for a change.”

“Times are tough in America. But Obama and Biden say our economy has turned the corner. Turned the corner? Millions of Americans are having trouble affording to pay for their healthcare. Obama’s new taxes on medical devices are making it even worse - even causing some manufactures to scale back production - making them even more expensive and less available for the sick and injured...Barack Obama...it’s just not working. Time for a change.”

Etc...highlight a new individual issue every week so each can be explained in detail as much as possible in the 30 second bite rather than trying to explain multiple issues. I don’t understand why this is so difficult for these highly paid so called experts.

[llevrok]

'We don't have to do anything, we're going to win because they don't like the other guy.'"

In 2008, I kept yelling at the McCain campaign "CAMPAIGN LIKE YOU WANT TO WIN, DAMNIT"

I am again yelling at Mitt the same way for the same reason,

[The_Media_never_lie]

Is there a campaign?

[RobbyS]

Wilkie was a pretty good campaigner. But after the Fall of France in 1940 , the world was turned upside down, and that gave FDR his victory.