Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rove: The Dividends of Romney's Debate Victory
The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 11, 2012 | Karl Rove, former Dep. WH Chief of Staff

Posted on 10/10/2012 10:06:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

How big an impact did Mitt Romney's performance in last week's debate have? Huge. Mr. Romney not only won the night, he changed the arc of the election—and perhaps its outcome. Surveys have him leading the RealClearPolitics average of polls for the first time since securing the GOP nomination in mid-April.

Prior to Oct. 3, Mr. Romney trailed President Barack Obama by an average of 3.1 points in national polls tallied by RealClearPolitics. Since the debate, Mr. Romney now leads Mr. Obama in the RCP average by a point, 48.2% to 47.2%, and the bounce is likely to grow. By comparison, Sen. John Kerry was widely seen to have bested President George W. Bush in the first 2004 debate (held on Sept. 30 of that year), but he never led in the RCP average in October.

In seven of the past nine presidential debate series, the challenger has gained more in the polls than the incumbent (or the candidate of the party in power). The first debate generally frames the series and establishes whether the bounce will be large or modest. Mr. Romney's bounce is significant.

It's unlikely that Mr. Obama will do as poorly next Tuesday at Hofstra University in New York. His supporters are demanding that he be more aggressive. He will be, telling AM radio's Tom Joyner on Wednesday that he'd been "too polite" in the first debate.

But if the president is as angry and negative in the Oct. 16 debate as he has been on the campaign trail the past week, he will damage himself again. It's hard in a town-hall format like next week's to attack, and too easy to come across as mean and nasty...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; 2012debates; debate; debates; obama; polls; romney; rove
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 10/10/2012 10:06:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: FlingWingFlyer

It has to be pretty close for voter fraud to be effective. It ain’t gonna be close. I’d be surprised, at this point, if Mr. Obama wins 10 states. There is NO state that belonged to the confederacy, had units in the confederate army or is any kind of energy producer that will go to the Democrats.


3 posted on 10/10/2012 10:13:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Quite the knife twister, Rove is.


4 posted on 10/10/2012 10:16:50 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (This stuff we're going through now, this is nothing compared to the middle ages.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I love this ad made of clips from the debate. Obama is smirking while Romney attacks his horrible record on the economy.

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV?id={071B255A-01DA-468F-816F-6368B4411EFE}&title=RNC-Ad-Smirk


5 posted on 10/10/2012 10:21:35 PM PDT by garjog (We do not want another four more years of the last four years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
Romney was just like we hoped Newt might have been in a debate with Obama.

It was Bambi vs Rom-Zilla.


6 posted on 10/10/2012 10:24:10 PM PDT by garjog (We do not want another four more years of the last four years.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is evil, he just doesn’t dislike Romney, he hates his guts. I have a feeling Obama again, is going to have a tough time hiding it. I think Romney is going to do good again. The way Obama acted during the first debate was driven by hate, Obama, despite all the propoganda, is not a likeable person. He’s a radical with lots of anger. Romney is good natured yet strong. Romney speaks straightforward, whereas, Obama speaks in platitudes that doesn’t mean anything. Against Romney, Obama is lost. I don’t think Obama will be able to do well against Romney in the next debate either, cause his hatred is too intense, he will not be able to hide it, no matter what he does. Good, let people see Obama for what he is, he is no nice guy.


7 posted on 10/10/2012 10:25:20 PM PDT by rodeo-mamma
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet; FlingWingFlyer
It has to be pretty close for voter fraud to be effective. It ain’t gonna be close.

Praying for an undisputedly huge R+R win.

8 posted on 10/10/2012 10:27:48 PM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: rodeo-mamma

I had a similar conversation with my brother today. The debates were powerful, not especially because of the content of the debate, but it gave people the opportunity to see the two side by side. And the conclusions for all but the hardcore leftists were hard to ignore. I mean, Romney has been around for quite a while, but what do we really know about him? This and that, all the media blitz over felon, tax evader, corporate raider, grandma over the cliffer...and most of that type of propaganda was nullified by the side by side comparison. I’m not enormously enamored with Romney, but he’s unquestionably a very smart guy and a very decent human being. I’m not exactly thrilled with his quasi-conservative stance on things and I’m not thrilled about voting for less of two weevils, but 0bama must be defeated if the country is to survive and have some chance to escape from this bummed-out state.


9 posted on 10/10/2012 10:32:02 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (This stuff we're going through now, this is nothing compared to the middle ages.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Strangely, Rove said on FOX right after the debate that Romney would only get a 1 or 2 point bump in the polls. Not sure why this guy is still considered any kind of an election expert.


10 posted on 10/10/2012 10:33:05 PM PDT by JediJones (ROMNEY/RYAN: TURNAROUND ARTISTS ***** OBAMA/BIDEN: BULL $HIT ARTISTS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JediJones

Because historically, that is about all you can expect.

Other than Reagan, and maybe Kennedy, no other Presidential candidate has ever gotten such a bounce after a single debate.

So far, it seems to have some staying power. No doubt the MSM will try to spin Crazy Joe as the winner Thursday night, and then Obama the winner next week.

At that point, if Romney is still ahead, he should start feeling VERY good about his chances of being our next President.


11 posted on 10/10/2012 10:45:20 PM PDT by comebacknewt (Newt (sigh) what could have been . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: JediJones

Uh, because he won two presidential elections he wasn’t supposed to and has been at it since Youth for Nixon?


12 posted on 10/10/2012 10:55:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

This wasn’t any quirk of fate. This is exactly the bruising that Barack was cruising for. The shellac was waiting for him and Mitt laid it on thick.


13 posted on 10/10/2012 11:17:27 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew (or is that lou?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JediJones
Not sure why this guy is still considered any kind of an election expert.

Because he's still under contract to FOX?

14 posted on 10/10/2012 11:20:15 PM PDT by Roccus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: comebacknewt

Millions of undecided seem to have gotten a “yes” answer to their question “is Mitt acceptable”.

I wonder if that old liberal, Lehrer, secretly enjoyed seeing the insufferable Barack being shellacked and just let Mitt do it.


15 posted on 10/10/2012 11:21:19 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (let me ABOs run loose, lew (or is that lou?))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: rodeo-mamma

I pretty much feel the same way. But the other aspect I keep on coming back to is that Obama is just not that good. All the debate prep in the world is not going to teach him how to handle a live audience without a TelePrompTer this later in the game.


16 posted on 10/11/2012 1:22:44 AM PDT by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I’d be surprised, at this point, if Mr. Obama wins 10 states.

Your lips to God's ears, FRiend.

Of course, if Obama wins 10 States, his crooked associates can fetch him five or six more, with the graveyard/Obamaphone vote.

17 posted on 10/11/2012 3:03:04 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: HiTech RedNeck; Kaslin
I wonder if that old liberal, Lehrer, secretly enjoyed seeing the insufferable Barack being shellacked and just let Mitt do it.

Did you see that fundraising/hortatory letter MoveOn or one of the other DemonRat NGO's sent out to members? They were livid. One of their beeves was that Lehrer failed to cut Romney off when he started lying again.

They literally think it's the moderator's job to Q.C. and police up the Republican nominee -- and presumably throw him out of the hall if he can't behave himself and accept all the liberal talking points as the bases of discussion.

18 posted on 10/11/2012 3:06:54 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Ping to my last. Thanx for the thread.


19 posted on 10/11/2012 3:09:10 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“It’s hard in a town-hall format like next week’s to attack, and too easy to come across as mean and nasty...”

But Townhalls are what dems are best at. They always have some sincere looking shills with prepared questions like, “After Bain Capital threw my Husband out of work and made me bear the child of a rapist, my son was diagnosed with chronosynclastic infindibulum and it costs a million dollars a day to keep him alive. Why do you want to kill him, Mitt Romney?”


20 posted on 10/11/2012 3:11:20 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson