Youbetcha !
Posted on 10/30/2012 9:49:20 AM PDT by nhwingut
Rendell: "Startling upset’ for Romney ‘a possibility’ in Pennsylvania"
When Governor Ed Rendell made these comments last week, he was clearly sending a desperate call to Chicago for help in the Keystone State. At the time, his comments were met with derision and scorn from the Obama High Command who were feeling secure in their own predictions of a landslide victory.
What a difference a few days makes. Not only has Minnesota has been moved to “Lean Dem” and the Obama Campaign is up in that state with a significant television buy, but the Chicago gurus have heeded Governor Rendell’s plea and are buying television in Pennsylvania and sending the Vice-President in to help prop up their flagging campaign.
With one week to go, and 96% of the vote on the table on Election Day in Pennsylvania, this expansion of the electoral map demonstrates that Governor Romney’s momentum has jumped containment from the usual target states and has spread to deeper blue states that Chicago never anticipated defending.
In 2007, then candidate Obama said he would accept the Presidential public financing and its attendant limits on spending. We all know he broke that pledge and went on to raise $745 million while Senator McCain kept his word and ran under the limits of public financing.
Governor Romney’s strong fundraising efforts have enabled our campaign to compete with the Obama effort on a level playing field, helping us shape the landscape for this Presidential election.
As a campaign, we will put more resources into the target states in the final week, than previous GOP campaigns have been able to do in the final 10 weeks. The Romney campaign has the resources to expand the map in ways that weren’t possible in past cycles (without reducing any effort in any other target state). After fully funding the paid media effort, the ground operations and the voter contact programs, Governor Romney’s message of bringing real recovery continues to resonate with voters, volunteers, and donors.
Pennsylvania presents a unique opportunity for the Romney campaign. Over the past few years we have seen Pennsylvania voting for a Republican senator and a Republican governor, and Republicans win control of the State House in addition to the State Senate. The western part of the Keystone State has become more conservative (and President Obama’s war on coal is very unpopular there), and Mitt Romney is more competitive in the voter-rich Philadelphia suburbs than any Republican nominee since 1988. This makes Pennsylvania a natural next step as we expand the playing field.
While the Obama campaign would like to wish it is 2008, the reality is that they are now forced to “play defense” in least six states (Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin) that they once believed were “safe” Obama wins.
As the Romney-Ryan message continues to resonate and GOP momentum continues to build, we are adding Pennsylvania to the long list of states where we are expending significant resources in order to bring real recovery to the country, while continuing to implement and fund full-scale efforts in all the target states.
The ticket is a definite upgrade this time on both ends. Romney actually wants to win, and the only nervous time since Paul Ryan’s selection has been the first 30-45 min of the VP debate, before he adjusted to Biden’s idiocy.
Sarah was the best choice on a thin GOP bench decimated by the Bush years (the other alternative was Tim Pawlenty). Four years later you have good young dynamic talent (Ryan, Rubio) and she’s left wondering what could have been as a six-year, wildly popular sitting governor. At least she’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Rendell said the exact same thing about McCain in 2008 in the final week before the election. He was insisting McCain had a great chance to take PA and he begged for more resources from the Democrat party.
Any Republican had a solid chance of defeating Obama. Most people want to vote Obama out, as long as they don’t hate his opponent. Most Republicans would have been able to do much better than Romney has been in the polls. Romney’s campaign was called the worst in history by Pat Caddell on FOX News before the debates. Romney had one great success, and that was the first debate. It’s a sign of how much people hate Obama that that one debate was enough to get people to accept Romney as an alternative.
Romney is no more or less dumb than Palin. Neither of them are geniuses like, say, a Dennis Prager or Mark Levin, but they’re about as smart as you’re going to get from a politician. Palin is a much better, more natural advocate for the conservative cause than Romney. And, while Ryan may be smarter than either of them, she put in a better debate performance against Biden than he did.
The more accurate way to read this news as far as I’m concerned is that the Romney camp thinks they might lose Ohio, and are now throwing whatever they can at the wall in other states to see what sticks. They have no historical, traditional, predictable way to win without Ohio. They have to win states that Bush lost to do it. And the polls aren’t providing them an easy or obvious pathway as to where they should focus.
On the plus side, they seem to have enough money to be able to afford to throw ads up in all the swing states. Hence you get money flying into PA, MN, WI, etc.
If they had a clear path to win, they’d be focusing on the states they need to win and not trying to “expand the map,” which would just be a waste of money in states they don’t need. It’d be much better to secure a safe win in the states they saw as clearly winnable. But since they don’t have that clear path, they have to spread money around all the swing states. They’re in a dangerous position and it’s a risky strategy.
MN is forever liberal. The only ad buys Romney people made in MN were in places near the Wisconsin border. They had to buy TV time on the MN side of the border. Romney is more interested in winning Wisconsin and I think he will. MN is not and will not be in play. The hardheads in MN don’t know what’s good for the state.
So, are you saying that the GOP-e was right? That Romney was the most conservative candidate who could win? I only ask because I am starting to think so myself. I cannot imagine a campaign being run too much better by any of his primary foes.
The thing about Minnesota is that it has gay marriage on the ballot. Between Michele Bachmann being on the ballot in the suburbs and gay marriage, every conservative and Republican in the state will be voting. Gay marriage may put Romney over the top.
Considering the alternatives, I would have to agree. I can't see Santorum putting together this kind of campaign. Hell, the guy had to go home during the primary campaign and do his tax returns on home computer!
If it was Gingrich, we would have been more entertained during the debates but aside from that, we would have to kiss the women vote goodbye and probably be 10 points behind by now. Some Freepers will fight me on this but it's true. Gingrich as our nominee would have been a disaster.
I forget who the other candidates were - has it been that long?
Romney's campaign has pleasantly surprised me. I'm hoping that his presidency will pleasantly surprise as well.
I’m impressed, I must admit. His running mate choice was genius and it seems as if his whole strategy was ingenius. His business acumen is showing as well. Americans like leadership and they see it in him.
Wow do you actually believe this?
Not sure how I feel about this. Doesn’t seem like PA is a state Romney has a prayer of winning - every poll, regardless of the poll’s own bias, has Obama ahead by at least 4 percentage points. Seems like PA is completely in the bag for Obama. it is Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, Florida and Virginia that the attention needs to be focused on, isn’t it ? And furthermore, I’m not liking the fundamental appeal of Romney being that he is not Obama - didn’t really work for Kerry in 2004, why do we presume it will now ?
Cultists? How about using the term "ardent supporters" instead? It's much less inflammatory and insulting. "Kiss her ring?" You're being needlessly divisive and antagonistic.
Had Palin spoken at the convention, Romney would be in better shape than he is now. Instead, he missed out on the convention benefit that 0bama enjoyed when someone like Bill Clinton spoke. That could be a reason that there was little or no convention bounce for the GOP.
Calling Palin supporters "cultists" is a symptom of PDS, so you, at least, seem to be infected...
Her appeal was that she came from the grass roots, wanted much smaller government, US energy independence, and was pro-life.
If Romney operatives hadn't set her up with the Couric and Gibson interviews (Gibson lied through his foul teeth when he misquoted her, and when she questioned, said, "Exact quote" over the top of his glasses), and McCain had turned her loose, she'd likely have been the President-to-be in a week.
Not to mention "the thumping" with literally dozens of specious lawsuits which she was forced by state law to pay for out of her own pocket.
As it is, Romney picked a genuine movement conservative for a running mate, so maybe there's still hope.
But Obama may have Coward-Pivened the ecomony off of the cliff anyway.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
Cheers!
Her appeal was that she came from the grass roots, wanted much smaller government, US energy independence, and was pro-life.
If Romney operatives hadn't set her up with the Couric and Gibson interviews (Gibson lied through his foul teeth when he misquoted her, and when she questioned, said, "Exact quote" over the top of his glasses), and McCain had turned her loose, she'd likely have been the President-to-be in a week.
Not to mention "the thumping" with literally dozens of specious lawsuits which she was forced by state law to pay for out of her own pocket.
As it is, Romney picked a genuine movement conservative for a running mate, so maybe there's still hope.
But Obama may have Coward-Pivened the ecomony off of the cliff anyway.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
And Photo ID is also on the ballot as an amendment in MN. That should draw out more conservatives as well....but GET OUT & VOTE!!! To all conservatives / patriots / Christians!
Look at the latest in both conservative and liberal news on OH. Romney is ahead in OH. He is slightly ahead in WI and IA and does need to put more focus there. The surprise is that he’s getting NV.
Palin, btw, was the ONLY thing he did right...but he did it for the wrong reasons...he thought she would just be dead weight yet SHE drew the crowds and the money...SHE was the excitement....
if Romney can pull off this election, look back to Sarah and the Tea party....Sarah made us sit up and be proud....I'll always be thankful to her...
get everybody you know no matter where you live to vote and vote for Romney....
gitter done!
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