Posted on 10/04/2012 7:37:42 PM PDT by markomalley
Mitt Romney’s campaign was noticeably more confident on Thursday, a day after the Republican candidate was widely judged to have beaten President Obama in the first presidential debate.
Aides and surrogates seemed invigorated by Romney's performance, and were more combative in public.
“This is a campaign that believes he can win,” said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. “Once Romney was on stage with the president, and he was able to score points against him, there was a Wizard of Oz effect that pulled back the curtain. There's a renewed effort and spirit that wasn't there a couple days ago.”
One spokeswoman called Obama’s campaign “petulant” in its response to the debate, while former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu piled on to the criticism of Obama by repeatedly calling the president “lazy and disengaged” during an appearance on MSNBC.
The Romney campaign sought to capitalize on what it hopes will be a game-changing event, announcing a major foreign policy address next week and signaling it would hit Obama hard if a Friday jobs report is disappointing.
GOP strategists said September’s jobs report as another opportunity for Romney to drive home his message that Obama’s policies have been bad for the economy.
The report is expected to show the economy added 115,000 jobs, not enough to alter the 8.1 percent unemployment rate. Assuming that’s the case, Romney is ready to pounce, arguing as he did Wednesday night that “trickle-down government” was responsible for the stagnation.
In anticipation of the report, Romney’s campaign released a new swing-state ad Thursday that shows the candidate speaking directly to the camera about his plan to create 12 million new jobs.
Elsewhere, Republicans crowed that their candidate had shifted the race’s momentum and had a chance to defeat Obama on Election Day.
“Romney really breathed new life into his campaign, that’s for sure — it's too bad we didn't see this Romney sooner because he could have been leading in the polls,” said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell. “This was the Massachusetts moderate that Democrats feared, and he showed that he was a principled but practical conservative willing to reach across party lines.”
Republicans hope that the candidate's new mojo will help rally support among their conservative base. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Thursday there was already evidence that supporters were excited. She said in a message on Twitter that he had received more than two online donations every second in the hours after the debate.
Strategists noted that polls show Romney in striking distance, and they expect the margin to close because of the debate.
In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll release Wednesday, Romney trailed the president by just three percentage points among likely voters, and was within the margin of error in Florida and Virginia.
Romney is looking to aggressively target those two states in the coming days, with rallies in Florida over the weekend bookended by his post-debate rally in Virginia on Friday night and the foreign policy address Monday at the Virginia Military Institute.
Romney’s campaign promises that speech will challenge Obama aggressively. The GOP nominee will attack the president for “equivocation” and “weakness,” and will criticize White House handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya.
“He will offer a stark contrast between his vision for a strong foreign policy and the failed record of President Obama,” said campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg.
At a rally Thursday night in Fisherville, Va., Romney and running mate Paul Ryan pounced on remarks earlier in the day by Vice President Joe Biden, who said the Obama administration wanted to reduce the burden on the middle class by raising taxes on the wealthy.
“Last night, President Obama made it very clear he’s going to raise taxes,” Ryan said. “Today, Vice President Joe Biden made it even more clear. He asked himself a question. He asked if he and President Obama want a trillion-dollar tax hike, and his answer to himself was, ‘yes we do.’ Well Virginia, no we don’t.”
Romney still faces a struggle to defeat Obama, according to polls.
The president held an eight-point lead headed into debate night in the pivotal state of Ohio, which every Republican president has needed to secure the White House. And in all but three of the elections since the first televised presidential debate in 1960, the man entering the first debate with a lead held on for victory.
Nate Silver, the polling analyst for the New York Times, also found that challengers typically earn a bounce from the first debate — but averaged just a net one and a half point bounce.
But Republicans say they are hopeful the success at the debate can turn the race the way Ronald Reagan used a debate victory over President Jimmy Carter in 1980. That debate was seen as helping to lift Reagan to a huge win on Election Day.
Romney acknowledged that he still faces an uphill battle Thursday morning during a surprise appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Denver.
“It's fun to be here and feel all the energy that you have here. I know all of your enthusiasm, I know of your passion for America ... but for that to happen you guys are going to have to cheer here and then go out and knock on doors and get people who voted for President Obama to see the light and come join our team,” he said.
You better freakin’ win. I can’t stand the thought of Obozo ‘debating’ Putin on missile defense.
I just got home from the AWESOME Fishersville, Va. Rally!! The state police had to turn people away on the Interstate because they ran out of parking space! Cars were lined up for miles in both directions on Interstate 64 still trying to get in. Trace Atkins performed, then the NRA guys, then Ryan, then Romney! I was astounded at the volume of people that came. I spoke with one man that drove all the way from Hagerstown, Md. Amazing!
Confidence is fine, but you folks in the Romney Campaign had better run like you are 20 points behind ALL THE WAY TO THE ELECTION.
ROMNEY/RYAN HAS WON!By the way,SO HS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was pleasing to see Romney step up to the challenge and exceed our expectations.
I was worried about that he wouldn’t be able to respond to Obama’s habit of blatant lying.
Great line about not being fooled when his five sons growing up used to repeat lies over and over hoping he won’t notice.
This was an historic debate. Never has there been such a contrast in performances between two candidates. Obama was awkward and unable to defend his disastrous record.
Romney was nearly Romanesque.
Let’s hope he can keep it up.
Stupid headline. What did they believe BEFORE the debate and, if they DIDN'T believe he could win before, why were they on his campaign staff??
Anybody see that white, two-toothed ridgerunner in Ohio on FOX this morning? The guy was a real math wizard. He said he wanted Barry to win because he’d only be in office for four years. If Romney wins, he’d be in for 8 years and “eight years is a long time”. I really couldn’t follow his train of thought but the boy was outstanding with the math. He obviously got through the 3rd grade. The world has gone nuts.
Ditto that.
After the 2008 election I asked a politically astute friend of mine why McCain lost, and he said McCain lost because he was the wrong candidate.
"Who was the right candidate?" I asked.
"Mitt Romney," he said. This really astonished me because I knew this friend was no fan of Romney at all -- and probably didn't vote for him in the primaries. When I asked him why he thought Romney was the best candidate for the GOP, he said (and this is an exact quote):
"Because Mitt Romney is the most qualified person ever to run for that office."
Remember ... this was from a guy who wasn't even a Romney supporter.
MSM will be prepared next time, and whatever happens at the 2nd debate, they’ll declare their boy the winner, who “has recovered”.
They had every intention of doing it this time, but it was not possible.
I was chatting live with liberal friends on FB, and twenty minutes in, they were conceeding the debate. They didn't wait for the media to tell them who was winning. They knew.
It has to be close before the media can move the public perception a little bit.
The next Obama/Romney debate is on foreign policy. How the hell is Obama going to look like a winner in that debate?
Is the 2nd debate townhall format? I hope not (not on foreign policy!)
How can the MSM declare Obumster the winner? As you said, if it’s close. And a couple of things. He supposedly has the experience in the area where Romney does not. And two, Romney will be even more reluctant to attack than he sometimes seemed last night, because during the time of international crisis and war, we all say, one does not criticize the POTUS in public.
What I haven’t really seen addressed, but which really struck me on a visceral level, was the body language of Romney vs. that of Obama. Romney seemed purposeful, powerful, in control of the situation and the two other participants, whereas O gave the impression that he was weak, unsure, intimidated, confused, and beaten.
The contrast was important because a president is the face of the country, its representative - and truly, the only person on that stage who looked capable of standing up for America and assertively dominating and managing discussions with other world leaders (and with the Congresscritters) was Romney! An ineffectual, metrosexual person with a nebulous knowledge base, no confidence and no strength of conviction is a disastrous person to have at the helm in this current world situation (all his other pecadillos aside).
If I had known nothing at all about either candidate last night, Romney would have won my confidence on the body language difference alone, and that is such a subliminal thing that I suspect it may have won over many viewers in addition to those he won over with his command of the facts and steadfast refusal to be defined by the DNC talking points. He reminded me to some extent of Reagan last night, and that’s something I’ve been hoping to see again for over 20 years (as I imagine many others also have).
In my mind the difference was like a father reprimanding his son in a comforting, fatherly manner for not performing a chore properly.
Yes, exactly! Or a student being chastised by the principal for not doing his homework. But on a gut level, people want the father in charge of the household, not to leave the irresponsible teenager home alone to fend for himself - and that was the thing that struck me - Romney imparted that authoritative demeanor, but O just looked like a dog that had soiled the carpet or a teen who had been caught sneaking out of the house.
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