Why the right never managed to get its act together against Romney

#1
lawgator1

lawgator1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
72,765
Likes
42,933
#1
Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and by most accounts Romney will emerge with strong wins, for the most part. At least he will win enough to keep Santorum or Gingrich from being able to claim that they are a serious threat to him.

So the money for them will dry up. And its over.

Why wasn't the right, the conservative base of the party, ever able to make a more serious run at Romney? I think it was lack of organization -- no head that could go to either Santorum or Gingrich or certainly Paul and tell them to get out.

And so the what was essentially anti-Romney support was split amongst three factions of the base: a) libertarians went for Paul, b) religious right went for Santorum; c) what I will call the mad middle went for Gingrich.

Romney walked the tightrope, not really winning over any of them, but basically outlasting any of the three.

Romney negatives are very high, by the way, especially among independent voters for the general. Much higher than prior nominees of either party.
 
#2
#2
as an early Gingrich supporter, I can tell you that his campaign's horrendous management led me to wait out the primary. I've never seen a campaign that needed money and support as badly as gingrich's make it nearly impossible to get involved.
 
#4
#4
You're asking the wrong question. It's really, why has Romney struggled so much against a JV list of candidates despite being so well funded and organized?
 
#5
#5
GAVol said:
You're asking the wrong question. It's really, why has Romney struggled so much against a JV list of candidates despite being so well funded and organized?
Click to expand...


Gingrich isn't JV. And Paul is experienced. Santorum, yes, his campaign has seemed a bit naive at times.

As for your question, obviously, Romney is still having trouble getting traction. The guy speaks and its like silly string, kind of all over the place, thin, and fairly quickly just apparent that there is nothing there.
 
#6
#6
lawgator1 said:
Gingrich isn't JV. And Paul is experienced. Santorum, yes, his campaign has seemed a bit naive at times.

As for your question, obviously, Romney is still having trouble getting traction. The guy speaks and its like silly string, kind of all over the place, thin, and fairly quickly just apparent that there is nothing there.
Click to expand...

Hes a Kerry clone
 
#7
#7
I could ask how the Democratic base bought in overwhelmingly with BO. Why were they so eager to elect a guy that has the thinnest presidential resume I can recall.. but I wont
 
#14
#14
lawgator1 said:
Gingrich isn't JV. And Paul is experienced. Santorum, yes, his campaign has seemed a bit naive at times.

As for your question, obviously, Romney is still having trouble getting traction. The guy speaks and its like silly string, kind of all over the place, thin, and fairly quickly just apparent that there is nothing there.
Click to expand...

gingrich has baggage which scares us

paul is too damn old...if he was 15 years younger he would be leading

santorum is not a true conservative on many issues

cain got blasted by rumors or might have won, he had my money and my vote

romney is simply the guy who is making it through

none are great choices but the fact that it looks like the republicans will control the house and maybe the senate in obamas secdond term means we dont care as much. let the guy have four more, if that is the case, and then get a real republican candidate in their who is strong.


now close the thread.
 
#15
#15
GAVol said:
You're asking the wrong question. It's really, why has Romney struggled so much against a JV list of candidates despite being so well funded and organized?
Click to expand...

I kind of agree with LG here. Romney was middle on alot of the issues, and he didn't win over any part of the base. But he really didn't tank with any part either. He doesn't lose, instead of actually winning anything.

For instance, I would suspect that many of the religious right love Santorum but don't really buy into his fiscal conservative record. Romney gets the "I can live with it" sentiment on both issues.
 
#16
#16
OP premise is odd - assumes "right" is a cohesive group that was motivated by taking down Romney but somehow failed. As we've seen there is a fiscally conservative right that is near libertarian, there is a socially conservative right and there is a blend of both. Each of the Romney opponents appealed to differing groups. As while there is an anti-Romney contingent there is also an anti-Santorum contingent, anti-Paul contigent, anti-Gingrich contingent and anti-the lot of them contingent.

Romney has had more widespread appeal as evidenced by votes than any of the others. The base is not homogeneous and Romney does have some support from the base contingents.
 
#17
#17
volinbham said:
OP premise is odd - assumes "right" is a cohesive group that was motivated by taking down Romney but somehow failed. As we've seen there is a fiscally conservative right that is near libertarian, there is a socially conservative right and there is a blend of both. Each of the Romney opponents appealed to differing groups. As while there is an anti-Romney contingent there is also an anti-Santorum contingent, anti-Paul contigent, anti-Gingrich contingent and anti-the lot of them contingent.

Romney has had more widespread appeal as evidenced by votes than any of the others. The base is not homogeneous and Romney does have some support from the base contingents.
Click to expand...


That is sort of my point. While there is absolutely a fairly sizeable number of GOP voters who don't like Romney and would prefer to see someone else get the nomination, once the next question is asked -- who? -- they splinter rather sharply along various ideological lines.
 
#19
#19
volinbham said:
They will vote Romney if he's the nominee.
Click to expand...

The vast majority will, yes. But it has to be worrisome that turnout will not be enthusiastic, costing some votes and that the independents, where Romney has dismal ratings, will either vote obama or just not show up.
 
#20
#20
lawgator1 said:
The vast majority will, yes. But it has to be worrisome that turnout will not be enthusiastic, costing some votes and that the independents, where Romney has dismal ratings, will either vote obama or just not show up.
Click to expand...

I doubt very many traditionally GOP voters would vote for Obama a second time around. POTUS is going to have a hard time keeping his own coalition together in the wake of soaring gas prices and real unemployment numbers over 10%.
 
#21
#21
lawgator1 said:
The vast majority will, yes. But it has to be worrisome that turnout will not be enthusiastic, costing some votes and that the independents, where Romney has dismal ratings, will either vote obama or just not show up.
Click to expand...

Any thought of dismay amongst Romney's party will be swiftly trumped by the thought of enduring another term with your guy. Be real chief. You know that it's true.
 
#22
#22
I'm not a Romney guy, but how come everyone talks about X% of the vote is anti-Romney, but never the Y% that is anti-Santorum or Z% that is anti-Gringrich? Both of whose 'anti-numbers' are bigger than Romney's.
 
#23
#23
MG1968 said:
I doubt very many traditionally GOP voters would vote for Obama a second time around. POTUS is going to have a hard time keeping his own coalition together in the wake of soaring gas prices and real unemployment numbers over 10%.
Click to expand...

This. The R's wont necessarily be voting for Romney inasmuch as they will be voting against Obama
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top