I’m going to quote Steve Benen at length because you need the whole context of his remarks to understand what we’re seeing in the Republican nominating contest. We’re not seeing a real competition, but something more akin to an attempted coronation.
I thought, for example, the GOP field would be apoplectic when we learned that Romney had promised center-left activists he would “act as essentially a sleeper agent within the Republican Party, adopting liberal stances, rising to national prominence, and thereby legitimizing them and transforming the Party from within.” But the other Republican campaigns let it slide.
I also thought the GOP field would go berserk when we learned that Romney’s health care program in Massachusetts uses taxpayer money to provide medical care to undocumented immigrants. But the other Republican campaigns let this slide, too.
I also thought the GOP field would pounce immediately on revelations that Romney’s policy team advised the Obama White House on how best to shape “Obamacare.” But, again, the other Republican campaigns said nothing.
I thought Romney would be slammed repeatedly for his support of health care mandates. And his support for gun control. And his record supporting gay rights. And his belief in climate change. And now his support for taxpayer-financed abortions. Sure, he’s flip-flopped on all of these issues and more, and has become something of a far-right extremist, but at one time, Romney was practically a liberal — a detail that might matter to some Republican primary voters.
And yet, with fewer than eight weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, there are no attack ads targeting Romney airing anywhere in the country, and in last night’s debate, no one even tried to lay a glove on him.
When Rick Perry tried to point some of this out in a debate, this was the result:
As Mitt Romney responded, “Nice try.”
You will see some criticism of Romney in the debates, but nothing like what you would expect if any of the candidates were serious about winning the nomination. Rick Perry is too stupid to be effective, and the rest of the field is backing off in anticipation that Romney will be their candidate and wield considerably power within the GOP throughout next year, and maybe beyond.
So, yes, I am basically accusing the Republican field of candidates of colluding with Romney at this point rather than being actual candidates for the highest office. And, yet, even a joke candidate like Herman Cain can’t seem to blow up his campaign fast enough to make way for Mitt. Mr. Cain is ahead or tied with Romney both nationally and in most of the early primary and caucus states. The problem is that Republican voters, versus their Washington overlords, actually believe the bullshit they’re shoveled, and they don’t want a fake conservative. And they’re trying to do something about it:
Some conservative activists have already picked sides. A group of Republican strategists, bloggers and commentators this week launched a web-based anti-Romney organization called nottmittromney.com.
The website is dedicated to halting Romney’s progress by highlighting claims that he’s switched positions on such issues as abortion and gun rights, illegal immigration and the causes of climate change.
Their problem is that they can’t agree on whether to coalesce around Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain. Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, or one of the other also-ran candidates. You can’t beat someone with no one, which is why we’re seeing some ferocious push-back on the sexual harassment accusations against Herman Cain. Cain, after all, is showing enough strength (on paper, anyway) to beat Romney. Without him, they’d have go to Newt, and we saw in the 1990’s what happens when Newt goes up against a charismatic Democratic president. It ain’t pretty.
The Republican field is laying down for Romney, and there doesn’t appear to be a damn thing the Republican base can do about it. Maybe they should find some Ross Perot to back as an independent. That would be sweet.
Are you saying that Ron Paul is part of this collusion or is he just irrelevant?
So the game is about preserving downticket viability now, is it?
Is Ron Paul running ads blasting Mitt Romney? Is he using his debate time to make the case against Mitt Romney?
Q.E.D.
So, what are the logistics of write-ins in the primary. Would that be possible in every state holding a primary? The NMR (notmittromney) folks must be getting to the point of realizing that the rest of this field is not gonna beat Romney and find someone who hasn’t hurt himself on the campaign trail yet. And with the recent Supreme Court decision there should be enough money to wage a write-in campaign. It clearly can’t be one of the guys having passed on this race like FL Bush, Christie or Daniels. Thinking maybe Jindal.
I’m thinking this far outside the box as I simply don’t believe the Republican electorate will ever go for Romney. A new CBS poll out today has Romney at 15%. That’s just ludicrous for a frontrunner a couple of weeks before the election.
One thing I wonder though is if Romney should end up the nominee and, even though he seems a stronger general election candidate against Obama, if it will keep a lot of conservatives at home and hurt down ticket candidates.
generally speaking, write-ins are available on ballots. The logistics of winning a write-in campaign are the same as when Sen. Lisa Murkowski successfully did it last year. Was it really futile?
Some humorous comments there. Thanks for the chuckles.
Who would be a write-in candidate? It would have to be a pretty powerful draft to get some of the real players in the GOP off the bench.
The candidate has to be willing and actively campaigning to win a write-in. And they must have both name recognition and popularity. It also helps if they can run a last minute ad endlessly telling folks how to spell their name. “J. Strom Thurmond” “Lisa Murkowski”
Nah.
I admit that I agreed with Benen at first, on closer analysis, I believe that the lack of criticism is mostly a coincidence.
Perry DID try to attack Romney at first, but flubbed the lines so badly that we can barely recall it.
Santorum has directly confronted Romney in the initial debates – and he was pretty good at it – but no one is paying any attention to him.
Cain’s approach is working: he’s risen in the polls without going negative (and probably surprising himself), so no reason for him to attack.
Newt is the only who seems really capable of sustaining a strong attack – and I think we shall see that if he continues to rise in the polls. But it kind of makes sense that Newt, with his reputation as a slash and burn type, has held back so far (if for no other reason than he was not really committed to the race in the first place).
I could go on. The point is that, if you look at each nominee individually, the relative lack of attacks on Romney makes more sense. I think that Romney has just been very fortunate that the circumstances have led others to refrain from really going after him in earnest to date.
The question Booman raises here has been puzzling me for a long time. While the Koch brothers have certainly been supporting the clown circus, they also have warm and longstanding relations with Romney. Is this a bit of the smoke from the smoking gun?
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/11/03/360433/romney-koch-tea-party/
Or is THIS the real story?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65504.html
I think it’s a little of both. The Koch bros. could be OK with Romney, who is nothing if not a go-along-to-get-along sort of guy. But evidently they thought it was worth hoisting a whole bunch of their own candidates up the flagpole to see if anyone would salute. Hell, it’s only money. Rove, on the other hand, really doesn’t like the Koch candidates, but he’s got to show his man can beat them to the nomination. Unlike the Koch Bros., Rove at least has some savvy as a political operative, even if the times are likely to make his now rather obvious bag of tricks far less effective than in the past.
So what’s going on with the GOP is really a more or less friendly rivalry between two factions of backers with deep, deep pockets. And, heh heh, may the best man win! (Clink of glasses.)
The joke of it is that when a major political party becomes little more than the private investment of two factions of the biggest moneybags in the country, one thing gets left behind … the electorate. I’m sure both the Kochs and Rove assume they can buy the next election.
So when Romney emerges as the candidate, they figure the sigh of relief from the independents will offset the catcalls from the base? No, I believe Romney’s nomination will be fine for the entire GOP leadership, but the base will abandon what’s left of this miserable excuse for a party and splinter into a dozen clown societies, and most of the independents will go with the Dems.
At Wednesday’s debate I was picturing the Bush Sr household with Jeb standing with a phone to his ear as Perry held his moment.
Barbara was red in the face and George Sr was raising a shaking finger to waggle at Jeb with a shout of, ‘son this is your time’ then Jeb replying, ‘I’m on it dad’
Rove’s piggybankers have got to have their foot to the throats of the current crop of notmitts because Mitt is simply all they’ve got and besides they’ve already given up on the Presidential race unless Jeb’s ego drives him to the doorstep, they’re all saving their money for the Senate races.
What you say is plausible, but it only extends the joke of the present-day GOP. It may be Jeb’s moment, but Jeb Bush is not going to be any more viable a candidate than Romney, maybe even less so.
I totally agree, but Barbara & George are pretty smitten with Jeb.
Boo:
Would it be possible that one of the Pukes is holding back the way Sestak did on Snarlin’ Arlen?
If Not Mitt Romney is the frontrunner, then the path to the nomination is not through tearing down an already defeated Romney, but through being the last Not Mitt Romney standing.
My point is that in the long run the party doesn’t care whether the nominee is Mittens or the last not-Mittens standing, they are regarding this as a sort of playoff. AThe real story, when you look at it in a wider perspective, is that the GOP, clever as ever, is all dressed up with no place to go. In other words, they have no viable candidat. i would even say that circumstances are such that any candidate willing to run on the GOP ticket against Obama is by definition not a viable candidate. The GOP brand is that tarnished.
I agree. This whole goat rodeo is a sideshow. If it gets Romney out of the way as a presidential candidate one way or another, it will have served its purpose.
But who will be “next in line” in 2016? None of the 2012 candidates, I reckon. Will the GOP dispense with that tradition?
One thing I will say about the long Dem primary of 2008, it may have been long, but IMHO, it made Obama a better candidate for the general, because all the oppo research thrown at him by Clinton campaign was the exact things that McCain campaign tried to throw at him and thx to the long primary and all those debates he performed way better than expected in those debates.
The Dem primary debates included a number of great debaters, I’d contend that allt he candidate were great debaters when they had the chance to be. Chris Dodd, Biden, Clinton, Edwards and Obama were all as I recall fine in the debate format. No real major gaffes, Biden being the best in my mind.
On the flip side, the GOP debaters are mostly all horrible debaters. Romney’s winning by default in these debates. He just has to sit back and let the other contenders fall on their swords. He has not really been challenged by either the other candidates or the moderators in the debates so far.
Romney’s been allowed to coast along, and I suspect that once he wins the nomination and he actualy has to debate President Obama, he will find out what McCain did. POTUS ain’t no slouch in the debate department, and unlike Romney’s current opposition, POTUS has a knack for remembering figures, statements and information without cue cards and contrary to the teleprompter meme that Romney and his ilk like to traffic on, Obama is really quick on his feet.
These debates have not allowed Romney to hone any defense to the many things that oppo researchers on both sides have on him and with his history of bending which ever way the winds blows there are many attacks to be made against Romney. IMHO, none of these debates so far have prepared Romney for the fight that the Obama campaign will bring to him in the general.
So I think Romney should enjoy this cakewalk to the nomination because once it’s over, he better be ready.
But unlike McCain, Romney’s not senile. I bet he even knows how many houses he owns.
A Conspiracy Theory, but an interesting one. Yet, sometimes conspiracies are real.
Excuse my bluntness, but the GOP is one big conspiracy against the USA.
No apology necessary.
Have you people seen Newt recently? That carcass is looking ROUGH.
The guys in charge, the Kochs and Rove, don’t want to win the Presidency. They didn’t want it in 2008, and they don’t want it now. Why put their brand in the position of taking responsibility for the insane mess we are currently in, when they can more easily change things on the state and local level, while letting Obama take the blame? Their attention is down-ticket, and so should ours be.