For a while, I thought the Republican field was taking it easy on Mitt Romney because they figured he would eventually be the nominee. Maybe some candidates thought they might have a shot to be his running mate. Others might have been angling for a position in his cabinet. Others were more interested in book sales and a job at Fox News, but didn’t want to be remembered for hurting the party’s standard bearer. But it doesn’t feel like the other candidates are pulling their punches anymore. I don’t understand why they waited so long, but Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum are not acting like Romney will shortly be the leader of the GOP. The ads Gingrich’s Super PAC is running against Romney are just brutal. They’re tougher than anything I’d expect from the Obama campaign. Rick Perry is saying that the only reason that Mitt Romney would worry about pink slips is if he thought he wouldn’t have enough to pass out to the American people. That’s on video. You can’t take that back.
It seems like it would be pretty hard to turn around and endorse Romney in a few short months after accusing him of deliberately setting out to ruin the lives of working Americans. I’m sure they’ll do it, but it won’t be very convincing and it will do almost nothing to undo the damage they’re causing to Romney. It seems like the GOP is just coming apart at the seams. They have only one candidate, and they’re carving him up. And it doesn’t normally work like this.
I remember when Bill Bradley had more money than Al Gore and plenty of endorsements and a lead in the New Hampshire polls. But he was under relentless pressure not to go too negative on Gore. And he pulled his punches. He didn’t have what it took to go for broke, and it cost him any chance to wrest the nomination away from Gore. Yet, these Republican candidates don’t even have a plausible path to the nomination and they seem oblivious to Establishment pressure not to bloody Romney.
It’s truly weird, but I’m very grateful that it’s happening. Again, though, why did it take so long?
Maybe internal polling that tells them that Romney might not have a lock on the nomination?
I think it’s personal really, especially with Newt. Plus Romney has that fake “aw shucks” personality that’s Gomer Pyle to your face, but Scarface behind your back.
Plus as I recall even during the 2008 campaign the fellow candidates coudn’t stand Romney even then. It’s just that the candidates were stronger nationally than the current bunch (i.e. Guiliani, McCain, etc) and they all had no fear of him.
Your comment feels right. The modern Republican id takes everything about politics extremely personally. It’s no surprise their candidates reflect that. They are driven by dark emotions, primarily avarice and anger in equal turn. Romney in a weird way seems the least emotional of them all – the one who takes it least personally. Probably that’s because he’s reduced his essential self to a chameleonic nothingness and at this point has publicly humiliated himself such that he lives in a place beyond shame. He is the odd man out, and maybe the other candidates have finally internalized it and are tearing into that tribal weakness.
In a weird way, I think Romney’s win in Iowa, along with his sure upcoming win in NH, was what finally released these daemons from Newt and the rest. Their resentment couldn’t come to full flower until they felt sufficiently oppressed. And what better way to feel oppressed than to get whupped by Mitt the Milquetoast in the primaries?
It is almost certainly too late for the other candidates’ get past Romney, but damn are they doing us Dems a huge favor.
Obviously they’re not afraid of Rove anymore. Note that Limbaugh is stiffing Romney and supporting Gingrich.
Except His Blimpiness is whining that Newt and the boys are going after Newt from the left.
I read somewhere that attacking the frontrunner too soon with too much punch can do harm to your own campaign. These answers were being generated as everyone’s been asking this question since August. Granted, it’s very late in the game now, but it’s what I read on some poli-sci websites.
OT, I loved this:
Thomas Friedman draws jeers as he talks Islamism, democracy at AUC
I guess there goes the theory that Perry is working for Romney to help split the evangelical ticket.
And judging from this trailer, Newt’s new Bain Capital superPAC documentary could do potentially massive damage to Romney all the way up to the general.
And judging from this trailer, Newt’s new Bain Capital superPAC documentary could do potentially massive damage to Romney all the way up to the general.
Which, at the least, will hopefully depress general election turnout. Didn’t MoveOn have a video along these same lines where one of the people said that he didn’t care too much for Obama, but thought that Mittens was a soulless corporate raider and wouldn’t vote for him?
The problem is that this attack is coming very early. Romney may well be able to innoculate against it. The vampire capitalism and blood money that he has is very disgusting.
The Dems need to find ways of escalating the attacks. More videos of people whose lives were destroyed by Bain. Videos about people who committed suicide, who lost their houses, who had to declare bankruptcy are needed.
It’s certainly true, in contemporary electoral politics the GE is practically an eternity away, and certainly more than enough time for the voting public to completely forget about the various attacks against Romney here in the primary.
But what we’re witnessing now hasn’t been seen in any form remotely like this since Teddy Kennedy went after Carter–in fact, it makes that primary match-up look a bit lame in comparison. It’s like the Insane Clown Posse Candidate Squad have suddenly decided to turn as a unit on the closest thing to a frontrunner the GOP has.
It’s early, yes. But these attacks likely reflect the serious misgivings that the majority of GOP voters have about sending Mittens in quest of the big ring. Here’s something I stumbled across a couple hours ago from Taegan Goddard: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/10/most_republicans_want_a_new_candidate.html