With Mitt Romney’s overwhelming victory in Nevada– he won just over 50 percent of the vote –the former Massachusetts governor has secured three double-digit wins in the Northeast (New Hampshire), the West (Nevada), and the South (Florida). He remains in the catbird seat. For him to lose the nomination would require an epic collapse. I rather doubt we’ll see it.
What makes this week marginally interesting is whether Rick Santorum supplants Newt Gingrich as the “conservative alternative” to Romney. That depends on how Santorum does tomorrow in Colorado and Minnesota, the next states that hold GOP nominating contests, as well as Missouri, which holds a “beauty contest” (the state’s official nominating process takes place later in the year). It seems to me, and increasingly to others, that Santorum is a far better figure for conservatives to rally behind than Gingrich, whose weaknesses I have dealt with at length in the past. I’ll only add that at his press conference on Saturday Gingrich looked to be seething with rage for Romney, and he demonstrated, one more time, that he simply doesn’t have the emotional balance and temperamental traits that one looks for in a president. There’s something a bit sad in watching Gingrich, who has done a great deal for the conservative cause in his life, burn up like this.
As for Governor Romney: he’s now in excellent position to win the nomination. He’s winning elections, which is what matters. Non-Romney voters have not so far coalesced among any of the other candidates. Romney dominates among the GOP’s moderate wing, including non-Tea Party supporters and non-evangelicals. Most Republicans see him as the candidate with the best chance to beat President Obama in the fall. More than seven in 10 believe he’ll be the eventual nominee. He’s repelled every assault against him, having shown he can lift his game. And he retains a vast advantage over the other candidates in terms of money and organization.
But Romney still faces challenges. Voter turnout remains surprisingly low in most of the contests so far. He might be a bit vulnerable in parts of the Midwest. To date, he hasn’t been able to convince voters his campaign is tied to a great cause (it’s very Romney-centric right now). The cage match against Gingrich has hurt Romney’s reputation with (among others) independent voters. And nationally, Romney still doesn’t fair all that well among those who identify themselves as “very conservative” and evangelicals. It should be said, however, that Romney does quite well among those who consider themselves “somewhat conservative” and, as Jay Cost points out, Romney is actually pulling in the second-largest number of “very conservative” votes, and among all conservatives (“somewhat” and “very”), he leads Gingrich, 39 percent to 35 percent.
Where things stand at this moment, then, is that the Romney machine rolls on against a weak field. It’s hard to see how he’ll be stopped. Right now, Romney is a strong but not yet an outstanding candidate, steady and reassuring but hardly inspiring. And he needs to find a way to connect with working class voters. In short, he still needs to improve as he turns his attention to Obama, who is on the upswing. My guess is Romney will.
Yes, he is on a roll except for generating enthusiasm, or even support among independents, conservatives and blue color workers. He is working hard to differentiate himself from the President by comparing his activities at Bain to Obama's "rescue" of GM and proposing the indexing of the minimum wage to inflation. n nMeanwhile, the incumbent is riding high on the wave of a historically tepid economic "recovery" (with the weakness attributed principally to his policies and the "recovery" to printing of $ by the Fed, the limited ability of Congress to stop or slow down a bit some of what Obama wants to do and most importantly by remarkable resilience of the American workers and businessman) and treatment from the media that Sarah Palin could only fantasize about getting from Sean Hannity (Matt "Mr. President, is the economic recovery complete Lauer). n nThe Romney "Machine" makes the Volt look like a Maybach.
Obama is up now simply because the Republicans have been spending so much time saying nasty things about each other. Once Romney wraps up the nomination and can turn his full attention to the many shortcomings of the Obama administration, most specifically the obscene deficits that he is piling up, the race will tighten once more. n nBut make no mistake: Romney is the GOPs best hope to beat Obama in the fall. None of the other candidates would have a chance. The hard-core conservatives and the evangelicals will come around once they realize that their choice is either Romney or four more years of Obama.
You must have serious doubts about Mitt Romney to be so certain of his future.
This is a very astute and fare analysis. (Hat tip to a rare homonymous mistake by Pete Wehner.) n nI am also confident there is more to Mitt Romney and we will soon be introduced to the rest of him. I see signs from Team Obama that they suspect the same, but being the craven manipulators that they are, they will be somewhat clueless and clumsy in responding. Team Obama does not speak the language of Real America. Romney has lived it and loved it, he just needs to double click the right data folder and merge it into the CEO mainframe. He'll get there.
From this article, I guess the base must want a set your hair on fire, screaming like a banshee, ululating like a crazed madman, whirling like a dervish, lying like the devil, cheating like a Clinton/Kennedy, yapping and being crude like a Howard Stern radio shock jock, and generally acting like a fool candidate. If your mind and soul are not inclined to choose a carnival barker for a Presidential candidate, then Mitt would be your guy.
Gingrich is right: Romney is a Massachusetts moderate. Let's at least hope so. It's the only way Romney can will the presidency, hoping he doesn't strain anything as he makes a sharp turn left to get to the centre. Last thing America needs in high office is a right wing ideologue as opposed to a problem solving centrist, albeit with right of centre leanings, who is pragmatic and flexible within a spectrum of broad liberal democratic principles. To the extent Romney is as conservative as Coulter says he is, I wouldn't vote for him.
that is why we have a $16 trillion deficit, 15.1% unemployment (U6), and are headed for Greece. Programs need to be cut, not a Washington cut which is just a reduction in the rate of growth. Economic conservatives plan really to cut the budget and control the money supply, which is our only way out. We don't know if Romney really feels this way, or is just Obama-lite.
What kind of "proof" is that? n n"if our elected leaders had real morals, I'm talking like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln morals, do you think we'd be in the mess we're in today? Of course not." n nYou basically claimed to prove morals matter by essentially asking people if morals matter. Whaaa…? n nThe funny thing too is that Washington was a deist and Lincoln's christianity questionable. In terms of religiousity, these men (and many of the founding fathers) wouldn't even stand a chance at winning today. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was 100% deist and held opinions unequivocally against christianity. He produced a bible that stripped all the supernatural stuff from the four gospels. Republicans would crucify him today. n nThe fact is, religiousity and most of what religious people label "morality" is irrelevant to being an effective president. The moment you have candidates claiming they'd sooner change the Constitution than change their interpretation of the Bible (e.g. Huckabee, Perry, Bauchmann, Santorum) you know something is seriously wrong with the presidential field.