Here are the quick ramblings and tatlings of a Newt endorser and the leading NotMittRomney voice: me.
Romney regains his footing and adds a couple of points to what he was in fact polling just a couple of weeks ago. That’s what a more than $12 million deficit against your opponent will do to you. Right now, Romney is 14 points ahead of Newt. It’ll stay about there, maybe 13 points if we’re lucky.
Even more troubling, with 96% of the results in, we’re sitting at 1,626,172 votes. Sounds like a lot, huh? In 2008 we had 1,949,498 votes cast. GOP, we have a Florida problem and it’s something money, a candidate with a solid-jaw line, and polled stances on major issues can’t fix.
Newt could have accomplished two things. First, he could have run Florida, dubbing him the nominee. Second, he could have weighted Romney below the 40s to apply more pressure for Santorum to drop (although, that’s not happening — I’ve talked to Santorum and believe he’ll stay in at least through the end of February).
This is fundamentally good for the GOP though. This process makes our party tougher. It makes issues get talked about in the court of public opinion instead of amongst Party bosses or in Convention committee rooms.
Newt, Santorum, whoever the opposition may be has a moral obligation to stay in the race. If Romney is the nominee, the establishment, his team, dare I say a Romney administration has to know just how much of our base is opposed to his ridiculous record and flip flopped stances.
Continue this fight.
Looks like an anti-Romney tie to me. Or close to it.
As for Virginia, you still have an anti-Romney opportunity….
Although we only have Romney and Paul on the ballot, showing up to the polls and casting an empty ballot is the same as None Of The Above. We’ll have to make noise about people casting a NO vote but we’re capable of that. We can hit the blogs and the media and really put pressure on the Estabulistas.
Delegates to the Repub convention will not be bound to the results and the proportionality.
Virginians don’t have to be emasculated because the estabulistas want us to be.
I’m a Newt supporter but a vote in VA for Ron Paul rather than Mitt would really shake them up
If I lived in Va I would vote for Ron Paul over Romney. We have to make the message unmistakable.
Nothing has helped Romney get closer to the nomination more than his fighting against Gingrich as a candidate. Gingrich will never get a shot at the title, but he’s an excellent sparring partner.
Actually,you touched on something that has been a problem in the past for Romney. I’ve heard over and over that Mitt Romnry suffers from his sheer ” Romney-ism. Everyone in the Press have complained that he suffers from his “Sheer Romney-ism” With all of that, he’s just too durned nice.
Mitt Romneycan be tough and a fighter. The people of our Country NEED to see the tougness and Mitts ability to Fight.Romney needs to let the the people see that he will stan up for a Country with a rule of Law. Romney has a lot to do yet and when he is elected the Holiday ends! You won’t see Mitt playing golf twice a week, OR going on 4 million dollar overseas holdays. Mitt GET TOUGH
OK, so Romney now has about 6% or 7% of the total delegates he needs to secure the GOP nomination. That’s like the Patriots kicking a field goal in the first 5 minutes of the Super Bowl and saying it’s all over.
Personally, I like the fact that the GOP primary will go on for a while. I vote in California, and I’d like to think my 2012 primary vote will have some meaning, unlike 2008.
Money is the mother’s milk of political campaigns. Losing dries up campaign funding very quickly.
A better Super Bowl analogy might be this. The Patriots kick a field goal in the first 5 minutes and the Giants have to give up their helmets. The Patriots score a TD and then the Giants are forced to play without shoulder pads.
Pretty soon, by the end of the first quarter the final result of the game is known and only the actual score is in doubt.
Don’t vote for Romney, four more years of Obama and you will have 8 years of mess to fix not just the incalculable damage from just 4.
Interesting point from Jim Geraghty’s Campaign Spot newsletter:
Just throwing that out there… if anyone wants to accuse me of being a Mittmaniac, do a little basic research first.