I’m not second guessing Governor Romney’s campaign strategy, nor am I about to believe the ridiculously skewed polls.
While I’m not a numbers person and will leave that for someone better, I do understand that when the polls have something like +13 Democrats, in a year when Republicans are at least even in registrations and in some places ahead, and yet Obama manages only a +5 lead, it’s not the Romney campaign that is in trouble, and it is not they who need to regroup. (If the Main Stream Media has trouble understanding this concept, I shall find a bright kindergartner to explain it to them. Perhaps they’re not as corrupt as we thought! Perhaps they’re just a sadly innumerate product of our public school system. Oh, who am I kidding, they’re innumerate AND corrupt, and they drink their own ink.)
I’m not the only one to notice the discrepancy. People here and there have said the same, and over the weekend I came across a would-be moderate post (I can’t remember where, as I was teaching a writing workshop during the day, which saps my brain power) insisting that the media was right to use +8 Democrats in polls because “this is not 2010” and this time – they say in defiance of registrations, in defiance of the fact that we’ve all noticed Obama’s abysmal incompetence and that even college students aren’t that enthusiastic about him this time – the turnout will be JUST like 08.
Have I mentioned that our media – and their pollsters – tend to drink their own ink and believe their own stories?
Dang SKIPPY this is not 2010. We’re much angrier now. At least I am.
One indication of this is that while Obama and his campaign keep working to shore up their base, Governor Romney seems to be trying to appeal to the middle. He’s fairly sure his base is secure.
And perhaps we are – though the number of you whining how you’d rather have a different candidate (as though there was any other option but to go to the ball in the cutoffs you’ve got on) could give anyone a doubt or two – but I’d like to make a small appeal:
When even Instapundit says he hasn’t seen any Romney commercials; when I start feeling as if Governor Romney disappeared after the usual idiots pulled long knives on him the wake of his comments after the second 9/11; when the media is determined to have a blackout around the R/R campaign… You must throw some crumbs to the soldiers in the trenches.
In the unlikely event Governor Romney really believes that his comments were a mistake, let me tell him they weren’t. That day in America one leader acted presidential, and it wasn’t the one living in the White House. Without Governor Romney’s comments I would be feeling as I did before I attended my first Tea Party: as though neither side listened to me. If he had truly shot without aiming, he would simply be a Zen Archer.
I realize there’s October ahead, and who knows what other horrible events wait us. I realize money must be husbanded. But out here in the trenches, we are slogging on in the fog of war, and we have nothing to cheer us up. If you can manage it – of if representative Ryan can manage it — a speech like the one at the end of the Independence Day movie would be about what we need right now.
But if not, give us an empty chair day. Give us something to rally around. Give us something to laugh about.
As someone or other said, a good tactic is one your people enjoy.
Last week was one of humiliation and defeat for our country, a week in which all sane Americans had to contemplate the possibility the people who are supposed – above all – to protect us and defend the Constitution are almost certainly against us in fact and spirit.
Something we enjoy and which cheers us up would be very welcome about now.
And then we few, we happy few, we band of Americans, shall forge on in the darkness and the media induced fog. Because we must.
– billion. Same to Bibi: what are you waiting for?
Try this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0GW0Vnr9Yc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
And stop calling me Shirley.
Oh, and never forget–one cannot just wakka wakka into Mordor…
It is, however, quite feasible to boogaloo down Broadway.
“Instapundit says he hasn’t seen any Romney commercials”
Commercials are only aired in toss-up states. Do you think Romney will waste money in Illinois? We, Illinoians haven’t seen any presidential commercials since time immemorial. I bet there are no Obama ads in Utah.
ALWAYS vote for/side with the non-Muslim in any and every conflict, dispute, election, or all-out war.
Newt isn’t the republican choice. Yes Romney is way better then the full muslim horde in the white house but Romney likes to be inclusive (he thinks there is a moderate islam).
He’s fairly sure his base is secure.
I’d say after enough of the base sees the “brownshirts” taking that movie guy away in the middle of the night he’s going to be right.
The MSM’s filters aren’t an insurmountable barrier for that so I’m pretty hopeful of it working like that.
Governor Romney seems to be trying to appeal to the middle
and how he does it will determine the election. If he “runs to the center”, as conventional wisdom dictates, then he’ll lose. If, on the other hand, he moves the middle to him then he’ll win in a landslide. Let’s compare this election to 1980… In 1980, Reagan beat Bush in the primary because Reagan had a plan and Bush had “more of the same”. This year Romney won because he had more money. In 1980, Reagan was supposed to move to the middle after having wrapped up the nomination thanks to the fringe-right Goldwater lunatics. Instead, he convinced the mushy middle that they were fringe-right Goldwater lunatics and he easily beat Carter’s “more of the same”.
The mushy middle knows things are bad, they want bold, decisive leadership, they want a plan. Thus far the R/R campaign has been borderline timid and I think the cause is Establishment Psychosis. Romney’s personal story is belief in the individual, his political story is belief in government. His personal story is “do for yourself”, his political story is “you’re incapable of doing for yourself”. One of those is bold, the other is timid. One wins the election in a landslide, the other loses in a landslide.
“I think the cause is Establishment Psychosis.”
“Guess the magic word and win a $100″ The Establishment simply thinks that because they don’t have the talent to do something, it can’t be done.
Sarah, your point is well made. We need our red meat!
It’s not a matter of just feeling good or having our jollies at Obammer’s expense, it’s about morale.
To quote Napolean:
“The moral is to the physical as three to one.”
Morale is the energy that motivates even the faltering spirit to rise up and try, always just one more time, to make a difference even if the odds seem against them.
And oftentimes, just one more effort is all it takes to succeed.
Romney / Ryan don’t need to do commercials in every state – this takes valuable resources away from true battleground states. They DO need, however, to have something daily in the news that hammers away at Obama and his legions of democrats.
Something every day that nicks just one more small cut, some small action on their part that makes the news, some well founded criticism that shows just how inept our current leadership is in the White House, some sharp comment that shows just how ridiculous the administration has become, some daily communication with the voters on the ground that are set to swarm the polling places this November.
It’s not a matter of “shoring up the base” – it’s a matter of connecting with those willing to go to bat on his behalf and showing that he truly does value that support, does not take it for granted, and is with us to the end.
Should we win in November, it is nothing more than one more victory – albeit an important one – in a long campaign to reverse the damage that has been done to this country.
Romney is going to need that connection to his supporters over the coming years if he is going to succeed in reversing this disaster, and he needs to forge that connection NOW!
…Last week was one of humiliation and defeat for our country, a week in which all sane Americans had to contemplate the possibility the people who are supposed – above all – to protect us and defend the Constitution are almost certainly against us in fact and spirit.
Exactly right. And to your overall point — again, well said.