Mittens in Mourning

These past weeks have been bitter for the Romney camp. With the suspension of the campaign, the campaign members are downtrodden, working only to dismantle the operation and retire any debt that may still be in question. Financially, Romney himself is the biggest loser when it comes to campaign donations. When he was still in the race, Romney had mentioned to reporters that he and Ann had “set a limit” on how much of the family money he was willing to spend. Although he wouldn’t name the monetary limit, he had spent $42.3 million of his own money when the campaign drew to a close. Romney and his supporters have been making the best out of the last couple of weeks, trying to make a graceful exit and to throw their support to the winning nominee. On February 15th, Romney decided to put aside the long-standing animosity that existed between himself and rival John McCain and endorsed McCain in his bid for presidency. Although the pair have exchanged bitter insults over the course of the past few months, Romney was full of praise for McCain when he gave his blessing to the senator from Arizona at his former campaign headquarters, remarking “It is time for us to put aside our differences and focus on the places where we think we have common ground.” However, recent rumors of a lobbyist scandal have made Romney question his support for McCain and wonder if he could enter into the fray once again. A senior strategist at the Romney camp noted that if John McCain withdrew from the race because of rumors about an affair with a telecom lobbyist, Romney could actually come back into the race for the nomination because his campaign has been “suspended”, not “ended.” However, this reentry is highly unlikely, especially since many of Romney’s delegates have already pledged their support for McCain. The best Romney can hope for now is the vice presidential slot. However, this seems equally improbable, given the history that exists between McCain and Romney and the fact that Romney is not “conservative enough” to net the voting bloc that McCain is trying to attract.

Romney Update 2/3-10/08

According to the national news media, conservative voters across America lost their candidate when Mitt Romney announced he was dropping out of the race at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee meeting on Thursday. The wheels fell off the well-funded, seemingly indestructible campaign after disappointing Super (Duper) Tuesday returns, in which Romney lost 14 of the 21 primaries. "I feel I have to now stand aside, for our party and for our country," Romney told the booing crowd. The announcement seemed a quick turnaround for the campaign, which had played down Tuesday’s loses and still cast Romney as the conservative standard bearer for the Republican base to rally around all the way to the convention. However, it seems likely that either Romney the Businessman or his family didn’t want Romney the Candidate emptying the clan’s coffers for nothing. He has spent nearly 40 million dollars of his own money in his 90 million dollar campaign, far more than any of the other candidates. The biggest question now is where the Romney supporters will go. Romney has refrained from endorsing either Huckabee or McCain. In the past, McCain and Romney have not had the nicest things to say about each other, with Romney going so far as to accuse McCain of being a liberal. Huckabee may appeal to Romney’s evangelical supporters, however the fiscal conservatives who rallied behind Romney appear to be left without a candidate. However, it is difficult to see Romney throwing Huckabee and endorsement, as he does not want to forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Senator Obama would win” by continuing his campaign. McCain has a huge advantage over Huckabee in terms of delegates and in the media, so Huckabee’s electability is questionable. There is wide speculation that many conservatives my simply sit this election out.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080207/ts_nm/usa_politics_romney_dc_7
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18774154
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/romney-does-the-numbers-and-makes-way-for-mccain/2008/02/08/1202234167288.html?s_cid=rss_world
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/opinion/09collins.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Mittens gets increasingly manic as Super Tuesday looms

Mitt Romney started out the week positively enough—On Monday, he heard from numerous poll sources that he had the lead in Florida. Indeed the President of Public Policy Polling Dean Debnam noted on the 28th that “The tide in Florida” had been “breaking Mitt Romney’s way over the last week.” However, despite his projected win in the Tuesday Florida primary, Mitt lost the battle for the 57 delegates, winning 31% of the vote to McCain’s 36%. Despite this, many feel Mitt made strides in the Wednesday debate, especially when he spoke out against a timetable for leaving Iraq, which made some of McCain’s attacks on Romney fall flat. The Boston Globe notes that Romney had a three part plan-- “The Romney camp had three principals goals going into the debate; to frame this contest as a two-man race; to put some dents into McCain’s reputation as a straight talker; and to portray the senator as out of sync with conservative values.” It seems that Romney either accomplished or came near to achieving many of these goals, which will give him some momentum going into Super Tuesday. The debate provides a hopeful note for the Romney camp. Each loss that Mitt suffers hits him especially hard, given that much of the ubiquitous advertising he has done is done with his own money. Yesterday, Romney reported that he will “spend several million dollars more to broadcast television ads” to stay in the race. His entreaties to voters have been increasingly more urgent as the day nears. On January 31st, Mitt told crowds that he is the “only true conservative” left in the Republican primary race. He has certainly been busy in quest for the nomination—today he was in Illinois and Missouri, and over the next few days, he plans to travel to many states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennesee.