“Romney has the money and manpower to walk this tight rope carefully. If he pulls it off, he is going to be a far better general election candidate than even Romney supporters can imagine.” I have written that I thought the better attack for Mitt Romney would be to go after Rick Perry for being a career politician rather than try to discredit, as the | Read More »
On Saturday, Sarah Palin went to Iowa to lament crony capitalism in both parties. Her aides said she was taking shots at Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. We don’t know for sure whether or not she was because Sarah Palin herself did not confirm it. History is full of times Palin aides said something only to find Palin herself contradicting the aides. Yesterday, Sarah Palin | Read More »
I wrote just last week that it was too soon to declare Rick Perry the new front runner in the race for the Republican nomination, but a week later things are starting to shape up well for him. Gallup polling dispels the idea that Perry cannot beat Barack Obama. They are tied among registered voters, which would more than likely put Perry ahead in likely | Read More »
I’m getting a lot of disagreement with my earlier statement that the race is still Mitt Romney’s to lose. Some of it is irrational exuberance from Perry supporters. Some of it is legitimate. Your mileage may vary on my thinking, but I did want to lay it out. I think the first thing to point out is what Sean Trende pointed out at Real Clear | Read More »
Rick Perry’s biggest problem to getting the Republican nomination and winning a general election is Rick Perry. He is going to have to overcome attacks both from Karl Rove acolytes helping Mitt Romney and also from Democrats painting him as the second coming of George W. Bush. He will have to appeal to swing, independent voters, women, and people who are still a bit tired | Read More »
Michael Barone has the scoop on the first polling done post Charleston. Rick Perry is at 29% Mitt Romney is at 18% Michele Bachmann is at 13% Ron Paul is at 9% Well . . .
IA Caucus: Feb. 6, 2012 NH Primary: Feb. 14, 2012 (expected) SC Primary: TBD NV Caucus: Feb. 18, 2012 Michele Bachmann has caused a mystery and a feeding frenzy in the press. What’s her number? Not her phone number. Her bank balance. It is the big question in Washington and in political circles across the nation — how much money has Michele Bachmann raised? Sources | Read More »
I think Mitt Romney did not just win the New Hampshire debate by holding his own, but legitimately won it with his answers and composure. He was unnecessarily defensive on the Afghan question, but largely showed his experience with Presidential debates. The surprise last night was Michelle Bachmann. If there was a winner of the anti-Romney coalition, Michelle Bachmann not only won, but won by | Read More »
More than a few people are a bit perplexed by a point I made in this morning’s post. It was this one: Third, Perry’s entry would buy Mitt Romney time in the lead. Time is the one campaign commodity that cannot be added to. Every day Mitt Romney leads is a day it becomes increasingly likely Romney is the nominee. If Perry gets in, odds | Read More »
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these. A lot has happened since then. Let’s get started and, again, we’ll go in alphabetical order. Just note that I’m putting Sarah Palin and Rick Perry outside the list, since they are just speculation right now and I want to deal with them first, above the fold. Sarah Palin I still think Sarah Palin | Read More »
I want to spend some time talking about zealots and zealotry. Already, the situation is growing out of hand, and I expect it to get even worse as we head further into campaign season. The Rebecca Mansour situation yesterday was a case in point. I cannot tell you the number of people who read the Daily Caller article and still emailed me under the belief | Read More »
On Saturday, several thousand people showed up in the humid heat of Atlanta to hear Herman Cain announce his bid for the Presidency. Today, in Iowa, Tim Pawlenty will announce his bid. If you have not seen it already, go watch Pawlenty’s preview. I am actually floored it is so well done. Newt Gingrich is already in. Mitt Romney will make a big splash soon | Read More »
I think I’ll start doing this every week. The feedback, both from you guys and from others who are trying to keep up with the pulse within the conservative grassroots has been very positive. Feel free to disagree. I’m just giving you my honest take on where I see the 2012 horse race right now. Last week I took a bit of heat from Dan | Read More »
It’s that time boys and girls — that time where I tell you what I really think and you can all hate me for daring to say something critical about your preferred candidate. Here’s how I think the 2012 race is shaping up by candidate, in alphabetical order.
If the Republican Presidential Primary were held today, Mitt Romney would probably be the nominee. But this may be the high water mark for Mitt Romney after yesterday’s speech at the University of Michigan in which he gave a full throated defense of Romneycare. In fact, in his Power Point presentation on slide 7, Mitt Romney defends the individual mandate as okay at the state | Read More »
In a pretty shocking Wall Street Journal/NBC poll Donald Trump is ranking number two among potential GOP contenders for the President. Mitt Romney edges him out by a few points into the top slot. There is a very simple reason for this: the field is ‘meh.’ Certainly partisans for the various candidates are excited about their various candidates. But the general consensus from conservatives is | Read More »
I get asked all the time why people are so cynical about politics. Here’s a great example: Andrea Saul, who was Charlie Crist’s communications director. Here’s one of her attacks on Marco Rubio: “As the truth begins to surface about Speaker Rubio’s double billing of taxpayers, lavish spending of Republican money, and, just today, excessive pork spending, no ad will be able to stop voters | Read More »
Conservative eyebrows have been raised over the past few weeks over Mitt Romney’s defense of the individual mandate in the health care legislation. He has on more than one occasion sought to claim the idea as his own. Perhaps we can now be done with that. Over the weekend a conservative blogger named Kavon Nikrad confronted Romney and asked if he supported repeal of the | Read More »
We’ve been after Mitt Romney for a while for not going all in for Doug Hoffman or Marco Rubio then coming out for Bob Bennett. Today he is really redeeming himself. Romney is going all in for Nikki Haley in South Carolina. The endorsement comes today. Huge news. CNN is now reporting on it (insert disclosure here related to post below). Haley is going up | Read More »
Bob Bennett, as you know, is the TARP-backing, Bridge-to-Nowhere-supporting, health-care-takeover-proposing RINO running for his life to win re-nomination in Utah for a fourth term. Bob Bennett’s health care proposal – it’s called the Wyden-Bennett bill, remember – includes an individual mandate, forces taxpayers to subsidize abortions, supports “domestic partner” benefits, and would cost more than $1 trillion. He is an unrepentant earmarker, whom Senator Jim | Read More »
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