More on…
…Romney the fighter from “Open Blogger” at Ace’s:
Romney and his campaign staff are clearly moving themselves “inside the loop” in their campaign against Obama. They’re raising more money, they’re responding to the news cycle better, and they’re aggressive about getting in his face. As others have noted, Obama has never faced a tough campaign before and for the first time he has a highly public, highly visible record to defend. I’ve been waiting 30 years for a bare-knuckled Republican Presidential candidate; who would have thought it would be Mitt Romney? Not me, but I couldn’t be happier.
I like this new meme. And I must claim a little foresight. Who would have thought it? Moi, back in January of 2012:
Those who criticize Romney often like to say that Romney could never be tough enough to fight Obama. But Romney seems to be standing up to Gingrich rather well and keeping his cool.
but yet..
i hear and notice almost nothing as to Romney
morning news, etc… nothing..
they are basically ignoring doing the news…
ie. when its good for them or they can twist, they report… but not… it becomes vaporware…
I thought the same thing when Gingrich was whining about mean, old Romney and his attack machine. Gingrich whined about Romney and then Santorum did. So Romney and his allies clearly knew more about how to go after an opponent than many of the non-Romney supporters wanted to acknowledge.
Told that conservatives were comparing Romney’s tactics to Breitbart’s, one aide responded: “Oh great, that’s what we were going for.”
From buzzfeed article “Mitt Romney Wins Over The Right By Confronting Obama.”
I’m quite pleasantly surprised and cautiously optimistic. I was planning to vote for Mitt as Anybody But Obama, but I find myself getting excited. Even Rush Limbaugh was recently chortling with glee the other day, “This is NOT going to be a repeat of the McCain campaign!”
I’m not surprised; I saw this from Mitt in his run for governor. He’s no shrinking violet.
I’m also patting myself on the back for having said that Romney has a killer instinct fairly early on.
Maybe he’ll hold Obama down and cut off entitlements. Hunh.
OK…..neo was right. I was wrong. So what do I need do for penance?
I must say that I am incredibly happy to be wrong in this instance. I think Romney has the Obama campaign off balance now. All of the old tricks of demonizing the opposition seem to be backfiring due to the astute performance by Romney and staff.
Remember the tightrope a successful Republican candidate must walk. First, he cannot be an Establishment candidate. Second, he cannot be a tea party candidate.
What’s left?
Romney.
Who recognized this?
Romney.
Romney w/Hannibal Lector as VP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33ieCWRWlI
Obama covets! Occupiers covet! Greedy stand in line welfare EBT recipients covet! George Soros covets! They’re never done coveting until in the final act of coveting, they covet themselves and devour themselves.
Anything to the rumors that Obama is going to drop Biden and pick Edwards?
What a happy surprise.
Romney has shown courage and grit in these early stages. Take it all the way to November and double it.
We cannot guarantee a win, but the Nation has a right tO demand a fighter on its side. McCain, on that score, was an embarrassment to himself. He will forever be a sad case.
We deserve a fighter! Let Romney be our champion then!
I’m not surprised. I never did understand how folks didn’t see this in Romney all along. It seemed clear to me.
To give due credit, Neo-neocon was one of only a few blogger voices I could find that seemed willing to actually look, listen and think about what was in front of them…the rest seemed caught up in some kind of knee-jerk reaction vortex.
It got very depressing for a while, so I was grateful to let Neo do some filtering for me so I could avoid some of the incessant howling and cut through to details. Thanks, Neo.
I’m very encouraged also. More than pleasantly surprised. I’m with LisaM, I find myself getting excited. This might just be do-able.
I say Obama goes down, 60/40.
I read where Dana Perino, on “The Five”, said this interesting thing: the Obama Campaign sent Axelrod to do the Boston rally … b/c the Obama Campaign cannot find surrogates who will stick to the campaign’s themes. Every well-known Obama surrogate (Deval Patrick, Bill Clinton, et al) seems all too willing to publicly contradict one or more of the themes on which the Obama Campaign wants to run.
Obama is too far left for even his surrogates.
LJ, I felt the same, and am grateful to Neo too.
Well, so far Cory Booker, Deval Patrick, and Bill Clinton have praised Romney’s business record (Clinton called it “sterling,” which should pull some of the teeth out of the “vampire capitalist” campaign). Clinton has been biding his time, I ween, waiting for a spot of Vengeance, served cold. He and the missus were livid when Obama’s machine used dirty tricks to win the primaries.
I really like seeing Romney give it to BO. And I loved it that he didn’t repudiate Trump. The Left are so vicious that they never play by their own “rules,” just force them on conservatives.
But all y’all know that.
I saw that even Ace, who’s not exactly a Blithe Spirit, is feeling kinda optimistic about November.
I hope I’m not getting my hopes too high but I can’t wait for the debates when Romney shows Obama to be the stuttering whatever they call him at Ace that he is.
Amen, and pass the ammunition! And and pray for Wisconsin this coming week. A solid Walker win would be a tremendous boost to the momentum that Romney’s been gathering.
Five more months to go before 11/6; what’s that?, 21 more weeks give or take? To keep his mojo rising Romney will need at least one “Big Thing” each week.
This past week was very, VERY good for him: The Solyndra presser. The “Axelrod Raid”. The refusal to repudiate Trump. And even though the jobs report was terrible news for everyone, Mitt’s is remarks provided a very good contrast to those of BHO. And for me, the icing on the cake was John Sununu’s appearance on CNN with the usually-smug Soledad O’Brien.
I agree that the Romney campaign may really be on to something: Keep being aggressive! Don’t apologize! Keep using their own tactics against them!
Good call 😉
I would like to see this line delivered during the debates: “You had your moment, Mr. President, and you failed us.”
Can you imagine Rick Santorum right about now? Ugh. I have no idea what my people were thinking.
I agree with Neo; Romney is running a much better campaign than I expected he would. Perhaps more importantly, I hear this from a lot of my friends who were Santorum or Gingrich supporters. They used to criticize Romney mercilessly but now give a grudging approval to his campaign. This can be nothing but encouraging.
There was a great post on Powerline about this too the other day, check it out
In January, 2012, Neo said, “Those who criticize Romney often like to say that Romney could never be tough enough to fight Obama. But Romney seems to be standing up to Gingrich rather well and keeping his cool.” You sure read those tea leaves right. And did a superior job of digging up background on Romney. Insights and information – why your blog is a daily must read.
Who woulda thought Romney would be the hip candidate connecting with the people in this race? It’s happening. It’s wonderful.
I don’t usually think of people I’ve never met as friends, but, when I feel such pleasure in your gentle gloating, well, there it is. I always rejoice in my friends’ triumphs.
You were right, right early early, too. My friend, Art,*whom you have actually met, was early in his support of Romney, too. I reckon you folks in Massachusetts know the guy you elected.
* No, not THAT art. The one who lives in your town.
Right now the focus is on eliminating Obama not Romney but Romney will become a target of the tea party if he leads as a ‘moderate.’ The tea party motto should be ‘first make extinct the DINOs then the RINOs.’
I naively assumed that Romney could not run a strong campaign, not because he was Romney but because he was Republican, and the GOP’s track record on running effective Presidential campaigns in the last 20-some years hasn’t exactly been stellar.
Like many others here, I am more than tickled to be proven wrong. I can’t wait to see Governor Romney unleashed against Obama, attacking him strongly, brutally, but truthfully.
This is not doing what the Democrats do, or “fighting fire with fire”… all they seem capable of any more is race-baiting and grievance mongering against the rich. Romney will attack Obama’s record from the standpoint of someone who knows how to lead an organization to success, including organizations, such as the U.S. right now, that are not doing so well.
Romney never was my first choice, and I still think his conservative bona fides are a little thin, but there’s no doubt any more (if there ever was) that he is both “real-world” smart and a real leader, neither of which can be claimed about our President.
He’s not the second coming of Reagan (or more correctly, our idealized vision of Reagan that never really existed), but he’s a seasoned and experienced executive looking for a promotion as the next step to a long, successful career, and not some dopey, entry-level ideologue with a polished pantomime, but little else, who got bumped to the head of a queue he had no business even being in.