I’m sorry but, on purely tactical grounds, what a bonehead move by the Romney campaign. Negative attacks, especially in a primary, have to be run on a careful cost-benefit analysis, and what exactly is the upside here? That at least Tom Brokaw isn’t Dan Rather? Romney is comfortably up in the Florida polls in large part because his campaign (with the unwitting collusion of NBC News!) managed to turn Gingrich’s flank on the wealth issue and cut him off from reinforcement via a Newt-versus-the-establishment-media moment. He now affords Gingrich such a moment with juuuuust enough time before the polls close to be impactful.
I’m not saying this is going to cause Romney the primary or anything, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s hard to see what at all this could have done to help him win it.
Yeah. It's something that John MeCain would have done.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWill the Romney Anti-Newt attacks in Florida serve to activate Romney's opposition in the TeaParty?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf Romney wins in Florida, will it be a pyrrhic victory?
Mitts has finally combined his dishonesty with his stupidity. This morally deficient charlatan's campaign is being run by vicious boobies who are going to cost the Republican party the presidency.
His poisonous attacks are beginning to show his whole TV persona to be nothing more than a laughable sham. Another smiling snake who hides behind surrogates that have the subtlety of a sledge hammer. Do the clowns like Bob Dole and crooks like Tom Delay, really think this man will defeat the anointed one? Romney and his minions have split the party so badly that you can thank him for the next four years of Obama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNewton Lazarus Gingrich has risen from the political dead more than once. The Romney campaign is not taking any chances.
The NBC Brokaw flashback is part of the historical record. Gingrich the historian should appreciate the refresher lesson.
Compared to Gingrich's hyperbolic and convoluted attacks on Romney's big bad Swiss bank accounts and blind trusts etc., the Romney Brokaw ad is tame and well within the bounds of fair play.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy guess would be the Romney campaign decided not to leave anything in the briefcase. If spending a few hundred thousand to get all this extra free publicity isn't a bargain, leaving the money in the account won't be helpful. While it wouldn't be "over" if Gingrich were to take Florida, Romney's chances of being the nominee would be sharply reduced. New cries for Daniels or Jeb would arise and not without some chance of success.
And let's face it: if Mitt doesn't get the nod this cycle, he has to hang it up. Maybe in another three cycles he could try again, if then. So it's all in from here on in, starting with Florida.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree. I would add that Romney opened the door for Gingrich in SC when he took his foot off Newt's throat and stopped running those effective negative ads after IA. That was a mistake, and it appears Romney learned from it. Good for him.
We can collectively lament the unpleasantness of negative advertisement, but the fact of the matter is that it works. And, while Daniel Foster is correct insomuch that they can be overdone (which results in a backlash), it's not that common, particularly if the attacks are grounded in reality and not hyperbolic. Running a news report - verbatim - inoculates Romney from that accusation, at least to some degree.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's worth mentioning that Brokaw wrote "The Greatest Generation", so he may have a bit more goodwill among elderly Floridians than the typical MSM personality.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou've got to be kidding me, Mr. Foster. This ad was absolutely brilliant on Romney's part. The response from NBC screaming for Romney to pull the ad has triggered every conspiracy theorist in the party. Suddenly it has made Romney the anti-establishment candidate, the candidate that NBC and the left doesn't want. It also served as a much needed history lesson of what actually happened as was reported during those days. Youtube already has this ad at over 200,000 views in just one day.
It's a good thing you're not a campaign strategist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou've got to be kidding me, Mr. Foster. This ad was absolutely brilliant on Romney's part. The response from NBC screaming for Romney to pull the ad has triggered every conspiracy theorist in the party. Suddenly it has made Romney the anti-establishment candidate, the candidate that NBC and the left doesn't want. It also served as a much needed history lesson of what actually happened as was reported during those days. Youtube already has this ad at over 200,000 views in just one day.
It's a good thing you're not a campaign strategist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEstragon is right. This is Romney's scorced earth policy and he will destroy the party's chances in the process if he has to. For him it's now or never.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFirst we have Mike Walsh telling us Mitt is too docile for the likes of Team Obama....that they'll eat him up. Now the complaint is Mitt's too nasty?
This ad was brilliant. Uses old MSM Tom and abuses old GOP Newt in one stroke. Romney is the class of the field, including Obama, and it's time to quit hiding his light with a false modesty. The man is accomplished, successful, wealthy in the good ole USA sense of winning by winning. No apologies. He'll be a great POTUS.
Mitt will beat Obama's tired narrative of US being in a ditch by pointing to the shinning super highway of America's vast and untapped resources...resources that Big Government regulations of ObamaNation has put off limits. The KEYSTONE PIPELINE is the pefect metaphor for why Obama must go and Mitt's Campaign + Super Pac can run with that issue day and night.
Let's Roll Conservatives. Obama will be removed from power in less than a year or we will be drafted into The One's "Occupy America" army of zombies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe have all been flooded with the negative Newt ads-- smearing him and implying that Newt is a man of low character. Yet what does it say about Romney's character when he dumps this raw sewage into the campaign rather than outline what he is going to do when he gets in office. Oh--yes-right, the 59 point plan--does anybody remember even one point of said plan at this point? No, only that Romney is willing to smear, distort and assassinate the character of his opponents. (The question remains will he go after Obama in like manner? The nagging feeling is the Bamster will get a pass as Romney will want to be seen as "nice" during the general election.)
We have a guy in the White House now who has used character assassination of his opponents throughout his career to get ahead and in his case it clearly indicates that such a characteristic is a solid indicator that self-interest and promotion is placed above the interests of the nation.
Romney’s airing of 1980s and 1990s dirt on Newt says a great deal about Romney’s character. This is not in any way a ringing endorsement of “Moonbase” Newt, but it is a warning about Romney’s character. That so many “establishment” Republicans have joined in this manure fling fest against Newt gives one pause about just how serious the Republican establishment is in seeking meaningful change in DC. Ever more shrill ads about how a Massachusetts Moderate is the real conservative in the race just aren’t convincing to a lot of us outside the beltway.
One thing for sure—I’m not giving one penny to the RNC this election season. I will contribute to individual candidates, but only those whom I believe are sincere about altering the Washington DNA of spend, spend, and spend.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLive in Mobile,Alabama...on the Flora-Bama border and have been inundated with the anti-Newt negative ads. Occasionally running back to back during one commercial break. Long past effective, accept as a plus for Newt. The money being spent to level this garbage is unbelievable. And then there's Mr. Brokaw denouncing Newt...is this a joke? Is Romney that tone deaf? Or just another sign that he doesn't care for conservative Republicans and will not try to win their favor, just expect them to vote anti-Obama in the general?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor me the plus side is that the more Romney does this and more visious and stupid he looks, the less I will be upset when he loses to Obama. I think now he beats Obama in lies and distortions without any record of his own except Romneycare " that is not worth be angry about".
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFrankly speaking Romney successed to the extent that I despise him as much as I despise Obama.
How successful would Romney have been at Bain if he had recruited investors with the same methods. Regardless of what one thinks of his competition why would anyone want to invest a vote for a guy who campaigns like this? Is this what America needs in its next President?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRepublican voters may be rightly suspicious of the MSM but that hardly means they hate such media figures as Brokaw in the way that activists do. This NBC report was a pretty straightforward account. Newt has tried to portray the ethics charges as no big deal, all but one thrown out, etc., but the cold hard fact is that they were a very big deal and set off the process that led Republicans to move to oust him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe the news that Romney's spokesperson in Florida, Will Weatherford, is working to gerrymander Allen West out of his seat will finally endear him to the Tea Party crowd in the unifying way that only Team Mittens can do.
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Maybe they can finally pave the way for a true conservative, like Charlie Crist's, comeback.
/sarcasm off
Bill Buckley is rolling in his grave at the behavior of National Review. You all should be ashamed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe basic problem for supporters of Romney is his lack of political charisma. Without great gobs of money and the ability to buy organization and endorsements, Romney is just some guy with ambitions beyond his reach. Without money and what it could do for him he'd never have been a governor, never have been able to win a single delegate in 2008, would have dropped out earlier than Pawlenty in this go-around. He's no campaigner on his own, and it's laughable to think what would have happened in Iowa had his funding been no greater than that of Rick Santorum.
And the saddest part for Ann Coulter and the rest... against Obama and the billion-buck-campaign, Romney's money won't be sufficient.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRomney supporters attacking Allen West and threatening his reelection is not the sort of thing we need. Allen West is being sacrificed in Florida by GOP Romney supporters for failing to give an offering to Mitt Romney. An appropriate answer should be forth coming. Does Romney think this will help heal the rift with the tea party?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah, Mitt's really screwing up in FL. Rasmussen just gave him a sixteen point lead. Okay, maybe a little much but Mitt is now up to an eleven point lead in the RCP average. External Link
Last I checked, Daniel Foster was saying nice things about registered loon Ron Paul. I don't remember Foster whining when Newt pumped out ridiculous agitprop about Bain. Politics ain't...oh, you know.
Romney can't win with the Fosters of the world. If he campaigns nice, they call him a milquetoast. If he campaigns tough, they shout and whine. Get over it.
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