Katrina, you focus on the question of whether Adelson is Machiavellian, but a bigger question is: Is Mitt Romney?
Just last week, the media was reporting on private meetings between Mitt Romney’s Adelson, allegedly to get him to stop backing Gingrich. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Adelson is going to pump $10 million to a Gingrich super PAC to go after Santorum on Super Tuesday.
Romney’s problem is that he has to go negative on Santorum, or he will lose. But if he’s seen as going negative, it will backfire.
Clever political insulation for the Romney campaign? Inquiring minds want to know, but will the MSM ask?
I doubt that's the story, but if it is, it ain't illegal or unethical.
If Romney is that cunning, isn't that an argument FOR his nomination?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot really, considering if Romney wins the nomination, he's going to have beat Obama without being able to outspend him - let alone many times over.
Romney would be better advised to come up with a compelling affirmative argument for his candidacy rather than rely on sheer brute monetary force to slime his opponents.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Romney going to have beat Obama without being able to outspend him - let alone many times over."
That's true. Thank God most Americans are not as stridently anti-Mormon as the GOP's Evangelical base.
Conversely, Santorum could outspend Obama 100-to-1 and still get blown away in a landslide.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Conversely, Santorum could outspend Obama 100-to-1 and still get blown away in a landslide."
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That's unfounded nonsense. If anything, Santorum has shown more strength in swing states than Romney.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgreed.
But one can't do both?
Why not?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is the stuff that will make Ron Paul and me to jump to 3rd party. It is not just Maine but Nevada too. And, anywhere else that rules and operations in the middle of the contest.
Watch and listen to the whole thing:
External Link
That Main is not a big player is not the issue.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf this is true, then Romney is conceding that he cannot win the support of a majority of GOP primary-goers and is attempting to be "the last man standing" like McCain did in 2008. If that's the case, and if he does get the nomination, conspiracies aside, I believe it will be, he will likely face a similar fate to that of McCain. Only people voting against Obama will come out to vote "for" Romney. The result will be a brand new day in the U.S.S.A.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot surprised.
The Romney campaign is all about destroying opponents, since there are no valid arguments for his own candidacy.
I suspect this will backfire. Here in CO, I was barraged with robo-calls thashing Santorum in the week leading up to the Colorado Caucus. Of course funded by Romney via his Super PAC.
In the end, it did not matter. Romney still lost big, and I think a contributing factor was people being disgusted with Romney's tactics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOk Maggie lets reduce the future of the country to back room deal making and nominate the guy who's orchestrating it all. I suppose in the world of NR it's status normal, it's clear that allegiance can be bought at a price.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Inquiring minds want to know, but will the MSM ask?"
The more interesting question is how many millions has Obama's campaign/DNC spent so far to attack Romney?
And further, has a sitting president ever involved itself in an opposing party's primary fight so directly before?
And targeted just one candidate?
If no, wouldn't that be unprecedented?
Did Bush spent millions attacking Kerry during the Democratic primary?
Did Clinton spend money attacking Dole during the primary?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy question is why a Gingrich Super PAC would do anything that would benefit Romney?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe assumption here is that he will act as the attack dog on Santoru, tearing him down so Romney doesn't have to. This would imply collusion between the Romney and Gingrich camps.
The thing the Gingrich Super PAC would do to benefit Romney would be to tear down Santorum.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut that makes no sense, as Gingrich clearly hates Romney and prefers Santorum. Maybe Adelson is doing it for Romney's benefit, but Gingrich himself still thinks he has a chance?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh, I'm not saying it makes sense.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen Adelson was funding Gingrich's negative attacks on Romney, that was great as far as some of these folks are concerned. Payback, they said. But for Adelson's money to be pointed at Santorum, all of a sudden that's unfair and disgusting. The real issue here is that some of us have got it into our heads that there are these people called "the establishment." We don't really know who "the establishment" is, but we're pretty sure that if they come out for Romney, then they're the establishment. It is all pretty circular. And then we imagine that "the establishment" is trying to "force" us to accept a moderate or a liberal. Some days we say moderate, other days we say liberal. And everything we think about the primary campaign gets filtered through this narrative.
This means to me that we're in danger of losing perspective, if indeed it is not already gone. The reality is that there is no establishment - there are just people who thoughtfully reach different conclusions. That many of these folks are Republican office holders, leaders and men and women of intellectual and political seriousness does not make them wrong. It makes them people whose thoughts might well be heeded.
It is wrong to say that there is no case for Romney's candidacy. The case is that he is capable, serious, accomplished, decisive and very well experienced in the public, private and not for profit sectors. He is respected. He has managed large and complex enterprises and made wise and thoughtful decisions in ambiguous circumstances. He has strong conservative beliefs and values. You can cherry pick his history of course, just as you can do with every other candidate, including Gingrich and Santorum. I don't know if you've seen the Red State list of Santorum's votes that the Ron Paul campaign is now repeating, but it proves that you can cherry pick Santorum's history. If Romney is elected President, he will govern from a set of conservative core beliefs in the value of free markets and in basic American moral values. There really should not be any doubt about that.
So why does Romney "go negative"? Well, look, folks, it is a political campaign. You may have noticed that. Some of us have been going negative against Romney from Day One. I mean that from the very beginning of this process, Romney gets attacked for not being conservative enough or for not "articulating conservatism" in an exciting enough way. So we go with Trump for a while (he's so fun to listen to), and Palin for a while (she's so fun to listen to, and pretty too), and Michelle Bachman for a while, and Rick Perry for a while, and Herman Cain for a while, and Newt Gingrich for a while ... and every time it takes someone somewhere to say, um, guys, there are some problems here. Then we huff and puff about the media and Romney and the establishment as we transition en masse to the next conservative darling. With Santorum, we're now on our seventh choice.
It still takes someone, somewhere to say, "Santorum? Really? Are you serious?" And while a lot of folks are doing just that, it is primarily Romney's responsibility as the candidate. It's just the way it works. Sarah Palin calls it "vetting." So try to restrain your disgust, OK?
But go ahead. Anoint Santorum as the seventh not-Mitt. Keep trashing Romney and "the establishment," since that is so much fun. Never mind you're giving Obama four more years. Just like you gave Harry Reid another six years - it is hard to believe that you couldn't learn your lesson from that one. The country has survived 200 years, it can probably make it through the next four. At least I hope so. I think it's gonna be tough.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExactly!!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSince there are no conservatives to get hurt, this political intrigue between big government Republicans is getting interesting! The liberal is meeting with the weather vane's money man who later trains his sights on the saint, who is the current front runner, ostensibly to help his weather vane but maybe helping the liberal even more…
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnce again, I remind you that it is illegal for a candidate to communicate with a Super PAC, even one which supports the candidate. A candidate has zero control over any Super PAC that claims to support the candidate. This raises the question of a Super PAC misrepresenting itself as supporting a candidate while doing the bidding of another candidate.
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