Romney Holds His Own On FOX News Debate... But It's Too Late To Matter
Posted by Ashish on 01.07.2008
Romney is going to lose because he made a horrible decision early in his campaign...
Mitt Romney turned in his finest debate performance yet at the FOX News Republican debate last night. Good thing too, because he needed it. He lost Iowa despite spending more time and money there than anybody else, and if the polls hold up, he will lose to John McCain in New Hampshire after having commanding leads basically throughout 2007. Romney seemed to go back to emphasizing his strengths, that being his success in the business world, and used that to set himself as a Washington outsider. He seems to have gotten the message that Barack Obama's win in Iowa sent, stating that he thinks Washington is completely broken. Of course, with New Hampshire voting on Tuesday, the debates from last night will have little to no effect.
Romney's problem is that he ran on his weaknesses, not his strengths, and now it seems to be too late to change. Candidates should win or lose on their strengths. Romney has a tremendous record of success in business and as a person who solves problems and produces results. Instead of using his resources to spread that message throughout 2007, he opted to try and paint himself as the ultimate pure conservative, something he never was. And once people realized that he has changed stances on aborton, gay marriage, etc., he was labeled a flip-flopper, a tag that basically means death in Presidential politics (just ask John Kerry).
I think Romney figured that his only challenger would be Rudy Giuliani, and figured he could win by presenting himself as conservative on the issues Rudy isn't totally conservative on, those being abortion and gay rights. What he didn't count on was Mike Huckabee surging and John McCain basically coming back from the dead.
of course hindsight is 20/20 but your analysis of Romney looks very flawed now.
His strength is the economy, and as long as that is the main headline he will
have a solid chance. McCain is to dependent on the Moderates an Independents.
I think all of McCains waffling on the Tax Cuts and his ability to manage the
economy will come back to haunt him in the end.
Posted By: Jake (Guest) on January 27, 2008 at 12:59 PM
