Primary voters in NH: Romney practiced dirty politics

January 8, 2008 in 2008, argument, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, republicans, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abuse, dirty politics anger, dirty tricks, dishonesty, foxnews.com, fraud, negative attacks, negative campaigning, negativity, polling, polls, waste

“Republican primary voters in New Hampshire were asked which Republican candidate practiced dirty politics the most during the campaign, with 39 percent naming Mitt Romney, according to a FOX News Election Day poll,” writes anonymous in a foxnews.com release titled FOX News Poll: New Hampshire Republican Primary Voters Say Romney Played Dirty Politics Most

The poll found that no other Republican candidate was named by 10 percent or more (32 percent did not name anyone).

Of those voters who said that Romney practiced dirty politics the most, over half (56 percent) voted for John McCain.

The poll consisted of 800 telephone interviews with Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, conducted the evening of January 7 and throughout election-day on January 8 […]

You don’t say.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Advertisement

“With the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries just one week away, John McCain (31 percent) has overtaken Mitt Romney (25 percent) in the battle for the Republican nomination, according to a 7NEWS/Suffolk University poll released today”

January 1, 2008 in 2008, election 2008, mitt romney, romney, the dark soul of Mitt Romney
Tags: 7News/Suffolk University, negative campaigning, negativity, New Hampshire, polling, polls, Sen. John McCain

“This is the first poll that has John McCain in first place in New Hampshire since 7News/Suffolk University began polling this race in March 2007,” and you can read about it here.

Marvel now as Romney and his hireling flak-claque suddenly proclaim that

• NH is Sen. McCain’s to lose,
  
• Team Romney assumed from the beginning of time that Sen. McCain would surpass them in NH by a million points,
  
• Even a close number 2 for the Romneys behind Sen. McCain finish would be a disaster for Sen. McCain’s campaign and a breakthrough for Team Romney
• etc., etc.

Also: Marvel as Romney’s negative campaigning plummets to new lows of hatred and abuse.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Rasmussen Reports: “Romney is now viewed as politically conservative by 38% of Republican voters and moderate or liberal by 43%—Those figures reflect an eight-point decline in the number seeing him as conservative and a ten-point increase in the number seeing him as moderate or liberal”

December 24, 2007 in 2008, analysis, campaign communications, centrism, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, republicans, romney
Tags: botched rhetoric, impression formation, liberal, liberalism, Michael Luo, perceptions, polling, polls, Rasmussen Reports, Russ Schriefer, stupid politician trick

You can read Rasmussen’s full analysis here.

Michael Luo, from an earlier discussion:

… Nevertheless, Mr. Romney spent much of the spring and summer focusing more on bolstering his credentials as a conservative champion as he fended off vigorous criticism for his more moderate past. Romney advisers believe they have succeeded in establishing his conservative bona fides, even though lingering questions about his authenticity persist, and are able now to move on to focusing on the next layer of voters.

“If you look now and you ask, ‘Is Mitt Romney a conservative?’ People would say, ‘Yes,’” said Russ Schriefer, one of the campaign’s media strategists.

“Now as we get closer to the election,” Mr. Schriefer said, “I think we need to be focusing more on his experience. What is it about Mitt Romney that makes him unique? What is it that makes him uniquely qualified? He has the experience. He has the experience to manage big things. He’s done it before.”

Um, not so fast, Russ. Your hapless candidate is losing ground. Less people believe that Romney is a conservative, not more. So perhaps what makes Romney “unique” is his singular ability to leave his listeners ambivalent and unconvinced.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Wallsten: “[Romney] ranked last when Republican voters were asked which of the top-tier GOP candidates were ‘best at saying what they believe, rather than saying what they think the voters want to hear'”

December 4, 2007 in 2008, analysis, argument, conservatism, election 2008, Evangelicals, GOP, incompetence, Iowa, media, mitt romney, polls, republicans, romney, strategy, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: "the speech", authenticity, believability, credulity, LA Times, likable, Peter Wallsten, polling, polls

“WASHINGTON — With a massive marketing effort, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has tried to introduce himself as a family man with a solid marriage, five wholesome sons and the moral values desired by the Republican Party’s most conservative voters,” writes Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, in a story titled Authenticity is Romney’s biggest hurdle, poll suggests

But now that voters have met him, many are ready to offer an opinion: They still do not know who he is.

Some voters are holding Romney’s Mormon heritage against him, rivals and supporters of Romney acknowledge. But a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll shows that his deeper problem is not his adherence to a faith that many conservative evangelicals view with skepticism.

Instead, Romney has not overcome a record of shifting views on abortion and other social issues. His failure to present a clear picture of his faith and its role in his life appears to be just one part of a broader challenge: proving to GOP voters that he is being straightforward with them.

Romney’s predicament is underscored in the new poll, which found that he ranked last when Republican voters were asked which of the top-tier GOP candidates were “best at saying what they believe, rather than saying what they think the voters want to hear.”

Just 8 percent said Romney was best at saying what he believes, compared with 18 percent for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the national front-runner, and 20 percent for Mike Huckabee, who has sprung from near obscurity to a leading position in Iowa.

Although Romney has scheduled a speech for Thursday in Texas to address questions of faith, the new survey suggests that the broader authenticity question is more damaging to his candidacy than religion itself.

Some 13 percent of Republican voters in the Times/Bloomberg poll said Romney’s Mormon faith made them less likely to vote for him, including 8 percent who said it made them “much less likely” to do so.

But 10 percent said Romney’s religion made it more likely they would support him. And 73 percent said it made no difference.

“The religion part has never bothered me,” said poll respondent Jenelle Pritchard, 43, a school administrator from Omaha, Neb., who is an observant Catholic and has decided to support Huckabee. “But with Romney, I really don’t know where he stands. You can transform yourself, but why are you transforming yourself?” … etc.

The emphases are ours, all ours. Conclusion: The Romney bubble—as in market bubble—has burst. Note how the journalists are not asking if Romney’s support is weak, but why.

For more on this theme see:

Selzer: “What people don’t seem to realize is that Romney’s support has been pretty soft all along—Romney was sort of there by default. He spent a lot of money. He got a lot of attention—He has many of the appearances of a good candidate and a good president, except that when people really think about it, there’s someone else they’d rather have”

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Gallup Guru: Romney is “the only candidate with a more negative than positive ratio”

November 16, 2007 in 2008, analysis, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, polls, republicans, romney, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of reason
Tags: frank newport, gallup, gallup guru, negatives, polling, polls, unfavorable, unfavorables, USA Today

“Slightly lower still, and technically last on the list is Mitt Romney. Forty-seven percent of those who have an opinion about Romney are favorable; 53% are unfavorable. That makes him the only candidate with a more negative than positive ratio,” writes Gallup Guru Frank Newport in an USAToday Gallup Guru post titled Thompson’s, Romney’s and Huckabee’s burden

Yet Romney has spent how much money on advertising? Example:

Romney spending US$85,000.00.00 per day in Iowa, yet Huckabee has suddenly risen to within 7 points of Romney while spending nothing—zero—goose-egg—yet more evidence of Romney’s appallingly low ROI on his every campaign dollar—yet another blow to the Romney von Schlieffen plan

yours &c.
dr. g.d.