Romney reinvents himself anew for super-duper apocalypse Tuesday—no longer exurban office-park pragmatist “Washington is broken” outsider, Romney now casts himself as only true-authentic conservative

February 1, 2008 in 2008, analysis, campaign communiques, campaign finance, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, polls, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: campaign notebook, DNC, ideological cross-dresser, lies, PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX, www.chron.com

“Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney began making a multimillion-dollar purchase of television ads Thursday in a late push to best the GOP presidential front-runner John McCain in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests,” writes someone—we know not who—for the http://www.chron.com Campaign Notebook in a blog burst titled Romney shells out millions for TV ads

From an earlier post we review Romney’s earlier metamorphoses:

(1) As Romney-apologists tell the story, Romney wanted to run as a competent technocrat, an outsider with the business experience and native genius necessary to “fix Washington.” Only Romney could never stay on message. So what the campaign emitted was unintelligible noise.

• Luo: “Ever since Mr. Romney began his presidential bid, his campaign has oscillated between two distinct, some would say contradictory, themes—Mr. Romney as a conservative standard-bearer and him as a pragmatic problem-solving businessman”
• Bartlett: Romney miscalculated the primary field, hence his many flip-flops—OK., but what does this say about Romney’s character or competence?

In the opinion of observers Romney had tried early on to position himself as a social conservative, only this ridiculously revisionist line never withstood any encounter with the facts of Romney’s record. Romney responded by tacking ever further to the right.

Romney outflanks himself yet again!–poll indicates Romney’s pull to the right alienates independents, centrists, and moderates

(2) After Iowa returned its decision for Gov. Mike Huckabee, Romney suddenly transformed into the “change” candidate.

• Romney’s new theme of “change in Washington” developed by same super-genius advisors who delivered Romney’s Agony-in-Iowa US$10 million dollar rout
  
• Romney cross-dresses as Sen. Barack Obama in NH—Romney is a better Sen. Barack Obama than Barack Obama, Romney implies
  
• Martin and VandeHei: “[Romney] blame[s] reporters—not his advisers—for forcing him to focus intensely on his conservative views instead of the message of change”
  

(3) After New Hampshire returned its decision for Sen. John McCain, Romney transforms himself yet again. Romney abandons his social and economic conservative line altogether. Suddenly Romney wants to nationalize an ailing industry, only in the post-industrial, post-progressive era this assumes the form of a Washington-Detroit “partnership” combined with massive subsidies.

For more on this sad theme, also see:

That didn’t take long!—Romney drops all pretense of any commitment to conservative values or principles—now argues that “it‘s time for Washington — Republican and Democrat — to have a leader who will fight to make sure we resolve the issues rather than continuously look for partisan opportunity for score-settling” etc.

Now, back to the Campaign Notebook:

[…] Sources familiar with Romney’s plans said the ad buy would exceed $1 million in California alone, enough to give Romney a presence in much of the state. Romney also was expected to spread some money around to some of the other 21 states holding primaries or caucuses Tuesday.

“I don’t think it’s possible to flood the airwaves in 22 states,” Romney said, but he nevertheless authorized “a seven-figure — I won’t give you the exact number — but a seven-figure advertising buy for our campaign.”

After a series of single-state contests in which voters could shake candidates’ hands, the Republican presidential nomination could be decided when millions of voters cast their ballots after having seen the candidates only in advertisements or news reports.

Romney’s 11th-hour advertising blitz contrasts sharply with the air war already under way between the top Democratic candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. They had been advertising in most of the 22 states holding Democratic nominating contests Tuesday.

Yet neither has sufficient funds to blanket California, let alone all Feb. 5 states, with advertising. They are putting up ads head to head in only eight states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Missouri, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey […]

Romney’s message? By reinventing himself yet again, this time as the “authentic conservative.” This is consonant with the Gage “death by internal memo analysis” we discussed here.

“WASHINGTON, Jan 31, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Last night’s debate was yet another reminder of why smooth talking Mitt Romney keeps wracking up the silver and bronze medals, but just can’t seem to make it across the finish line,” writes, well, writes someone in an article titled DNC: Romney Hangs His Hat on Credibility… No, Really!

The DNC analysis is not only apt in itself—please remember our slogan, audi alteram partem, or consider every source—but it also aptly previews how a Romney nomination would get bracketed the a general election.

After losses in almost every critical state heading up to next Tuesday, Romney’s campaign has apparently decided that his last hope is to try to re-brand himself yet again — this time as an “authentic conservative.”

After all the damage Romney’s flip-flops have done to his credibility, hanging his hat on authenticity might not be the best plan. Exit polls in every early state have shown that voters who want a candidate who believes what he says are rejecting Romney: He was the top choice of just 7 percent of those voters in South Carolina, 14 percent in Iowa, 15 percent in New Hampshire, and 19 percent in Florida. Even in Michigan, a state where his home field advantage helped him win, Romney was the top choice of fewer than one in four voters who wanted a candidate who says what he believes. [CNN Exit Polls, 1/29/08]

“The more smooth talking Mitt Romney flips and flops from message to message, the more the voters see him for the blatant opportunist and shameless panderer he is,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera. “Even if Romney could convince voters to ignore the secret timetable he supported for Iraq or his dismal economic performance in Massachusetts, Mitt can’t hide the fact that a vote for Romney is a vote for a third Bush term” […]

Yes. Well, the “I am more conservative than you are” message worked so well in Iowa. Isn’t that why Romney abandoned it in the first place?

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Advertisement

Oliver of race42008.com: [Romney has] “tie[d] Fred Thompson for 3rd place this quarter in contributions”—more on Romney’s crashing contribution levels and outrageously low ROI for his every campaign dollar

February 1, 2008 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign communiques, campaign finance, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, incompetence, media, mitt romney, polls, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: elana schor, PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX, race42008.com, ROI, self funder, self-financing, Sen. John McCain, tommy oliver, www.foxbusiness.com, www.guardian.co.uk

“Mitt Romney poured twice as much of his own money into his campaign than he received from all outside donors combined in the final months of last year, according to new campaign finance reports,” reports Elana Schor in a http://www.guardian.co.uk release titled New finance reports show Romney’s fundraising fell short

Romney, scrambling to knock John McCain from the frontrunner’s pedestal in the Republican presidential race, spent $18m from his personal fortune during the fourth quarter of 2007.His contributions from other sources during that period totaled $9.1m, as listed in financial records that all campaigns were required to release by today […]

Team Romney itself attempts to mitigate by attenuation their crashing contributions, and increasing use of Romney’s vast personal fortune, by framing their ongoing financial disaster, and fantastically low ROI for their every campaign dollar, in a larger context:

BOSTON, Jan 31, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Today, Romney for President announced it reported over $27 million in total receipts for the Fourth Quarter, ending December 31, 2007. The Campaign again opted to raise no general election funds and reported $9 million in primary contributions. The total receipts include Governor Romney’s loan of $18 million.

For the entire year, Romney for President had total receipts of $90 million. In the past month, Governor Romney’s message of conservative change in Washington has resonated with people across this country. Governor Romney has won three states, placed a strong second in another three and had a strong showing in South Carolina […]

Here is the problem for Team Romney: the larger context that Team Romney wants you to consider only casts in sharper relief

(a) just how much the Romneys have spent for so little, and how little Romney’s competitors have spent for so much

-and-

(b) just how drastically Romney’s receipts have declined relative to his spending—hence, Romney’s self-financing.

Tommy Oliver of race42008.com, however, points out that Romney has “tie[d] Fred Thompson for 3rd place this quarter in contributions.”

yours &c.
dr. g.d.