Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
Romney's Advantage On Economic Issues Is Gone
The most powerful lingering effect of President Bill Clinton's highly praised speech at the Democratic National Convention was the way it wrested the economic advantage in this race from Mitt Romney. After the president's campaign laid a foundation by questioning Romney's career at Bain and record in Massachusetts, Clinton was able to connect the GOP nominee to the failed "policies that got us into this mess." Washington Post's Greg Sargent notes, "Eight recent national polls, and several polls in the key swing states, show that Obama has now pulled into a tie with Romney on handling the economy."
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
Even Conservatives Don't Buy Romney's Argument
On Fox News Sunday, right-wing pundit Bill Kristol said, "Bush was president during the financial meltdown, the Obama team has turned that around pretty well." When one of your Fox friends shoots down what has been your rationale for election for months, you're in trouble.
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
Making Up The Numbers
At this point, conservatives' only hope is that the polls are wrong. One Republican even set up a site to “unskew” polls to weight them all with the highly suspect party weighting Rasmussen Reports uses. Then you’ll find a Romney landslide about to happen. But even Scott Rasmussen says that logic doesn’t work: "You cannot compare partisan weighting from one polling firm to another." President Ronald Reagan said, "If you're explaining, you're losing." For this case, substitute "unskewing" for "explaining."
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
Cash Burn
The Obama campaign has $33 million more on hand than Romney's campaign and they also appear to be spending it more intelligently. Last month both campaigns spent over four million dollars on salaries but the president employed twice as many staffers. If the whiff of desperation gets much worse, it will be hard for Romney to raise more funds just as the ability to donate by text opens a motherlode for the Obama campaign.
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
Inventing Gaffes, Ignoring Policies
As former Bush speechwriter David Frum asked, "How do you message: I'm doing away with Medicaid over the next 10 yrs, Medicare after that, to finance a cut in the top rate of tax to 28 percent?" The answer is, you can't. Mitt Romney's hope was to appease his base with policy, impress swing voters with his competence and tear apart the president for his failures. His competence has become questionable and his failure narrative replaced by Bill Clinton's retelling of the past four years. All he can do is pull the president out of context and hope something sticks. Fortunately for Romney, his base will indulge in anything that makes the president look bad. But the outrage doesn't seem to interest anyone else.
Five Signs Mitt Romney’s Campaign Is Crumbling
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