There has been a lot of jive-talk in the blogosphere (can I say jive-talk?) about Mitt Romney having a bad week. I indicated to a few people last week that he has the endorsement edge and probably the money edge as well; he organized a robust South Carolina team and a very solid Georgia team.

"Oh," I say in realization, "you mean he had a bad week in the blogosphere?!" Here are the facts of where we stand and why I'm not worried (and I'm not worried for different reasons than those that help Dean Barnett sleep well.

1) Nobody but political junkies are paying attention to the election right now. - Accoding to a Pew Research Report just 24% of Republicans are paying attention to the 2008 race right now.

2) The early polls reflect name recognition not voting decisions - For example, in late February 2003 Joe Liberman was leading the Democratic contendors.

3) Romney is better positioned than past candidates at this point in the race. Let me draw you a picture:

For the dark horse candidates at this point in the race (especially pointing out Governors from small states) Carter was at 1% in 1975; DUkakis 1%; Clinton 2% in 1992. Even McCain stood at just 3% in 1999. Once again, name recognition does not a primary make.

4) Romney has STRONG favorability ratings among voters who have heard about him. A recent Quinnipiac poll clocked this number at 83%.

5) How about what really matters - the KEY primary states? - Let's take Iowa and New Hampshire:

Romney's polling at this point is even more impressive when you consider that his December 2006 numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire were 6% and 9%.

In short, this is a historically excellent start for a no-name small-state governor running for President.

Labels: bill clinton, carter, comparison, dukakis, iowa, mitt romney, New Hampshire, Polls, primaries, primary

(cont'd from Headline) NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Top Dems want Bill Clinton to Replace Hillary in the Senate


Can you imagine him participating in a filibuster? All the more reason to make sure Romney is our nominee and he defeats the Democrat!

I need to take some medicine and maybe take a nap now.

Labels: bill clinton, hillary

There's been a good deal of controversy around Mitt's appearance on This Week this weekend and his explanation for voting for Tsongas in 1992. This is really a pithy issue.

Let's detail a few things here. (Many thanks for our man at MittBase for his detailed research on the issue)

First, there is nothing contradictory here. We have a report from two Boston Globe employees as to why Romney voted for someone 15 years ago. There is no direct quote.

Second, I bet if you asked Scott Lehigh, Frank Phillips, or Mitt Romney that those weren't the only reasons why Romney voted for Tsongas (the fact that Tsongas was from Massachusetts, and that he was better than Bill Clinton). Do you vote for someone because of only two issues? You might only give two issues, when you have limited time, but no one votes for a candidate because of only two issues.

Third, why don't we take Romney at his word. He voted for Paul Tsongas because he liked him better than Clinton, and that he didn't think that he would win the general election against Bush? Are these somehow mutually exclusive.

Fourth, the democrats and MSM is going to take everything Romney ever said 10 years ago, tell us it, and then say "however today he says..." blank. They are going to use this tactic weather it contradicted the previous statement or not. They will use this tactic every time Mitt Romney does not repeat his previous statement verbatim.

Lastly, there was NO GOP PRIMARY in 1992. There was only one place to vote. As one political guru told me "he does it all the time".

One more thing. This also means Romney voted against Clinton twice!

Labels: bill clinton, mitt romney, tsongas

I'm not sure I'd employ this analogy. But coming from a respected libertarian left-leaning Democrat... it's a compliment:

Mitt Romney is Bill Clinton with his pants up. And he’ll very likely be cast in 2008 (“nominated,” if you prefer the political science verb) against Clinton’s wife, who has all the seductive qualities of John Kerry in a pants suit.

source

Labels: bill clinton, mitt romney