Mitt Romney Is Running Scared
How do I know? Because Romney (who never met a conservative position he didn’t like – after he decided to run for president) and his ‘oppo’ underlings are sharpening the knives for Rudy.
Trouble is, their ammo is stuff that everyone already knows:
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has entered the presidential race with a head of steam thanks to a remarkably positive public image among most Americans due to his performance in the wake of Sept. 11.
But his opponents say Giuliani will eventually be weighed down as GOP voters take a more comprehensive look at his record and character – and operatives for rival campaigns are making plans to give Giuliani a proper introduction to rough-and-tumble national politics.
Soon, Giuliani opponents say, it will be Rudy’s turn.
“On the national stage people know him for two things right now – cleaning up New York City and September 11th,” observed an aide to Sen. John McCain.
“He exploded on the national scene not as an elected official, but as ‘America’s Mayor,’” the aide continued. “Most nationally-known figures have gone through the vetting process of a national campaign. He was not introduced through the traditional process. It’s not like he had to be elected America’s Mayor.”
That “traditional process,” of course, includes the sort of deep probing and tough scrutiny that even the aggressive New York City press corps can’t match. With Giuliani, opponents believe they have ample fodder to feed to the ever-hungry media beast – for starters, three marriages and a moderate record on social issues that would seem to be anathema to conservative GOP primary voters.
Still, Giuliani’s GOP rivals are treading lightly so far and are hesitant to attack him on the record – a sign of the surprising power Giuliani has shown in the campaign’s early months.
One notable exception took place last week, when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said of the former mayor in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network: “He is pro-choice, he is pro-gay marriage, and anti-gun. That’s a tough combination in a Republican primary.”
But it was telling that even in Romney’s camp, however, aides hustled to soften that shot by saying Romney only raised the issues because he was asked the question.
But if Giuliani’s impressive poll numbers continue, opponents will undoubtedly zero in on his potential vulnerabilities: a soap opera of a personal life, questionable business ties, a hard-charging governing style that did not suffer critics lightly and apostasy on core conservative orthodoxy.
“When you’re running for president, there is always a ‘but,’” noted a Romney adviser. “When you start looking to Rudy’s ‘but’s,’” — issues, family life, former clients – “there’s lots of buts.”
Yes, well, if I were being paid to be a hack for a campaign that is stuck in the single digits, alongside numerous stories telling me my candidate is a ‘frontrunner’, I’d be a little desperate, too. I’m not sure if I were a reporter, though, I would think there was a story there…
This week’s Economist had an article about Hillary Clinton and how she is losing the sense of inevitability to Barack Obama (not that it is becoming inevitable that he will get the nomination). It stated that McCain already lost the inevitability factor in the GOP primary. The problem with this for the no-longer-inevitable nominees is that the best strategists won’t automatically come to them to work on their campaigns, making it even less likely that they will win.
Romney’s campaign is more and more gaining the sense that he will inevitably lose the nomination, thus giving the opposite effect: the best people are running scared from the prospect of working for him. If Romney had some intelligent campaign staffers, they’d tell him that the best he can really hope for at this point is the VP spot. It’s still early to be running for president, much less vice-president (Edwards didn’t really start until after Iowa), but everything is getting started early this time around.
My own guess is if Giuliani does get done in by one fo those “buts,” it won’t be one we already know. He’s made a pile of dough in the past few years, and it probably won’t be hard to find some financial dealings in there that raise eyebrows at least. Giuliani’s greatest strengths are the perception of him as a hard-charging leader, the guy who takes a clear stand and gets the job done. If some shady finance stuff pops up, and if that gets coupled with some shady associations (like Bernie Kerrick), that’ll put a dent in his armor that all the bloviating about things like gay marriage will never touch.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2Y4ZDI0Y2VlMDdlMDNjODUzZDM4NjI1OGRlNTI5NDg=
Rudy a lock?
To whom are you responding, Fargus? I don’t see anyone saying that Rudy is a lock for the nomination (in this thread at least).
Fargus, I’m with Aaron – no one said Rudy is a lock, now or ever. He’s got a huge lead, but it’s way too early to talk about locks…
I predict Rudy will make short work of Mitt’s challenges. Rudy has run in campaigns that were more like knife fights – he is battle tested. The most difficult campaign Romney ever had was against Ted Kennedy for the Senate and he had his clocks cleaned. There was a sequence in one of the campaign debates in which Ted dressed him down to the point of embarrassment (for Mitt). His campaign for MA governor was a mild skirmish against a weak Democratic candidate (Shannon OBrien).
Rudy will have to deal with him but I doubt doing so will be difficult.
Just didn’t know if you’d seen it, Mark, and given your constant nothing-but-glowing praise of Giuliani, I thought you’d find it interesting.
Hey, Giuliani’s my man so far, so yeah, I highlight the positive, but I’ve given the negative stories some air, too – it’s just that I find it a little laughable how everyone’s going to start turning against Giuliani once they hear these awful things that all his opponents are talking about nonstop already.
Anyone who pays attention to politics knows this stuff by now…
When Giuliani was elected mayor, he ran on the Liberal Party ticket as well as a Republican. It will be interesting to see if this fact gets much play in the primaries.
What is certain to get play — but hasn’t yet — are the reams of YouTube moments waiting to be captured from his years as mayor. Giuliani strikes even many hard-core New Yorkers as being abrasive, petty, arrogant, and vindictive, and I have a hard time believing that when Peoria knows him a little better that they will think the same of him that they do now.
See, Mark, his opponents are talking about that stuff now, true. But it’s on the blogs and stuff in large part. It’s vastly overrepresented to us blog readers, who only make up 5% of the population on a good day.
It is still amazing to me how people have their heads stuck up in the clouds so far in advance of the Primaries and also the Presidential Elections. I was a staunch supporter of Guiliani up to just about a couple of months ago. I defected for the following reasons: 1) A lack of leadership 2) Panders to the elite 3) Not tough enough on the Jihadists 4) Border Control 5) Abortion 6) Government funded stem-cell research 7) Homeland Security
Illegal Aliens 9) Taxes – and finally 10) I don’t TRUST him with the Country.
I have not decided to whom I will vote for, but this you can be assured of – it won’t be Guiliani………………..
As is your right…but you’ve provided a laundry list with no backup.
Sounds more like talking points to me.
Again, though, I’m not trying to question your sincerity – vote for who you feel like voting for, by all means…
True, but as I’m sure you know, Peter, the Liberal Party is another wierd quirk of the city’s byzantine politics, and it’s a party that doesn’t always match its name, at least in the common understanding of what “liberal” means. Other Republicans have done the same thing. Perhaps most voters in the primaries might not care to delve into the nuances of that kind of stuff, and it might hurt him, but we won’t know about that for a while.
Fargus, you’re right that political junkies make up a tiny portion of the population, but I’d wager they make up a fairly significant portion of the kinds of people who identify themselves as primary voters. I’ve said it before, in the absence of any one dominant social conservative candidate to his right, Giuliani doesn’t need to win over all social conservatives to win the nomination. Given the frontloading of places like California and New Jersey into the early primaries, he might not even need to win a majority of social conservatives. But I think he can win a significant enough portion that he could get the job done.
Calling him a lock would be foolish. But it’d be similarly foolish to say it’s impossible for him to win. I’m plenty willing to wait it out and see what the voters decide.
So RC, you were a “staunch” supporter of Giuliani until you discovered you found him wanting on almost everything? That’s either a curious definition of “staunch” you’ve got there, or a pretty spectacular talent for picking an initial candidate with whom you share nothing in common.
While the Liberal Party supported Republicans of the now-defunct Lindsay/Rockefeller/Javits wing of the GOP, they also had (gasp!) Mario Cuomo as their standard bearer too. Their platform calls for abortion rights, universal health care, etc. Maybe it will turn out to be a non-issue — or maybe not –
Like RC, I was once a lifelong, staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan until I defected for the following reasons: 1) A lack of leadership 2) Panders to the elite 3) Not tough enough on the Communists 4) Border Control 5) Abortion 6) Government funded defense research 7) Homeland Security/Illegal Aliens 9) Taxes – and finally 10) I don’t TRUST him with the Country.
Yeah, sure.
“I was a staunch supporter of Guiliani up to just about a couple of months ago. I defected for the following reasons: 1) A lack of leadership 2) Panders to the elite 3) Not tough enough on the Jihadists 4) Border Control 5) Abortion 6) Government funded stem-cell research 7) Homeland Security
Illegal Aliens 9) Taxes – and finally 10) I don’t TRUST him with the Country.”
Dittos. The more I learn about Rudy, the more disurbed I am that he is a potential candidate. He’s a Clinton running on the ticket. Great mayor, sure, but not a Republican President, for sure.
“While the Liberal Party supported Republicans of the now-defunct Lindsay/Rockefeller/Javits wing of the GOP, they also had (gasp!) Mario Cuomo as their standard bearer too. Their platform calls for abortion rights, universal health care, etc. Maybe it will turn out to be a non-issue — or maybe not”
Many GOPers have drunk the koolaid on Rudy that somehow he will nominate Scalias to the bench (he won’t) and will be a fiscal conservative (hardly – Rudy was against welfare reform in 1996, the Newt Congress bill that Clinton signed. If the base saw Rudy as another Rockefellar Republican, instead of the 9/11 hero of the celebrity status, he’d plummet in the polls.
Rudy Giuliani Quote (NY Post, 1996) “Most of Clinton’s policies are very similar to most of mine.”
Rudy spoke to NARAL in 2001 … and said: “This event shows that people of different political parties and different political thinking can unite in support of choice. In doing so, we are upholding a distinguished tradition that began in our city starting with the work of Margaret Sanger and the movement for reproductive freedom that began in the early decades of the 20th century. … So it is consistent with that philosophy to believe that in the most personal and difficult choices that a woman has to make with regard to a pregnancy, those choices should be made based on that person’s conscience and that person’s way of thinking and feeling. The government shouldn’t dictate that choice by making it a crime or making it illegal.”
Clear as day. We need someone other than Rudy as the nominee.
“I predict Rudy will make short work of Mitt’s challenges. Rudy has run in campaigns that were more like knife fights”
Nonsense. Rudy was running only for mayor. Romney ran in a blue state and had the winning campaign in a tough location for Rs for Governor. More importantly is how well he performed as Governor.
“The most difficult campaign Romney ever had was against Ted Kennedy for the Senate and he had his clocks cleaned.”
A race nobody would have expected he win.