Monday, November 21, 2011

Newt's Surge Is Making Romney Nervous


I seems as though Newt Gingrich's sudden rise in the polls has the attention of the Romney campaign. Their previous strategy seemed predicated on conceding Iowa to either Bachmann, Cain, or Perry - knowing full well that he would have an enormous advantage in New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada. While he still has the upper hand in the majority of those states, Newt's emergence has caused a change of strategy. They're clearly concerned with the prospect of Gingrich leaving Iowa with momentum heading into South Carolina, Michigan, New Hampshire and Florida. Consequently, Romney is throwing a few more chips on Iowa.
Political commentators and election watchers can be forgiven for glancing at the latest evidence of the Newt Gingrich “surge” and wondering whether and why it deserves any more credibility than previous “bubbles.” The answer is: this is the first one that seemingly has made presumptive frontrunner Mitt Romney adjust his strategy......

Today’s Gallup poll has Gingrich within one point of Romney among all Republicans polled and up by one point among registered GOP voters nationally. This is consistent with what other recent polls have found. But whereas the early Rick Perry surge didn’t distract Romney from his set strategy, and the former Massachusetts governor barely even acknowledged Herman Cain’s presence at the top of the polls last month, Romney has now made his first truly discernable and consequential course change of the election season:
Mr. Romney, who has been cautiously calibrating expectations about his chances in a state full of social conservatives, is now playing to win the Iowa caucuses. Television commercials are on the way, volunteers are arriving and a stealth operation is ready to burst into view in the weeks leading up to the caucuses, the first Republican nominating contest, on Jan. 3.

The escalation of his effort in Iowa, along with a more aggressive schedule in New Hampshire and an expanding presence in South Carolina, is the strongest indication yet that Mr. Romney is shifting from a defensive, make-no-mistakes crouch to an assertive offensive strategy. If he can take command in the three early-voting states, he could make the nominating battle a swift one.
(...)

But even with his built-in limitations, Gingrich–a good debater and formidable personality with the battle scars of a political survivor–seems to have made Romney nervous. And in the process, Gingrich has put the focus back on Iowa.
Read the entire article HERE

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

RW

I read this article as well, makes sense since the primaries are coming soon. I realize that I have been over the top sometimes with my anti-Romney conspiracy theories but I just have a question?

Why are all of you anti-Romney people aggressively organizing with websites and everything against Romney? Why don't you just support your respective candidates whoever that may be? Why are you intent on fragmenting the party?

If you look at Gingrich's voting record and if you would have read any of Gingrich's books you would see that Gingrich is the Big Government progressive who thinks government is the solution. Gingrich has lived his life profiting from big government, not Romney.

Romney had spent 25 years in the private sector restructuring companies. He was only governor for 4 years and he never worked in Washington. Romney was only paid a $1/yr as governor....so why all the animosity towards Romney?

Anonymous said...

hahaaa watever to whoever wrote this article. mitt romney aint nervous about newt. its closer to the primarys duh!!! thats when all them start to ramp up everyone and advertisement. its less than 5 weeks away lol. wasted article

Slick-Willy said...

"Their previous strategy seemed predicated on conceding Iowa..."

This is where your argument fails--at the very beginning. Romney has never posted a template for the world to see. Romney has kept his cards close to his chest. Iowa has clearly always been in his game plan. He's maintained a major organizational presence = salaried staff. He's been low-balling expectations. Hitting Iowa hard was always his plan IF he was within a reasonable striking distance. Don't be fooled. Newt isn't making anyone sweat.

Anonymous said...

Nervous? New NH poll: Romney 41%, Gingrich 14% http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/21/poll-romney-holds-advantage-in-new-hampshire/

hamaca said...

Yeah, not sure how the quoted piece made the connection that Romney's campaign is reacting to Newt. It may be. I don't think it is, but it's possible. I just don't know how they know.

It's a case of "A" happens. "B" happens. Therefore, A caused B. I don't see their evidence. As others have mentioned, it's been discussed all along that the Romney campaign was keeping a relatively low profile with the intent of ramping up closer to the primaries.

Now is that time. Newt also happens to be doing well. Who knows?

Machtyn said...

I have to agree with Slick-Willy. Romney always had an eye on Iowa. A 2nd place finish is an achievable goal, one that he wanted. (Am I projecting? Most certainly.) He now has a chance to actually win it, so why not?

If the Republicans really want to be so silly as to elect Newt, then I will be silly and play the religion card. But I'll wait and see until more polling data comes out. I mean, the Republicans were lambasting Newt for his liberal statements made earlier this year.

If Newt wins the GOP primary - I'm officially removing myself as a Republican. I'll vote for Newt because he'll be slightly better than Obama... maybe. Perhaps I will register Democrat to screw around with the results in KY. Try and get some conservative Dems elected here.