To follow up Pablo's excellent post below, I wanted to define some of the advantages as to why ending the primary nomination process early is a very good thing.
Most everyone is concentrating on ending early because it will not bruise our candidate any more. True, Romney has been put through the paces more than any other candidate in this primary. I would argue that the vetting process for Romney has been a 6 year process. However, this latest round has proven advantageous for him - he has smoothed his rough edges. But this isn't the only reason.
The biggest advantage is a monetary reason. We are still in the primary season by FEC standards. And the rules state that each donor can give a maximum of $2500 per candidate in the Primary and another maximum of $2500 in the general election. A lot of Romney's big donors have likely already maxed out their donations. But if the decision is made at this point, Romney can then lean on Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul donors to start filling his own coffers to prepare for the general election. They all can then donate a second time when the general election officially starts. As long as the others stay in the race, this prevent Romney from making this move.
Prolonging the primary season isn't just damaging to the candidate, it is damaging to the GOP and to the eventual funds that can be acquired.
5 comments:
I have heard we can thank Michael Steele for this - he misread the 2008 campaign, thinking the candidates had not been fully vetted. The problem is that the people made their decision too quickly and rejected Mitt Romney (not that he could have done any better in the anti-Republican environment in 2008.)
It is not just Michael Steele...people complained about the old system too. They said it did not give enough people a say..no matter how you do it..there are going to be people who do not like it.
Michael Steele was anti-Romney in 2008 and is anti-Romney now.
Steele regularly bashes & trashes Romney on MSNBC, his latest employer.
Steele epitomizes the big government, country club, Rockefeller Republicans who've dominated the GOP for the last 60 years.
I always come to this. It's all about money in politics, and there comes a time when our party has got to acknowledge this. Staying in the race in hopes of a miracle is foolish. Romney didn't do this in 2008, and as disappointed as I was that he dropped out, the math was simply too difficult to deny. I guess Rick and Gingrich are Math-deniers now; I hope voters realize this and vote them out as quickly as possible. Paul lives in his own world, as do his followers. I wish he would drop out, but I have little hope of that.
AZ
According to various reports, roughly 60% of the TV & radio ads in the 2012 GOP race have been negative ads, compared to roughly 10% in the 2008 race between Obama & Hillary.
As a result, Romney's favorable rating among Independents has DROPPED 20 POINTS in the last 3 months, whereas Obama's favorable rating among Independents ROSE 20 POINTS during the same period 4 years ago.
Barbara Bush is right: this is the worst presidential nomination race in modern history - worst in terms of the damage it's doing to the party's chances of winning in November.
Anyone who truly cares about defeating Obama should rally around the Romney campaign and pressure Santorum & Gingrich to bow out of the race, not only for the good of the GOP, but for the good of the nation.
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