Thursday, January 19, 2012

IF TEAM ROMNEY IS DOING THIS TO NEWT, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO OBAMA? (And maybe to the country?)

Well, I have a few minutes here, and this is happening, so I'll just throw in my two cents (warning: links to Drudge and AP via Breitbart):

NEWT EX-WIFE UNLOADS ON CAMERA; NETWORK DEBATES 'ETHICS' OF AIRING BEFORE SC PRIMARY

Marianne Gingrich has said she could end her ex-husband's career with a single interview.

Earlier this week, she sat before ABCNEWS cameras, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

She spoke to ABCNEWS reporter Brian Ross for two hours, and her explosive revelations are set to rock the trail.

But now a "civil war" has erupted inside of the network, an insider claims, on exactly when the confession will air! ...

UPDATE: The AP reports ABC is now likely to air the segment Thursday on NIGHTLINE.


Mitt Romney himself may be Thurston Howell III at times, but Team Romney is really good at this thug stuff. Team Romney (which I'm defining as the insiders and outsiders on Mitt's side) got this to happen at just the right time.

Team Romney is better at this than Team McCain. The GOP primaries this year are much uglier than the 2008 edition.

And as nasty as McCain and his surrogates were in the general election, mostly, after the Jeremiah Wright moment, it was McCarthyism and insinuations -- there was less digging up of actual dirt than you'd have expected.

With Gingrich, of course (and with Herman Cain before him), there was a lot to dig up, obviously. In a general election, things would be different. Right-wingers make crazy insinuations about Obama's college transcripts and birth certificate fakery; they talk of multiple Social Security numbers and drug-fueled gay liaisons. But in reality, there's no there there.

However, if there's anything anywhere, Team Romney's going to use it. Team Romney's not going to leave any ammunition unused. One thing that is sincere about Mitt Romney is that he has genuinely angry moments -- and I think this kind of campaigning really appeals to the angry side of him.

I don't think he's merely Poppy Bush, who sicced Lee Atwater on Michael Dukakis because he grew up the kind of preppy who played everything, including horseshoes, to win, but then governed with relative mildness by Republican standards (at least if you weren't a dictator overseas who looked at him crosswise).

I think Romney is a bit Nixonian -- he's got some of the same social awkwardness and some of the same anger. But he has the elite scion's desire to be (or at least seem) above the fray; he's not going to mire himself in the dirty work.

So he won't be Nixon if he wins, but he won't be Obama, either. If he gets that much power and you stand in his way, things might get ugly.

****

(And now I'll see you this evening or tomorrow....)

6 comments:

Danp said...

I'm not so sure Romney has any real emotions. Like Bush, he tends to react to crises by pretending nothing is wrong. Behind the scenes, I suspect it is his handlers that are doing all the strategizing.

Bhaal said...

And...I still don't know why he wants to be president. Just more rich kid daddy issues?

c u n d gulag said...

I think Mitt, like Little Boots, has Daddy issues.

His father was a self-made man, well respected, and generally well liked. But he failed in his attempt to be President - and yes, his Mormonism had something to do with it.

Mitt, born rich, and got richer - wants what his Daddy couldn't get. The Presidency.

Outside of besting his Daddy, Mitt doesn't have a clue as to why he wants the job, outside of vanity, and being in a better position to help himself and his cronies - and ALL rich people. The man knows jack-shit about foreign policy, and not much on domestic, either.

He may also figure he can use 'the bully pulpit' to advance the cause, and increase the followership, of the Mormon church. So, there's bound to be points in their version of Heaven in it for him.

And whether it's him, or whoever, their attacks on Obama are going to make us miss the genteel stylings of Lee Atwater and his Willie Horton ads.

It's going to full-on, bone-through-the-nose, white girl AND boy raping, witchdoctor cannibal time!

This is going to be U-G-L-Y!!!

Ten Bears said...

Willard Romdroid: The Perfect Politician

BH said...

Ah, please indulge me the off-topic tangent- but this is a good day, ladies & germs. My Gov-for-Life, the ineffable Perry, has departed stage right, heading back down to the small time after managing to (a) make a complete fool of himself (and us for electing & re-electing him), and (b) piss away a pile of money (Tx tax dough included for his ludicrous entourage, plus lots of stupid $$ coughed up by local rich pinheads). Grandson of Connally, son of Gramm: tons o' dough & no delegates. Dead solid perfect.

A prediction: Mitty's team of oppo-crushers, after successes against the human bull's-eyes known as "the other GOP contenders", will stay with the same M.O. in the fall against O - and will badly & spectacularly overdo it, leaving Mitty to attempt his pathetically 2-dimensional and palpably insincere version of damage control. O takes the popular vote by at least 5%.

ploeg said...

The issue for Romney is that he's running against (more or less) known quantities at this point. He can remind people of why they don't like Gingrich and/or Obama, but it's going to take an awful lot of ads to move the needle just a little bit. Contrariwise, people don't know so much about Mitt (at least the people in the electorate who could swing either way in the general election).

Romney will likely have an easier time with Gingrich, because Romney will have Gingrich totally outgunned before too long. Obama will be a lot harder nut to crack, because Obama will have at least as much ammo as Romney in the general election, and Obama will be better able to change the public perception of Romney than Romney will have to change the public perception of Obama.