Recently on CNN, Newt Gingrich appeared with Piers Morgan to discuss what Mitt Romney needs to do in order to ensure his campaign’s success.
The advice was pretty simple: Do to Barack Obama what you did to me.
As someone who was in the Newt camp since before he had even declared his intent to run for President, this advice seems like something Romney should seriously consider.
During the primaries, Romney did not run a “nice guy” campaign strategy, it was brutal. And as a supporter of the candidate who was on the receiving end of this strategy most of the time, it was noticeably effective.
“When he walks in to debate Obama, he’s got to be as tough with Obama as he was with me in Florida,” Gingrich said in an interview on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight.”
After all, Gingrich said, Romney “is not in a competition to be likeable.”
At two debates in Florida last January amidst their bitter struggle for the GOP presidential nomination, Romney lit into Gingrich.
The two entered the Florida primary locked up in the polls. But after some heavy stumping – and arguably some debate thumping – Romney emerged on top in the vote count, beating Gingrich by 14 points and claiming the state’s delegate haul.
With Romney trailing Obama in favorability, Gingrich encouraged Romney to play aggressively on the debate stage. The most recent CNN/ORC International Poll of likely voters, conducted earlier this month after the conclusion of both conventions, showed Obama with a 9 point advantage over Romney in their respective favorability ratings.
“He’s in a competition to be capable,” Gingrich said. “We need somebody who can turn America around. We need him to convince us that a Romney recovery is better than an Obama stagnation. Unless he can do that, I don’t care how much effort they spend trying to make him likeable – it won’t work.
Newt is right. Romney must show America that he is a vastly more capable President than Barack Obama.
He’ll get his first chance to do just that on October 3, when the two will debate in Denver about Domestic policy issues. If Romney can turn in a couple of performances like his final Florida primary debate, November 6th will be a good day for America.
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There is a difference, Professor.
Most polls show that Champ’s “likeability” factor is higher than his overall standings in the polls. There are a fair number of people who won’t vote for him but like him as a person.
Whereas, for Newt (unfortunately for him) it was just the opposite. A lot of people liked what he said and what he stood for, but they didn’t like him personally. [disclosure: I’m one of those folks, and I voted for Romney in the primary].
Further, the press is in the tank for Obama so deep they’ve grown gills. The press was NEVER for Newt. Having the press against a candidate makes it a lot easier to go negative against said candidate.
So what works against one candidate won’t work against another.
Go negative against Newt –> win the primary.
Go negative against Champ –> lose the general election.
I think Romney has it about right: go negative against Champ’s policies and actions, while all the while professing that he ‘respects’ the man as a person.
@stevewhitemd
Yeah… afraid to take on a Marxist Black Man, ’cause the Media will grind up Mitt like sausage.
And that approach worked so well for ‘President’ McCain.
Gallup Polls show 60% of the US population has contempt for the Liberal Biased Media. http://www.gallup.com/poll/157589/distrust-media-hits-new-high.aspx
The poll further shows that 60% is composed of Conservatives & Independents.
If the 2012 media can scare a Republican into accepting body blows from a Socialist Presidential Amateur and not returning them, I see no point in donating money to a losing effort.
You’re absolutely right that the debate is Mitt’s first chance to show that he’d be a much better President that Obama!
Mitt didn’t get a chance to show that at the Convention, because his campaign’s top strategist Stuart Stevens outsourced Mitt’s speech to a guy who came up with something so bad that Stevens had to throw it out completely and then write a new one himself at the last minute! Mitt took care of the problem the way he would have at Bain: he gave big bonuses to his top staff people. That should ensure that his debate prep is much better than his speech! Go Mitt!!!
I am so frustrated with the Romney campaign. Obama is doing a masterful job wielding a poor hand well and Romney is doing a horrible job wielding a good hand poorly.
$350,000/temporary job created until the debt must be repaid.
That should be talking point #1, i.e., Obama wasted the stimulus on pork and, as Obama’s own original study showed, the economy would have been better with out the stimulus (there is that famous graph Instapundit runs weekly that Romney whould be running constantly). What is the problem?!?!?!
Education reform is the civil rights issue of the 21st century! -Condi Rice at the Convention Yes!
It goes on and on. But my main general complaint is similar to the comments here, i.e., that the debates will be Romney’s best forum even though Obama might be a decent debater. Obama reminds me lately of Palin – he has trouble in freelance situations where his control is limited. Romney is better. But the campaign is a debate with each side trading talking points week-to-week. Obama is claiming Romney would tax the middle class, the rich and corporations pay too little, etc. Romney is ignoring those points and chanting “capitalism,” “job creators,” etc. Krugman’s article was less ridiculous than usual this week because Romney is coming off like a plutocrat. Reagan never did and never was. He was an “FDR-Republican,” i.e., someone who voted for FDR in the 30s and 40s because he wanted what’s best for the poor. That never changed; Reagan became relatively conservative when that later became what’s best for the poor (in California the Democrats really when down with Pat Brown (Jerry’s father) in the early 50s. Romney has to make the case he’s best for the poor, for the middle income, and for minorities. He is. Reagan was – look at poverty rates dropping after ’83; look at African-American unemployment, homocide rates, etc. dropping in the 80s and 90s.
Romney has to debate those points instead of ignoring them. Obama’s scoring with those left undefended. One must block as well as punch or else it’s trading punches and thus far that’s a tie in a race Romney should be winning in a rout.
Champ? That should be chump given his record and recent events.
Romney’s primary ads were brutal an omnipresent. That strategy in his campaign has not changed. Also, during the primary, the debates were plentiful and Romney had to be brutal (do you remember how hard Newt, Perry & Bachmann went after him?). I believe the frustrations that the right currently has with Romney is that he is NOT covered in the media. Even right-leaning media tends to cover Romney only when “analyzing” (critiquing) his campaign or responding to a left-wing orchestrated pretend gaffe that Romney has made. The debates will allow Romney to again be “brutal.” Obama was not good at debates to begin with…that has not changed during his 4- year vacation on the taxpayer dime.
Good point, lambchop, media coverage is poor, misleading and biased. Nothing Romney can do about that, and I don’t blame him for it.
Seems like RR is doing OK. Am I wrong? If RR is even nationwide and Obama leads big in “blue hells” like CA, IL, NY then doesn’t that imply RR is doing fine in the battleground states?
Upcoming: the debates. And ads flowing from them.
I often see reference to a strategy of having negative ads early to define the opponent before he can get going. Perhaps this race will be characterized by negative ads late, instead. If you need to go around the media it may make sense to use ads and to launch them late in the cycle to prevent the media from having time to react.
Last year, Romney was my LAST CHOICE. I contributed money which was very scarce for my family TO EVERY OPPONENT to Romney–Newt got a lot of that, but everyone else got my support too.
I have changed from…opponent to…skeptic…to admirer. Romney & Ryan now have my undiluted financial, verbal, written, and even prayerful support. R & R are doing things right by addressing the office of the Presidency with respect, while sending clear messages of BO/JOE’s failure:
“Mr. President, We Won’t Re-Elect You”
(Dedicated to “The Empty Chair”).
Did you think it enough to be “likeable”?
Did you believe it sufficed to be “cool”?
You once promised command of the land and the seas,
But for four years you’ve played us for fools!
Bernanke’s molesting our printing press.
Tax Cheat Geithner never had any plans.
And we found you’d betrayed us and lied to us.
When you claimed we’d “unite” at your hands!
You still haven’t a clue of ONE GOOD THING to do,
To make jobs; keep us safe; ease our days.
You just leave your chair EMPTY, launch your Media whores,
And go golfing in a Choom** induced haze.
You made food stamps a “way of life”, you degraded our fisc*,
You bow lower and lower each day.
To the tyrants and despots whose great goal in life,
Is to destroy the American Way.
Untold Billions were raped from our Seniors,
Something not seen since “Peter robbed Paul”,
Your “solutions” cause crises in energy and food,
Our “economy” is now worse than stalled.
You said, “I’ll do it in three or I’m outta here”.
Now it’s, “This country OWES me four more”.
But since you spit on our soldiers and crippled our land,
All we owe you is to show you the door.
We’d be crazy to let you “help” more!
* Fisc = the treasury of a nation – see “national debt” rating downgrades.
** Choom = both a noun (marijuana) and a verb (“to smoke marijuana”). See, http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/…
This is good advice and I have little faith it will be followed. You see, Mitt never took Newt seriously as an opponent. His campaign seemed insulted that this silly little man would dare to challenge him. So they unloaded on him, as much to teach him his place as to win the nomination.
For some bizarre reason, Mitt seems to have some actual respect for Obama. Therefore he will not be treated with the same contempt.
Too bad, because disrespect is one thing that is guaranteed to throw little Obama off his game. It really gets on his tiny little nerves.
You are absolutely spot on. Mitt has an almost visceral disrespect for Newt that blinds him to the former speakers excellent advice, while at the same time the governor almost kowtows to a Chicago phony and con man – mostly because The Won once attended Harvard Law – though there’s precious little proof of that in the public realm.
Sorry, but this is it. What you see is what you get, i.e., what you got with Romney and the people around him. Ed Gillespie, Stuart Spencer, and the like — a thoroughgoing league of risk-averse mediocrity. Now it may be that Romney is just tough and smart enough a politician and character to come through in the clutch, or to least to hold his own down the stretch, and that Obama’s obvious awfulness will just be too damn obvious too too many. I believe this will be the case. But that’s the equation in any case. It’s not going to change at this point.
If you’re expecting sudden “fire in the belly” moments by Romney signaling a sudden militant conception and embrace of our war with the Left — sorry, ain’t gonna happen. It’s up to us, and will continue be up to us after Romney wins. These people are NOT warriors.
For Romney to do to Obama what Romney did to Palin, Cain, Gingrich et al, Obama’s name would have to appear like this: OBAMA (R).
Sorry, posted this under the wrong post, so re-do:
It would also be useful I think for the Romney campaign to start hammering home the tax increases under Obamacare, e.g. the new 3.8% capital gains tax slated to go into effect in 2013 — including on middle class people and prospective retirees.
I agree, Mitt must be more aggressive. But I believe his campaign advisers are telling him to “remain above the fray” – as the advised McCain in 2008.
Out of fear of the race card, the unfortunately sycophantic and idiotic media, and the dupes falling for that 99% trope, the Obama campaign has managed to stay in this election.
Romney may just surprise us; regardless, he needs to get his surrogates (a la Sunnunu) to BLAST and attack. Go after each and every “behind the curtain” “gaffe” – e.g. “….you didn’t build that!…” and “….you can’t change DC from the inside….”
No mercy. Or we all will suffer. And the nation once known as the land of the free will be free no longer.
Fight!! #War.
Yeah, you’re right. First we got Carter-lite with Obama, now we’re getting McCain-lite with Romney. Arghhhhh!
Forget this like the man as a person crap! Everyone is lieing when they say that because he’s black! It’s irrelevant. Just say his policys have never worked , they’re destroying the country , bankrupting our future , and are contrary to what the country has been. This is not , & never was meant to be a european , govtcentric nation. Period. You might add the US has been the engine that has driven the World Economy and for the last 4 years when we have played at being other , that Economy has stalled.
You, you….you Racist!
P.S. I’ve made 100s of calls over the last few weeks. Mitt does not have a good image. He is not an easy product to sell. For some reason people do not see Obama for what he is. They do see whats been tried hasnt worked. My sense is we will win. I suspect very few want 4 more of what we’ve had.
Secondwind, where are you making these calls? We’re door knocking in blue Dallas county and are getting the opposite result- lots of ’08 Obama voters who say they won’t be making that mistake again.
Pueblo Colo & area ,dem city. 2 nites , 4hrs of a dem registered call list. It was brutal. Others calling at same time & list had a little better time. My other 2 nites were better as they were from a differant list.
If you’re calling registered Dems, no wonder you’re getting that kind of response. We’re targeting independents only. A good Republican turnout and a few more than half the Independents, and Dallas County can go red again.
The brains at the state level wanted some kind of data check. Pueblo has long been a dem property. Denver , Boulder are also so it can be said Pueblo can tip the State. Truth is the Denver ~ State machine has been a disaster.
Every time I see Piers “Moron”, I want to take a dump!
OT – but – verrrrryyyy interesting! It takes someone in Kalispell to do the real digging! We may find those college records yet!
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_7924e4f0-0468-11e2-8da2-0019bb2963f4.html
So perhaps OPEC Arabs were Barack’s sugar daddies in college? And maybe later too, as he leaves doors open for international campaign donations, not to mention all the money for his PACs.
Too bad it is next to illegal to ask Obama any hard questions on these sorts of subjects.
1. About ten weeks ago I posted:
Maybe the receipts too. Follow the money.
2. It seems worth checking out if others in the Obama circle might have been similarly funded.
3. That said, JoAnne’s link is only a lead at present—but a lead that demands to be followed up. Just maybe the October surprise could be a pleasant one.
I have the distinct impression that there were times, during the primaries, that Romney was rather laid back. It seemed as though he didn’t enter the fray unless necessary, allowing the other candidates to do one another in. As far as Newt is concerned, at the time of his uptick, didn’t he have some outbursts that didn’t go over well at all?
Sentiments have been expressed by others under separate articles concerning the debates. I agree with those who expressed that they would prefer Ryan/Obama debates than what’s slated.
I’m just not impressed by Romney, not at all.
Romney won’t do to Obama in the general what he did to Gingrich and Santorum in the primaries.
RINO establishment type only unload on their real enemies who are conservatives.
You can take that to the bank.
One need only to look to Ronald Reagan to see what works- strong conservative leadership, ie; conviction of conservative values and principles in hammering home the truth, thus hammering Obama.
Romney hasn’t any of those conservative leadership qualities, regardless of his civilian CEO experience and Mass record as Gov, which is one liberal progressive policies and laws like Romneycare, Cap and Trade policies, pro-Gun Control policies, pro-Abortion rights policies, etc.. as he is by his record a progressive GOP establishment RINO..
But what he does have is Superpacs and money.. thus he should do what he did to Newt ad Santorum.. Slime Obama to death with 24/7 carpet bombing Neg Ads. If that’s all he has to go on, then he should so it.
Unscew the polls and you see a massive republican tidal wave.
That advise is applicable to the whole GOP Establishment. Try attacking the Left with the same contempt and ferocity as you attack conservatives. Hope the Karl Roves and McLames are listening.