The “South Carolina vote,” writes Tim Stanley in the Telegraph, “was really a referendum on [Mitt] Romney”. Indeed. The man who rescued the 2002 Olympics tumbled from a commanding lead in the polls last week to a resounding defeat last night.
The on-and-off again Republican frontrunner spent the last week playing defense. He could have learned, like Newt, to turn attacks to his advantage.
For example, in the debate, when John King asked Romney about his tax returns, he should have responded that he will release them just as soon as Barack Obama releases his college transcripts, then ask Mr. King how extensively his network had covered the incumbent’s failure to release a great variety of documents.
He would have concluded by adding that he would release them in short order. The takeaway wouldn’t be so much the release as it was his ability to take on the media. And he would remind voters that Obama hasn’t been as transparent in office as his 2008 rhetoric suggested he would be.*
Romney also could have turned an attack into an opportunity if he had responded to attacks on his work at Bain by offering a robust defense of venture capitalism.
Those mistakes notwithstanding, Romney’s real problem appears to be something else, what one erstwhile Huntsman supporter called the former Massachusetts governor’s “connection problem”, as Byron York reports:
[South Carolina] Attorney General Henry McMaster, was also aligned with Huntsman until Monday, and he too chose Gingrich instead of Romney. McMaster cited Gingrich’s performance in the two South Carolina debates as a prime factor in his decision, but he also expressed concern over Romney’s problem engaging voters. “I don’t know why,” McMaster said Saturday night. “I can’t explain it, but there’s a little bit of a connection problem.”
With that problem in mind, let me conclude with a personal reflection. Of the remaining candidates, I remain most likely to vote for Romney, but have yet to announce my support of endorse the former Massachusetts governor. Four years ago, even after being impressed with his performance in the few snippets of debates I watched, I ended up pulling the proverbial lever for John McCain.
ADDENDUM: Glenn has a good roundup of reaction to the results (this one too).
*In announcing that he will release the returns Tuesday, Romney acknowledged that he made a “mistake” in not releasing them sooner, calling his error “a distraction.” Ed Morrissey wonders why his campaign didn’t “move to defuse the issue by the second debate by promising to give South Carolinians an opportunity to access those records“.
Romney’s aura is that of a gated community, not a shining city on a hill.
More like a gated community that’s down on it’s luck; empty homes, streets needing maintenance and “For Sale by Bank” signs on way-too-many lawns.
….Romney is that house that while you can afford it, you just can’t feel yourself living in it.
It´s interesting that Mitt´s numbers keep hovering around 25%.
Stats show that Romney is in trouble in South Carolina with every group of Republican voters. He’s got a lot of work to do.
One gets the feeling about him that he’s used to getting everything he wants in life, and that the presidency is the one shiny toy he hasn’t had yet. If he expects to coast to election — or even the nomination — on the basis of that, he is going to be very disappointed.
Given Newt’s marital troubles, I guess we won’t be hearing anything moreabout Bill Clinton’s pecadillos from the “values voters”.
I hope the nominee, whoever he is, is electable… I’m not sure that’s a certainty. As Mark Steyn has commented, November 2010 seems like a long time ago. Given that unseating Obama is far from certain, I hope conservatives and the Tea Party can regain enough enthusiasm to increase the number of conservatives in Congress willing to hold the line.
Another four years of Obama – the imperial presedency, increasing bureaucracy, increasing debt, a couple more SCOTUS appointments… and it will be over.
SoCalRobert. If Newt gets the nod, expect to see lots of shiny happy Michelle + Barry + his sons and daughters.
Mitt Romney is a life size Ken doll; there’s nothing real about him. He comes off as fake as he sounds. He’s also a lightweight, much like Mattel’s Ken, who cannot take the pressure of Obama’s Chicago machine. He stutters in debates & rhetorically wanders into dead-ends. Romney creates his own political wounds while he denies they exist. That’s another problem for Mittens.
The Republican establishment responds to Mitt’s loss in South Carolina (Newt puts in a cameo at the end.)
Thank you, Sebastian. I´ve always said that there was something about MItt that just didn´t seem natural. I used to say that he was plastic. I don´t think he can stand up to Barak.
Now Newt on the other hand can. If Newt wants to paint Obama as an elitist, Michelle´s birthday is fodder. They had a quiet dinner at a posh DC restaurant $81.00 per person for the steaks and $8.00 for french fries. It is reported that Michelle is a frequent diner. I wonder how much they really think about the poor to whom they pmised hope and change.