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The Spectacle Blog
As John notes below, Public Policy Polling is saying that if Mitt Romney loses Michigan today he will have blown it in the last 48 hours. Romney’s latest gaffe helpfully illustrates his problem, both in his former home state and in the Republican presidential race at large.
Contrasting himself with Rick Santorum, Romney said, “It’s very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments… I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support.” The first image that springs to mind is of Romney’s hair. If he is the nominee, Republicans might start supporting a constitutional amendment that protects Romney’s hair from such desecration. But reread the first half of his statement: “It’s very easy to excite the base with incendiary comments.”
Without trying to read too much into a single quote, this is a good example of why Romney is having trouble gaining (or at least keeping) traction: many Republican voters feel that Romney has a low opinion of their intelligence, that he thinks the base is dumb, that he believes conservative rhetoric is just boob bait for the bubbas. This perception is why a critical mass of conservatives don’t trust Romney and are reluctant to support him.
View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/02/28/mitt-romneys-hair
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Fiscal| 2.28.12 @ 10:01AM
"Many Republican voters feel that Romney has a low opinion of their intelligence"
Could support for Bachmann, Perry, Gingrich, and Santorum support this hypothesis?
teflon93| 2.28.12 @ 1:48PM
Sure---so long as your definition of "intelligence" is supporting the guy who got whipped by the guy who got whipped by Obama last time around, by running the same playbook McLame did and lost with, by nominating somebody who conservatives will not come out and support and who delivers precisely zero blue states to the ticket, and by choosing a candidate who takes the top GOP issues against Obama off the table while putting new negatives on.
But then you just do whatever your country club betters tell you to do, right? That's smart!
Occam's Tool| 2.28.12 @ 11:03AM
Romney is a graduate of Harvard Business School AND Harvard Law. The man lives in the same bubble the rest of the narrow political elite live in, with no tragedies to mar his perfect existence.
He also is the worst candidate to fight Obama. He doesn't understand why Romneycare and Obamacare piss people off. He's better than Obama, but just marginally.
Anommynous| 2.28.12 @ 11:10AM
Obama's ears.
martin j smith| 2.28.12 @ 11:25AM
Antlee you really fail to get it. I know on purpose. The Romney Establishment Republic Brand has little solid support Romney until he becomes less OBama and cuts out the class warfare rhetoric among other things. I am against Obama and for Romney Obama lite.
martin j smith| 2.28.12 @ 11:25AM
Antlee you really fail to get it. I know on purpose. The Romney Establishment Republic Brand has little solid support Romney until he becomes less OBama and cuts out the class warfare rhetoric among other things. I am against Obama and for Romney Obama lite.
awildstrawberry| 2.28.12 @ 11:39AM
"Many Republican voters feel that Romney has a low opinion of their intelligence"
Shades of Obama and how he views the electorate. If we have Romney, we have four more years of Obama-like arrogance.
Vern Crisler| 2.28.12 @ 11:50AM
Sorry, one can criticize Romney, but to single out a comment about his hair seems petty.
W. James Antle III | 2.28.12 @ 1:19PM
A gaffe is when you say something that reinforces negatives perceptions people already have about you. The perception existed before Romney made the hair comment, which is the only reason anyone is bringing it up.
corvair| 2.28.12 @ 11:55AM
Huh? Boy you are really grasping at straws.
Do you think that a "real conservative" would "take one for the team"?
corvair| 2.28.12 @ 11:58AM
Further, do you think a real conservative would try to win with crossover democrat votes?
Burke| 2.28.12 @ 12:13PM
Actually most conservative rhetoric is just boob bait for the bubbas, in particular that on Fox and talk radio. Truth hurts.
kingsmill| 2.28.12 @ 2:29PM
Unlike Leftist rhetoric like "Koch bros", "Christian", "Green"....which immediately raises the blood pressure and shuts down the mental faculties of the Pavlovian liberals.
John Thacker| 2.28.12 @ 12:32PM
I don't expect a real conservative to be a libertarian, but I don't expect a real conservative to be proud of saying "I am not a libertarian, and I fight very strongly against libertarian influence within the Republican Party" like Santorum either.
Conservatives require a fusion of ideas from many different wings. When I hear "fight very strongly against the libertarian influence," I think of someone who approves of a big-spending government, who "takes one for the team," who'll vote for Title X funding so long as it's balanced by funding for Title XX.
Jake| 2.28.12 @ 12:40PM
If Sarah Palin said something like this, she would be applauded for her refreshing honesty and plainspoken way with words.
Telling truth to power.
The antics of the candidates this primary season trying to appeal to the base has been appalling and made the conservative movement look like fools.
It's been litany of embarrassing dog whistles and gaffes.
From Obama's birth certificate to Paul Revere to vaccines causing retardation to Oops
to things twirling in heads to banning birth control to multiple harassment allegations
and on and on.
Everything Romney says is torn to shreds by some on the right, regardless how mundane.
Santorum asking union Democrats to vote for him based on his past liberal policies and
support of unions is a million times worse than some some mild and truthful comment by Romney .
And completely unforgivable.
Santorum has shown himself to be an untrustworthy snake .
Patrick| 2.28.12 @ 12:47PM
Why is Michigan "Romneyland"? He hasn't lived there since the 1960s.
Hillary was born and raised in Illinois. Was Illinois "Hillaryland"?
Reagan was born and raised in Illinois. Was it "Reaganland"?
Drek| 2.28.12 @ 1:26PM
Patrick,
with a guy like Reagan who took 44 states in '80, and followed up that unbelievable number by gaining 49 states in 1984, it then becomes clear that ALL OF AMERICA can be said to have been "Reaganland."
Drek| 2.28.12 @ 1:24PM
IF you're right about Romney's attitudes about the base, ------------- well isn't that EXACTLY what GHWB, GW, and now apparently Jeb think?
Patrick| 2.28.12 @ 1:40PM
I think people that throw out red meat are the ones with disdain.
teflon93| 2.28.12 @ 1:45PM
That isn't perception---it's reality.
After all, isn't that why people like you support Romney?
cwxj415| 2.28.12 @ 2:32PM
"Many Republican voters feel that Romney has a low opinion of their intelligence"
Well, Romney's correct about that!
Scott Coughlin| 2.28.12 @ 3:24PM
The emptiness of Romney's statement will be revealed when conservatives come to him and say they will for him when he sets his hair on fire. At that point, all bets are off, and I would recommend keeping an extinguisher handy.