If the folks at Breitbart are to be believed (I know, that might be a stretch), Romney has made his choice. They claim to have had an exclusive interview with Zac Moffat and Leonard Alcivar - members of Romney's PR team. Here are some of the things Moffat and Alcivar are reported to have said.
Drudge is the single most powerful force in the media today,...Anyone who has been sentient for the last 5-10 years knows that Breitbart's crew and Drudge are the biggest liars and smear merchants in politics today. But if you need a reminder, there is Drudge's recent attempt to discredit Chief Justice Robert's ruling on health care reform by linking it to medication he might (or might not) be taking for seizures.
I have two windows constantly up on my screen all day long, Twitter and the Drudge Report.
The rise of Breitbart, Drudge and others, combined with an aggressive Romney campaign is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the conservative movement.
For the Romney campaign to embrace these people speaks MUCH more loudly than any attempt he might make to etch-a-sketch his way towards sanity.
To me this is yet another reminder that any GOP candidate would need to have an absolutely solid base, zero defections, high turnout, in order to have a prayer. The GOP hasn't built up any other constituencies since 2012, nor would they have the time to start now.
ReplyDeleteRomney in some sense was the worst possible candidate of the lot, because he was viewed with the most suspicion by the base. He has had at every turn had to prove his bona fides to the most toxically right-wing elements of our electorate. Any letting up in the general of an appeal to nuttiness would mean Romney loses the GOP base in droves.
Obama on the other hand does not need, to solidify his base. Some on the egghead left who voted for him in 2008 will not do so in 2012, but he can afford to lose those dozen people. What with recent policy changes in immigration enforcement and the SCOTUS decision, not to mention his support of marriage equality, the President now fights only for "independents" (I can't help but chuckle a little bit at the term) and moderate GOP voters who realize that things like the ACA are actually not political issues but matters of a general maintenance of a modern economy as well as matters of household finance.
Romney will keep fighting for the right wing of his voting base, and Obama will fight for Romney's left. The math is pretty easy from there on out, but though we may have started to see how these numbers play out I feel like the real trend will happen after the conventions.