How badly is Romney feeling the Gingrich heat? The same day that the candidate let his surrogates loose on Newt in a base-courting conference call, his Super PAC is out with an ad that gives the former House Speaker both barrels.
In today’s Campaign in 100 Seconds: Why Mitt Romney keeps trying to make his opponents sound like they’re … Mitt Romney.
TPM Reader EA sees a flat-footed Mitt campaign with limited options …
The Romney campaign hasn’t hit a panic button, that would imply a bit more disorganization than we’ve seen, but think about the big pivot they’ve had to make over the last ten days. After months and months of quietly playing the role of Republican nomination safety valve in which he’s patiently gone about his business, limiting mistakes and waiting out the circus, it’s become clear that that strategy won’t work.
I think TPM Reader JH nails it …
It seems like Mitt’s best bet is to try to provoke Newt into a damaging blowup, like Nancy Pelosi did. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that Romney’s campaign has anyone skilled enough to do this (which is pretty surprising, since it seems to be one of the skills most highly prized by Republican operatives.)
Right-wing Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi successfully punks the Daily Show.
Perry gay-bashing video enters the pantheon of most ‘disliked’ video ever on Youtube.
As I mentioned earlier, Newt Gingrich is nicely positioned to embrace Reagan’s 11th commandment and refuse to engage Mitt Romney’s new fusillade of attacks. But there are two additional problems Romney faces. With a brief interruption to smack down Rick Perry, Romney’s been running an anointed frontrunner campaign for over a year. That means he doesn’t get nasty with his opponents. He’s now faced with the prospect of needing to turn on a dime and go totally thermonuclear against Gingrich. And that’s a tough pivot to make quickly. Read More
From TPM Reader JL …
Following up on your thoughts about Newt’s response to Mitt’s attacks …
Newt’s high road pose may be difficult to maintain because, as you observe, it goes totally against his nature. But there’s another response that will be more natural and work at least as well.
Senate GOP filibusters Democratic compromise on payroll tax cut.
Dems say what Mitt Romney did this morning is exactly what they were hoping for.