Guardian UK: Mitt Romney's fall from grace

[marmar]

Mitt Romney's fall from grace
US elections 2008: Only a month ago, Romney seemed all but certain to win in New Hampshire. What happened?
Dan Kennedy

January 7, 2008 10:00 PM | Printable version


When the polls close in New Hampshire tomorrow night, Mitt Romney may have blown his only real shot at the Republican presidential nomination. Oh, sure, he's got the money to lumber on and hope for a miracle. But his strategy was to win the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, where he had led for months, and then use those early victories to roll over better-known rivals like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.

Predictions often don't come true, of course. Today, various surveys show McCain comfortably ahead of Romney in New Hampshire, with an average spread of nearly six percentage points. Romney and his advisers are spinning like mad, characterising McCain as the unbeatable "president of New Hampshire", just as they tried to paint Mike Huckabee as the inevitable choice of Iowa's evangelical Christians.

But only a month ago Romney seemed all but certain to win both Iowa and New Hampshire - the latter of which, after all, borders his home state of Massachusetts, and where he owns a vacation home. So what happened? It would appear that Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire went through the same conversion experience as those of us who live in Massachusetts, where Romney was governor from 2003 through 2006.

In small doses, Romney comes across as Super Mitt, the squeaky clean family man and successful business executive who saved the Olympics. Prolonged exposure, though, reveals Slick Mitt, the cynical huckster who's never met an issue he couldn't change his mind about - reproductive choice, gay and lesbian rights, embryonic-stem-cell research, illegal immigration, you name it. His metamorphosis from moderate technocrat to conservative ideologue has been nothing short of remarkable, not to mention unconvincing.

"I remember getting an email from a conservative Republican some months ago who said the more I see of him, the less I like him," Washington Post reporter Dan Balz said last Friday on PBS's Washington Week in Review. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dan_kennedy/2008/01/mitt_romneys_fall_from_grace.html

[Greeby]

1. What grace? nt

[TwilightGardener]

2. Everybody loves to beat up on Mittens. He must be the most hated man in America

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