The Club for Growth Overplays Its Hand

Brad Warthen makes an interesting point about John McCain and the Club for Growth:

[T]he Club's advice to the man who is getting nominated without it is that he simply must do its bidding in the matter of choosing a running mate ... To which I say, how come? He got past the hurdle that theoretically requires your favor without you. Your views don't amount to diddly among the independents he has to win now.

Mr. Warthen goes on to say that Mike Huckabee would be an excellent choice for Sen. McCain--the Club for Growth's protestations notwithstanding.

Although I agree with Sen. McCain's assessment that it would be "inappropriate and unrealistic" to dismiss Gov. Huckabee's campaign for President by entertaining discussions about prospective running mates, I find it amusing that the Club for Growth would dare to exert influence over Sen. McCain that it obviously does not have.

The Club for Growth spent millions of dollars to destroy the campaign of Mike Huckabee--probably more money than Gov. Huckabee spent himself. Despite this, Mike Huckabee exceeded expectations on Super Tuesday, and by doing so, he decimated the campaign of Mitt Romney--the Club for Growth's primary benefactor. (It should be noted that seven of Gov. Romney's top donors gave $585,000 to the Club for Growth.) Moreover, the Club for Growth viciously attacked Sen. McCain as well, accusing him of stealing a page out of Ted Kennedy's class warfare playbook.

As a result of Romney's departure, the two leading candidates for the Republican nomination are now men who owe the Club for Growth absolutely nothing. Yet for some reason the Club for Growth thinks it can boss at least one of them around.

The Club for Growth has demonstrated that it is irrelevant. It talks a big talk, but it can't walk the walk. MoveOn.org has about as much influence over the Republican Party. As such, the Club for Growth should be ignored.

Romney: Huckabee Would "Make a Fine President"

Not too long ago, Mitt Romney said:

[W]e need to make sure that we have a strong person who can take the baton from President Bush, and Gov. Huckabee is certainly one of those individuals. He’d make a fine president.

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2007/12/11/week_in_review/news/sunday/news04.txt

A Question for Talk Radio

To hate John McCain, or to love Mitt Romney? That is the question for talk radio.

For the past several days, Rush Limbaugh has led the charge against John McCain, maligning the senator for his moderate-to-liberal views on issues ranging from tax policy to immigration. In hopes of thwarting the senator's nomination, Mr. Limbaugh (and others) have pushed and prodded for conservatives to come out in droves for Mitt Romney.

Last night, Mitt Romney lost BIG-TIME (to borrow a term from Dick Cheney) in key battle ground states. Romney got clobbered in California and Missouri--delegate rich states in which he was expected to be competitive. Then, to add insult to injury, he placed third in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee--states where the supposed non-factor Mike Huckabee won.

Basically, it was a terrible night for Mitt Romney. At the end of the day, McCain gained about 600 delegates; Romney and Huckabee more-or-less split the rest.

Romney's performance raises an interesting dilemma for talk-radio. Limbaugh and Hannity know full well that either Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee must leave the race in order for John McCain to be defeated. Given that Huckabee had a strong showing last night in the conservative South, he is not going to leave the race. Conversely, Mitt Romney now has zero momentum.

Which brings me back to my original question.... If talk radio hates John McCain more than it loves Mitt Romney, then talk radio needs to rethink Mike Huckabee--otherwise Rush Limbaugh's most hated Republican senator will become the party's nominee for President.

STOP WHINING, MITT!!!

Mitt Romney's official reaction to Mike Huckabee's victory in the West Virginia Convention:

Boston, MA – Today, Romney for President Campaign Manager Beth Myers issued the following statement regarding the outcome of West Virginia's Republican Party convention:

"Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change.

"Governor Romney had enough respect for the Republican voters of West Virginia to make an appeal to them about the future of the party based on issues. This is why he led on today's first ballot. Sadly, Senator McCain cut a Washington backroom deal in a way that once again underscores his legacy of working against Republicans who are interested in championing conservative policies and rebuilding the party."

Oh, why don't you take your own advice, Mitt, and stop whining? You said it yourself: the first rule in politics is "No whining."

You lost! Deal with it! Be a man and suck it up.

UPDATE: Look at this press release a bit closer. Notice that it does not even mention Huckabee by name. That's how little Mitt Romney respects Mike Huckabee. What arrogance!

Wisdom from Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh's daily newsletter for February 4, 2008 says:

For too long, Republican elites have said to conservatives: "Sacrifice your principles for party unity. Compromise." A lot of us are fed up with this. If you elites in the GOP, punditry and elsewhere are going to move this party to the left, you're going to take the hit for what happens.

If you think about it, this is exactly why social conservatives support Mike Huckabee. We are fed up with people like Rush Limbaugh telling us that we need to sacrifice our values for the sake of party unity--specifically for the sake of supporting Mitt Romney.

You would think that Mitt Romney is the second-coming of Ronald Reagan. We have been told to vote for Mitt because he stands for everything we all believe in. Yet when one listens to Mitt's own words, we know that this is not true.



I remember when in October 1992 Rush Limbaugh actually endorsed Bill Clinton in the first half-hour of his show... and then spent the next 2 and 1/2 hours denying that he had ever said it. Rush did this to illustrate a point: Your words mean things. Your record means something. You cannot flip-flop simply for the sake of political convenience. Character matters. Telling the truth matters.

Back in 1992, we were supposed to reject Clinton simply because he was a known liar--because he would say anything to anyone at anytime to get a vote. Yet for some reason, this standard doesn't apply with Mitt Romney.

Is it because Mitt Romney is rich? Is it because he is handsome and prim and proper? Is this some kind of pragmatism run amok? Or is it because we now define conservatism in purely dollar quantities?

A very wise man once said that "morality is not defined by individual choice." He knew that there are absolutes in life. One absolute is that you don't kill unborn children. Another absolute is that God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

For most of his political career, Mitt Romney demonstrated his belief that these tenets of morality are, in fact, defined by individual choice. Yet, for some reason, Rush Limbaugh---the man who coined the aforesaid phrase, and the man who so adeptly demonstrated that character means something---now supports Mitt Romney.

Why?

It seems to me that Mike Huckabee best reflects the virtues that Limbaugh once extolled in candidates for President. Yet, for some reason, he supports Romney.

What ever happened to the Rush Limbaugh who performed "caller abortions"?

Tricky Mitt

Mitt Romney engages in a dirty trick. Film at 11.



Now compare this video to the latest RCP average:

McCain 42.5
Romney 24.5
Huckabee 17.9

Romney is down by 18. Huckabee is behind Romney by only 6.5.

Even though Romney is closer to Huckabee than he is to McCain, he still has the gall to say that this is now a "two-person race."

That's a stretch. (Of course, we all know how Mitt likes to stretch the truth.)

The Price of the Presidency

RealClearPolitics reports that Gov. Mitt Romney has won 59 delegates to the convention. In order to win the nomination, Gov. Romney needs to win at least 1,191 delegates. Therefore, he still needs to win another 1,132 delegates.

OpenSecrets.org reports that as of December 31, 2007, Gov. Romney has spent $86,068,239 on his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. Accordingly, Gov. Romney has spent $1,458,784 for each delegate he has won thus far (or $86,068,239 /59). Therefore, at his present rate of spending, Gov. Romney will need to spend $1,651,343,171 (or $1,458,784 x 1,132) in order to win the nomination.

That's right... at his current rate of spending, Mitt will need to spend $1.6 billion to win the nomination! (And we haven't even gotten to the general election yet.)

Now let's compare this to Mike Huckabee's campaign. From the same sources listed above, we can find that as of December 31, 2007, Gov. Huckabee has spent only $7,090,087. Dividing this number by the 40 delegates he has already won, his dollar-per-delegate cost is only $177,252. Thus, with all other things being equal, he will need $204,017,052 to win the remaining 1,151 delegates.

Admittedly, Mike Huckabee has seen some difficulty in raising funds. However, it wouldn't be unusual for a presidential candidate to spend more than $200 million in a presidential race. Just look at the last election cycle: John Kerry spent more than $309 million in his bid for the White House, while President Bush spent more than $345 million. So from the perspective of recent history, Gov. Huckabee's rate of spending seems normal, leading me to conclude that he is a formidable campaigner.

The same, however, cannot be said for Mitt Romney. Despite the money he has spent--and the free media he is getting from likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity--Gov. Romney still cannot catch up to Sen. McCain... nor can he pull away from Mike Huckabee (who trails Mitt by only one point in the recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll--well within the margin of error).

This leads me to only one conclusion: Either (a) Mitt Romney is a poor campaigner who needs his millions to stay afloat, or (b) he is a good campaigner who is spending money like a drunken sailor, thus undermining his claim of being a "fiscal conservative." Either way, he shouldn't be the Republican nominee.

In the final analysis, a candidate with Mike Huckabee's personality and thriftiness would do quite well with Mitt Romney's money. (Yet another reason why campaign finance reform stinks.)