Most conservative-establishment pundits formulate Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy as Charles Krauthammer does: Romney aspires to be the last man standing when the major primaries have rendered their verdict next spring. He’s not interested in head-to-head competition with other candidates in the early going. He wants to let them duke it out for the next 8 or 9 months, pumping rounds into their own feet, landing punches on each other’s jawbones, and slicing their own jugulars.
But I’m increasingly convinced that this is a flawed strategy. Romney’s choice to forego the Iowa straw poll is the clearest indication yet that he does intend to wait out as much of the early politicking as possible. And the signal that sends in June 2011 is exactly the wrong one.
It’s a mechanically calculating, “politics as usual” kind of move that comes at the worst possible time. It suggests that Romney, as a presidential candidate in the most peculiar political conditions any American adult can remember, sees no need to talk that over with the people, in a venue in which votes for him are at stake. Americans are worried about where America is headed; Republican and conservative Americans are gravely worried. Alignments within the Republican Party are shifting. Conservatives, registered Republicans, libertarians, Tea Party members, recently-mugged liberals, former low-information independents – all are starting to look around and ask themselves what’s going on.
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Complete article at Hot Air : http://bit.ly/igwXLt
