Romney and the Nomination Question

[Frodo]

Would it hurt Romney more in the long-run if he waltzed his way to the nomination with little or divided opposition as opposed having to fight tooth and nail for it?  

[Politico]

The more time to fight solely against Obama and get established nationally, the better. Gingrich is throwing everything that could ever be thrown against Romney, and it is going to make these attacks from Obama less sharp down the road. For example, John Kerry would have benefited greatly from Howard Dean "Swiftboating" him in January of 2004 rather than having George W. Bush do it later in the race. To give other examples: Reagan benefited from George H.W. Bush attacking his economic ideas as "voodoonomics," and Clinton benefited from all of the female troubles being aired in late 1991/early 1992.

[Negusa Nagast 🚀]

Longer and competitive races can help fully vet candidates, hype up their support, and enable them to build up a primary ground game in swing states that can be carried over into the general. The long primary helped Obama significantly and probably enabled him to win Indiana and North Carolina. Romney will not get that benefit.

[Lief 🗽]

Obama had a long, drawn out primary fight and he ended up winning the election pretty handily. The primary definitely made him a better candidate and allowed him to lay organizational groundwork in a lot of states.

Also the idea that Romney somehow benefits from the Bain stuff happening now is silly. The Bain attacks are only more credible now because both Republicans and Democrats are making them. If it were just Dems, then it would be easy to present it as a partisan attack, but when Rick Perry is calling you a vulture capitalist, it lends the attack bipartisan credibility that is damaging.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I'd like to thank Politico for all of his hackish activity on my behalf.

-Mitt

[tpfkaw]

Also the idea that Romney somehow benefits from the Bain stuff happening now is silly. The Bain attacks are only more credible now because both Republicans and Democrats are making them. If it were just Dems, then it would be easy to present it as a partisan attack, but when Rick Perry is calling you a vulture capitalist, it lends the attack bipartisan credibility that is damaging.

At this point, I don't think Rick Perry saying anything increases its credibility.

[Politico]

I'd like to thank Politico for all of his hackish activity on my behalf.

-Mitt

You don't know the half of it.