Will Mitt Romney Be the GOP Presidential Nominee? >
Romney Will Be Nominee, But It Will Be a Tarnished Romney
Romney will be the nominee, but he will be tarnished by GOP mudslinging
January 4, 2012
About Sally Kohn:
Sally Kohn is a political commentator and grassroots strategist. You can find her online at SallyKohn.com
Yes, while former Gov. Mitt Romney will eventually be the Republican nominee for president, it will not be the same Mitt Romney who barely eked out victory in Iowa. The other, more conservative candidates as well as the activist base of the Republican Party are slinging mounds of sticky mud at Romney, which will tarnish him throughout the primary race and significantly handicap him in the general election.
[See pictures of the GOP Candidates Heading to the Iowa Caucus.]
After all, this isn't like the 2008 Democratic primary, when you had a camp of voters genuinely fired up about Hillary Clinton and a camp genuinely fired up about Barack Obama. There was mud in that race, but mostly it was about competing visions and personalities. In this case, wavering Republican support for everyone from Rep. Michele Bachmann to Gov. Rick Perry to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to, now, former Sen. Rick Santorum has little to do with enthusiasm for them as candidates and almost everything to do with the fact that they are not Mitt Romney. In a tough race against a popular sitting president, the Republicans will not be well served by an unpopular candidate who conservative voters have to hold their noses to vote for, if they turn out to vote at all.
[Vote now: Will Obama be a one-term president?]
Somehow, just hours after the Iowa caucus results were in, I got an E-mail in my inbox from Rick Santorum. (Perhaps it's because his team discovered our mutual love of sweater vests). In the E-mail, Santorum attacked Romney as a "bland, boring, career politician who will lose to Barack Obama." I agree with Santorum: Romney will lose to President Barack Obama—largely because Americans see that Obama has a plan to rebuild and restore America's promise, while Romney offers more of the same that got us into this mess. But Obama's victory will be made much easier with the help of conservative Republicans who can't stand their own candidate.
- See pictures of the 2012 GOP candidates
- See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 GOP hopefuls.
- See a slide show of GOP spouses on the 2012 campaign trail
- Other Arguments
-
#2149
Yes — Though Iowa does not always deliver the nominees, after his win, Mitt Romney is unstoppable
MICHAEL MARSHALL, Policy Adviser and Communications Director to former Sen. Bob Dole
-
#3109
Yes — After previous missteps, Iowa picked the most qualified candidate
FERGUS CULLEN, Former Chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party
-
#4616
No — If Romney continues to fail to connect with voters, Santorum could still win them over
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, Cofounder of Cove Strategies
-
#5617
No — Though we're far from the GOP nomination, a direction toward smaller government has already won
MARK MECKLER, Cofounder of Tea Party Patriots
