February 3, 2008
YOU C AN UNDERSTAND WHY MORMONS SUPPORT HIM...:
The 'I Hate Romney' Club (ANA MARIE COX, 2/03/08, TIME)
The endorsement deal was solidifed when both campaigns stayed at the Deerfield Hilton in Florida, following the Republican debate in Boca Raton on January 24. The two campaigns' staff mingled easily over drinks. Acknowledging that his candidate was not likely to survive a defeat in Florida, a Giuliani aide approached one of the McCain senior staffers. Come Wednesday, he said, "Just tell us what want us to do — we've got to stop him.""Him," of course, is Mitt Romney, the candidate who seems to be uniting his Republican rivals almost as much as Hillary Clinton. "The degree to which campaigns' personal dislike for Mitt Romney has played a part in this campaign cannot be underestimated," says an adviser to one of those rival campaigns. While sharp words have been exchanged between practically every Republican candidate at one point or another on the campaign trail, the aversion to Romney seems to go beyond mere policy disagreements. It's also a suspicion of what they see is his hypocrisy and essential phoniness — what one former staffer for Fred Thompson called Romney's "wholesale reinvention."
,,,,but the neocon adoration is just bizarre. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2008 9:49 PM
The only explanation I can think of is that's he been paying a lot of pundits a lot of money.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at February 3, 2008 11:06 PMNeocons are phonies too, just like Romney. No wonder they adore him.
Posted by: Peter at February 4, 2008 2:52 AMThe support Romney is getting from the pundit class is proportional to the hatred the pundit class has for John McCain. McCain has ticked them off to no end with his failure to toe any orthodox line or do what he is told. He has also told people exactly what he thinks of them in words whose meaning can't be mistaken. That has angered the Republican and conservative chattering classes, but for some reason hasn't angered the Republican and conservative political leaders.
Romney has the support of the pundits, but not the politicians; McCain has the support of the politicians, but not the pundits. The fight for the direction of the Republican party between the purists and the compromisers is on again. We'll see who wins.
Posted by: Mikey![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://brothersjuddblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 4, 2008 8:44 AM
What's the use of nominating Romney when he can't beat Hillary and/or Obama?
Posted by: erp at February 4, 2008 8:51 AMerp, that kind of thinking is for people who want to win, not for people who want to keep ideological purity above everything else.
Posted by: Mikey at February 4, 2008 9:29 AM
It's proportional to their hatred of social conservatives. Recall that all the same folks backed McCain against W last time. But Republican voters prefer the candidate who's further Right.
Posted by: oj at February 4, 2008 11:50 AM