Inside Romney camp, tension and optimism as Election Day looms
Mitt Romney walks out under stage lighting as he campaigns at Metropolitan Park in Jacksonville, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. / AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
DUBUQUE, Iowa At a rally this morning in New Hampshire, I asked a senior Mitt Romney campaign adviser what the campaign had planned in the final crucial days. His answer was swift.
"Praying."
He said it with a smile and a laugh, but it also carried an understandable and inevitable tension, which is visible not only among top campaign staff, but even with the candidate's wife herself.
Delivering a basket of baked goods to the press on the campaign plane this morning before takeoff for Iowa, Ann Romney -- normally relentlessly sunny and confident -- appeared emotional, almost vulnerable, as she reminisced about the all consuming campaign and reflected on its uncertain closing days.
"It's been a long road," she said. "It's very touching for me. It was very emotional when I gave my last sort of address by myself, because I hear the voices and passion of the people out there that are really hurting, and they are etched in my mind and my heart, as they are with Mitt."
With three days left in a race that could not be closer, Romney will be hitting seven states between now and Tuesday in an effort to close the deal. But among campaign officials, there also is the realization the race now is out of their hands and that it remains closer than they had hoped a week ago.
Campaign sources concede superstorm Sandy stalled Romney's momentum. For eight straight days, polls showed him picking up support. The campaign's internal polling, which is using different turnout models than most public polls, had him on solid ground in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa. He had a slight lead or was tied in Ohio, New Hampshire and Wisconsin and was in striking distance in Pennsylvania, a state Republicans hadn't won since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Coming off the pivotal first debate, the campaign pushed the message that the 2008 Barack Obama of hope and change had become the 2012 President Obama of divide and destroy, making the campaign about small things -- Big Bird and binders -- at a time the nation had big challenges. It resonated with voters in those swing states.
But then came something very big: a natural disaster that left a path of death and destruction on the East Coast. Suddenly, there was little talk about small things.
Those leads in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa still hold in the internal polls, campaign sources say, but Romney's movement flattened out or, as the campaign likes to say, "paused." Nevada is now off the table, and those neck-and-neck swing states are even tighter.
Publicly, in these tough final days, the campaign is still projecting confidence: confidence in their candidate, their polling and their chances on Election Day. They have some reasons for cautious optimism: Polls show Romney winning among independents, a shift away from the president in 2008.
The polls also give Romney the edge on voter enthusiasm and intensity, key indicators of turnout, which is what will decide this election. If voters turn out for Mr. Obama as in 2008, he wins. If turnout is closer to 2004, or between 2004 and 2008, as the Romney campaign is banking on, the president is in big trouble.
- no previous page
- next
1/2
Popular in Politics
- IRS scandal highlights leadership vacancies
- Va. GOP candidate: Planned Parenthood "more lethal" for blacks than KKK 726 Comments
- Michelle Obama decries "slander" that educated blacks are "trying to act white" Play Video
- Top Obama officials knew about IRS probe, says WH
- Immigration bill would require fingerprinting at 30 airports
- Republicans continue beating Benghazi drum 492 Comments
- Benghazi-disciplined diplomat a prolific poet
- Both parties vow to "get to the bottom" of IRS scandal 285 Comments
Veterans cannot forget about the Veterans Bill that the Republican's voted down last month. It was already paid for and it was not going to add to the deficit.
It was voted down by 40 Republican Senators who's main goal is to make President Obama a 1 term President. These Republican Senators do not care about Veterans or the American people.
then are the Red republican states communists?
linkicon reporticon emailicon
You are super durn tootin I supported TARP.
--------
Which, as I stated, means you are against capitalism, and the smaller companies which would have lunched on the bigger ones.
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power" - Benito Mussolini
___________________________________________
This is an interesting point. I've looked up corporations and personhood - dates back to the Romans. So, considering that the precedent exists for corporations being people, if we can't exorcise corporations from the system, what conditions could be applied to their participation that would effectively negate their ability to influence?
If this could be done, would that not be a huge step for reclaiming power for the People?
Right now, precedent is winning the day in terms of power being consolidated to the republican side of our hybrid system of government. A swing of the pendulum back the other way would be a welcome change.
John Adams, 1789
The only thing done to stabilize the free fall of the economy was TARP.
That was enacted before Obama took office.
-------
Yep - 7_11 supports anti-capitalist actions. Sigh.
There IS no "too big to fail" in a capitalist society. Their competition was waiting to snatch them up at pennies on the dollar, but noooooo - the government swoops in to bail them out.
7_11, you may call yourself a conservative, but you aren't more than a social conservative.
--------
Which, as I stated, means you are against capitalism, and the smaller companies which would have lunched on the bigger ones.
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power" - Benito Mussolini
Sounds like you approve of fascism a bit there, 7_11.
As to Obama's honesty,
Every body on the planet knows that Republicans do not want to raise taxes.
----------
Sure, but non-compromise isn't the way to run a nation of 310 million, which is why your "us vs. them" system in which you are FOR only having two major parties fails so badly.
.