Mitt Romney's Rebound Plan

CBSNews.com Reports: Stung By Iowa Loss, Republican Takes Up Banner Of Change While Going After McCain

(CBS)  By CBSNews.com political reporter David Miller.

---

For Mitt Romney, this was supposed to be the easy part.

His original game plan called for him to cruise off a big win in Iowa to the primary in New Hampshire, where voters more focused on fiscal conservatism than social issues like abortion - an issue on which Romney’s shifting views have drawn scrutiny - would reward the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts with another victory and propel him toward the GOP nomination.

In fact, even when Mike Huckabee began his ascendance in Iowa, one that culminated in his convincing victory in Thursday’s caucuses, New Hampshire was still viewed as a firewall for the Romney campaign. Polls there showed him with a solid lead - but that collapsed in the two weeks preceding the caucuses, when John McCain, once beleagured, quickly caught up to Romney, and in some surveys, even passed him.

Winning in Iowa would have been the best way to reverse that situation - and since that did not come to pass, the Romney campaign is now shifting gears by borrowing a page from the book of an unlikely candidate: Barack Obama, whose message of change helped him win Iowa’s Democratic contest.

At an event in Manchester on Friday, Romney seemed to work the “c-word” in at every possible opportunity.

“If you really want to have change, you don’t just want to have a gadfly or somebody fighting for this or fighting for that,” Romney said. “You want to have somebody who will bring change, who will sell the company America has - it’s going to have to be somebody from outside Washington, not a Washington insider.”

Sometimes, he even gets the word in twice in one sentence: “I’ve seen how change can change an industry,” he said, capping off an anecdote detailing his investment in the office supply store that grew into the Staples chain.

But for all the talk of change, some aspects of Romney’s campaign haven’t. Take his advertising. In New Hampshire, the target is different - it’s McCain instead of Huckabee - but in terms of look and structure, his spots in the two states are identical. In both cases, there’s an initial nicety, describing Romney and, most recently, McCain as “two good men.”

After that comes harsh criticism of McCain’s views on immigration and tax cuts - a method McCain has said didn’t work in Iowa and wouldn’t work in New Hampshire.

But the Romney campaign believes the ads weren’t why Romney lost in Iowa, and the results there should not be seen as proof of their ineffectiveness.

“I don’t agree that we lost to Huckabee because we ran ads,” said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. “I think Huckabee won because he identified with a lot of the core voters out there, such as evangelicals, on a lot of social conservative issues. He had a lot of voters he identified with, with what is a traditional, conservative part of that base out there. He did a good job doing that. We competed with Mike Huckabee on those votes, and we met our vote goals pretty much.”

Besides, Madden said, McCain’s logic is obscured by what they see as hypocrisy: McCain is also airing ads critical of Romney in New Hampshire, including one that uses images of gun-toting terrorists before accusing Romney of having no foreign policy credentials.

“All the messages that’s we’ve put here have been substantive and relevant,” Madden said. “Look at John McCain’s messaging: he’s done nothing but attack us the last couple of weeks.”

The campaign also believes depicting McCain as a “Washington insider” will work, despite the Arizona senator’s reputation for being a maverick unafraid to go against GOP orthodoxy.

“I think what people want is substantive change,” Madden said. “They want a solution-oriented approach, not a maverick-oriented approach. A maverick-oriented approach means you tend to go against the grain, and as we know that’s not exactly going to get anything done, and there hasn’t been a long record of results, of meaningful reform, exhibited by Sen. McCain in 25-plus years in Congress.”

The pitch could work - state GOP chairman Fergus Cullen said McCain’s image in the state isn’t like it was eight years ago, when he defeated George W. Bush in the 2000 primary.

“This time around McCain has made a conscious effort to court the so-called establishment as well as retain a bit of the maverick image,” Cullen said. “He isn’t running against he system the way he did eight years ago.”

McCain isn’t Romney’s only concern, however. Huckabee was trailing badly in New Hampshire before the caucuses, but his win there could give him a boost unlikely to fade with the primary only three days away.

“As a tactical matter, Huckabee’s success in Iowa means there are hundreds of people in New Hampshire who are at least taking a second look at him,” Cullen said.

And the two candidates are running campaigns that couldn’t be more different. Romney often pitches himself to New Hampshire voters as CEO in chief, discussing his success in business, in reviving the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Games, and in working with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature in Massachusetts to implement universal health care.

“You’ve only got one guy running for president who’s signed the front of an employment check,” Romney said Friday.

Compare that with a line delivered by Huckabee only hours earlier: “One of the reasons I did well in Iowa, and I’ll do well here, is that people realized that they want a president who reminds them of the guy they worked with, not the guy who laid them off.”

The disparate messages may be emblematic of a growing divide in the Republican Party, which is seeing the coalition built by Ronald Reagan - between blue-collar workers, the business community and Christian conservatives - put under severe distress, said GOP consultant Mike Collins.

“I think it’s more of a universal problem than a Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee or Fred Thompson solution. We’re battling for the soul of the Republican Party,” he said. “You have very discrete elements of this party that are coming apart at the seams.”

Yet Romney’s campaign maintains that they, alone among the GOP field, have support that is deep and broad enough to keep Republicans unified - an essential for winning in November.

“A lot of the other candidates seem to be working on a slingshot effect - do well in one state and hope it builds momentum for other states,” Madden said. “We have a greater ability to motivate our organization as well as deploy the resources across several states in order to compete.”

But ironically, Romney may now be reliant on the same slingshot effect, even as they maintain they could survive a second-place finish - one that most observers agree would be a devastating loss, given the high expectations driven by campaign’s large organization and vast financial resources.

Romney’s core of New Hampshire supporters isn’t dispirited though, said state Sen. Bruce Keough, who chairs the candidate’s organization in the Granite State.

“Iowa does its thing and now we do ours,” he said. “Historically, New Hampshire people have been independent. We make up our own minds.”

However, despite what the campaigns - and many New Hampshire voters - say, the reality is that the Iowa results, at the very least, can unsettle the field, if not change its order, Cullen said.

“Everyone wants to think they’re immune to outside influences, but that’s just not true,” he said.

[samthetvcat]

Rasmussen Reports shows McCain seeming to have gotten a bump from Romney''s loss in Iowa, but check out the bump for Ron Paul! LOL :D

New Hampshire GOP Primary Poll Results (Jan 4/08)
John McCain 31%
Mitt Romney 26%
Ron Paul 14%
Mike Huckabee 11%
Rudy Giuliani 8%
Fred Thompson 5%
Some other candidate 2%

Is Ron Paul still being blackballed from that Fox debate?

[chfromiowa]

The media needs to back off from comments like "stung by loss" when describing Romney. Iowa is a great state but did a lousy job this year with the Republican caucus. I want the nation to remember that Iowa did not choose Reagan and they made a mistake again this year.

[samthetvcat]

John McCain and Mitt Romney seem to have switched rankings and Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani seem to have switched rankings . . . interesting . . .

[perception5]

CORRUPT CBS (CORRUPT BROADCASTING STATION) THE HEADLINE SHOULD READ "MITT ROMNEY WINS WYOMING!"

My fellow Americans the corrupt folks at CBS have tremdous "HATRED" for Mitt Romney and they along with 90% of the rest of the wolfpack are working together to de-rail Mitt before he can win the GOP nomination. THIS IS THE FACTS AND THE TRUTH.

GO MITT !!!!!

That makes a Silver in Iowa and now a Gold in Wyoming.........great.

Mitt leads all others in the GOP delegate count. Mitt is the most qualified candidate running from either party in 2008, he knows how to "FIX" Washington DC

[erpcat]

here he goes again flip flopping like a fish out of water. how can he stand for change when he already embraces the current status quo? what a weasel, a con-man. just the sight of this KCIDHEAD make me sick. I guess he can fool the majority of rebugs.

[robertkjjj]

I just love the Dem libs that are against Romney. Libs are ALWAYS against ANYONE who is a self-made man, a successful person, or anyone who earns more than $50K a year. Why? Gee, I''m sure it has nothing to do with jealousy, envy, or the fact that most Dems are unambitious, lazy, unsuccessful, unmotivated, anti-capitalist, and just all-around low-paid LOOOOOOOSSERS. Yes, lets say it all together now: LOOOOOOSSSSSEEERRSSS. You, the lib. Yeah, you right there!! Go look in the mirror. Now. OK, so you work at Target or McDonalds. You make like $9 an hour. You%u2019re a lifetime renter. Girls mock you. Instead of improving your lot in life, you%u2019re just determined to live out your life on welfare or similar funds, and make the rest of us workers miserable, right? 99% of you LOSERS are registered Democrats. Less than 5% of you LOSERS are GOP. See a pattern here? Once a loser, always a loser. You know it, we know it, and the whole country knows it. It%u2019s just sad that all you LOSERS just don%u2019t crawl off in the snow this time of year and take a LONNNNNG nap. Know what I mean by nap?

[hosers22]

The only conclusion that can be made from the results of the Iowa caucus is that a lot of time and effort was made to educate the people of Iowa to no avail. Of all of the candidates from both parties, Obama and Huckabee are undoubtedly the least qualified to run the country, have the least knowledge about foreign affairs, and having absolutely no experience in managing any type of business or organization.
Did the Iowa women vote for Obama because he is young and good looking? Or because Ophray is their idol? Who knows! It surely wasn''t because Obama is qualified.

Huckabee%u2019s win is a different story. For instance, if the caucus had been held in the State of Utah, would it have been of any surprise that Mitt Romney would have prevailed? Of course not. Huckabee is a "former Baptist Preacher" a notation pointed out to the point that one wonders if his last name isn''t "former Baptist Preacher". The Iowa population is a predominantly evangelical state and so it is natural for them to vote for "their kind". Some would call it bigotry. I wouldn''t, unless a person voted against Romney solely on the fact that he is Mormon.
The Iowa results means nothing more.

I did laugh at Edwards "acceptance speech" and how he pointed out the plight of the poor, the 200,000 veterans "living homeless on the streets", etc. About how we need to do something about it. And then he went home to his 20,000+ sq ft mansion.

[jsilver2th]

robertkjjj "Libs are ALWAYS against ANYONE who is a self-made man, a successful person, or anyone who earns more than $50K a year."

So you must love John Edwards

[mediapreachr]

''Mitt Romney''s Rebound Plan-throw more money at it...
Doesn''t matter how stupid or futile it is,every other year another member of the elite has to show us just how little respect has for the common man.Also,me thinks this guy''s brain has reached such a level of sclerotics(degenerate disease)that he can''t even manage to think in other way.Blame it on living too long in corporate circles.

[robertkjjj]

Yeah, you love money. Other people''s money.
Go make some yourself for once in your life. I''m worth over $1.5 Mil. How about you?

[gce65]

This is soooooooo unimportant! Can you believe what happened to Brittney? And what''s Paris up to? Who''s on Dancing With The Stars and America''s next Top Model and Celebrity Apprentice???

[tylenol6]

McCain said in a speech he dosen''t care if we are in
Iraq for 100 years or a 1000 years.....Nice huh!!!! McWar needs to put his own kids in Iraq and in the front
lines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gce65]

tylenol:
Sadly, I think one of McCain''s kids did join the military and will probably be at war sometime soon. family tradition thing, I guess. I was in the military too, but now I think it was a big mistake and I wish I''d never joined. We have a warfare mentality and economy. We''re quick to criticize other countries, but the truth is we export more arms and more direct military intervention than any other country. America exports war. America tortures prisoners. I wish it was different and we took care of more problems at home, but we just don''t because big business has too much at stake for peace to prevail.

[gce65]

calif:
You said it. Just look at all the GOP candidates out there harkening back to the good old days under Reagan, as if there were any. It''s a mirage they''re trying to create. Reagan the GOP patron saint died dried up and senile, unable to distinguish his own dork from a pickle at a salad bar. I think a good bit of that crept into his last term in office too, when his handlers learned not to let him out of their reach for fear he''d say something stupid in front of the media. He was a sham anyway, with his fake cowboy image and Devo plastic hair.

[denn034]

Romney''s flip-flops make the c-word believable where he''s concerned and that''s not a good thing.

So did Romney stop strapping dogs to the roof of his car yet?

[norcalruss]

Iowa caucuses shows that the know-it-all pundits had it wrong again. Money and organization could not save Romney from the religious zealots who pervaded the Republican caucuses. Queen Hillary could not be spared a slap in the face called, Receiving the Bronze, even though she had name recognition and the political machine. The outcome of the Dems caucuses is as significant as that of the Reps caucuses is insignificant. Twice as many Democrats caucused than Republicans. The message from the Democratic caucus is that change of the status quo is much more important than experience. They also had energy, enthusiasm, and appeal to independents on their side in candidate Barack Obama. Huckleberry Mike may be a hero to the homophobic, anti-abortion, anti-evolution reactionary wing of his party. However, the southern Baptist preacher has about as much chance of winning his party%u2019s nomination as Pat Robertson did in 1988 after outpolling in Iowa, the eventual nominee, George H. W. Bush. The nomination of Huckabee would most likely lead to a landslide loss for his party in 2008. That may be just what the Republicans need to change a process that all but guarantees the nomination of a far-right nut job. Having the first contest in a state that isn%u2019t 96% white and one that uses a primary election instead of an archaic caucus may rectify the problem. The New Hampshire primary could be the beginning of the end for the Queen, the Mormon, and the Huckleberry.

[joyous88]

do we really want another religious christian nut case in our white house-
lets keep the separation of church and state and keep these insane pricks out of washington

[candide777]

Only a gay man, a hyper-feminized man, or a woman would use such a phoney, psycho-babble word. You''''re a useless liberal, no two ways about it.
Posted by michaelt302 at 08:37 PM : Jan 05, 2008

sorry, michael, but only a lesbian would use the term "hyper-feminized" -- are you trying to tell us something?

[ontheleft]

all these ''compassionate'' conservatives are making me nauseous. love that comment about $9 an hour workers being ''libs'' because the greatest supporters of the right wing are the uneducated - who tend to be lowly hourly workers. studies show the more educated you are the more liberal you are. go figure.

[merlgrey]

%u2018In total, about 239,000 Iowans participated in the Democratic caucus, an increase of 93 percent from the record turnout in 2004.

About 120,000 residents took part in the GOP caucus this week, a 36 percent increase over the last contested GOP event, in 2000.%u2019

this is a 2:1 turnout ratio of dems to repubs- many have suggested this includes many former repubs who have gone democrat. this is something the GOP is worried about bigtime.

the GOP is digging its own grave by pushing candidates like romney and mccain and giulliani (to a lesser degree fred who i dont think anyone really understands what he is doing) with the same old establishment message or even worse. the public showed thier dismay for a party failing to admit to huge errors, an inability to hold themselves accountable which turns into distrust, plain old arrogance, and a new way out. this is likely the reason hillary did so poorly also.

interesting that the big issues of the day are the war in iraq and the economy and yet the candidate who receives more donations from active duty servicemen, and the candidate who fights hardest for saving the dollar from crashing and saving us from over taxation is being excluded from the jan 6th fox news debate.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/veterans/

[iceman_1960]

"Mitt Romney"s Rebound Plan"

Forget about it, Willard.

White boys can"t jump.

[usayesterday]

Is there any of the candidates for President who doesn''t look like an ultra-polished Amway/used-car sales person?!

Is there any candidate who looks like and acts like the OTHER 95% of Americans... you know...

...someone who goes shopping on their own, drives their own car, washes their own dishes and clothes, mows their own lawn, and vacuums their own carpet of a house that is less than 3,000 square feet?!

[micma-2009]

USAyesterday


No, there isn''t. That''s because it takes so much money to buy high office in the U.S. Those that get there are spending their own wealth and or corporate/special interest money. We need to buy our Democracy back by locking out corporate/special interest money and publicly financing viable candidates.

[usayesterday]

We need to buy our Democracy back by locking out corporate/special interest money and publicly financing viable candidates.

Posted by micma at 12:24 PM : Jan 06, 2008
...............

That is clearly the solution.

But the big question is, how can this change be implemented, and who can lead implementation of this change?

To simply say "get involved by voting" is extremely elementary. Why our democracy is corrupt and crumbling is NOT because of the lack of people voting...

...it is because those who vote are (mostly) uneducated about the politicians they are voting for.

[fredgrad2000]

There are only two candidates in this election that I believe are genuine; Barack Obama and John McCain; and if we''re lucky, those two just might pull off their respective nominations and we can have a debate between 2 men who actually say what they believe rather than what polls tell them; a debate where the positions and experience of both men can be contrasted and we can actually believe that what they are saying is what they believe. Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney are the two opposites of Obama and McCain; NOTHING those two say can be trusted as anything other than what they are SUPPOSED to say to whoever they are talking to at that time. Those two are the epitome of what''s wrong with politics. And I add John Edwards not far behind; his positions have switched for whatever role he needed to fit to have a spot in the race (2004 - moderate uniter; 2008 - far-left "fighter").

[bhappy2-2]

What we need is a candidate that supports AMERICA. We have had plenty of politicians who support ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS. We need to start DEPORTING ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS and HEAVILY FINE those who support ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS. We MUST SECURE OUR BORDERS and rid OUR COUNTRY of these parasitic ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS. If our politicians refuse to do so WE, THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA, need to REPLACE the treasonous politicians with ones who SUPPORT AMERICA. Failure to act now could result in The United States of America becoming North Mexico. They have an army here already, they only need to arm them. Those who claim "they don''''t want to take over" need to look around, see the way they have ALREADY TAKEN OVER our jobs.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! GET RID OF THESE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS, NOW!

[iceman_1960]

Cookies baking... Please wait...

[johnjacobs99]

A vote for a Democrat is a vote for Robin Hood, but instead of robbing the rich, they rob the middle class.
McCain is just a democrat. No wonder the press likes him so much. He will bring change - the change in your pocket. Personally I would like to keep my change, that is why I am voting for Mitt Romney. He knows how to generate jobs and trim government.

[iceman_1960]

Cookies loading. Please wait.

[smustaro]

Please, lets do talk about what Mitt did for & with the 2002 Olympics. An extensive read with 184 documented sources is had at: starting pg. 9 enters Mitt. I attended these games, I thought the author was kind & generous to what I saw & experianced.

http://aafla.org/SportsLibrary/Olympika/Olympika_2002/olympika1101b.pdf

[prinzowhales]

McCain and Obama are War Pigs...the one right out in the open about how he would have lauched the war of aggression against Iraq regardless of the WMDs, the later voting against it, but supporting a US presence there to ''take out tens of thousands of "activist extremists" in that country.'' He would also invade Pakistan, he said and he has the support of the War Pigs over at General Dynamics. McCain, a evil natured old S&L crook married into the Mob and Obama, a simpering, mealy mouthed equivocator...

[hungsz]

romney left a huge deficit at the end of his term as governor.
he outwhine ron paul.
and his polls slip to single digit (gallop poll) and his campaign staff thinks he will still win.
do they really believe american voters are that stupid?

[trinitron01]

Hello People! You have a real chance to get the best man in office with a perfect record in congress-- none of them come close to Dr. Ron Paul. I have compared them. I didn''''t know who was who and didnt trust the media machine. Look up ronpaul2008.com and his issues and record, and you will see for yourself. Don''''t be fooled by the imitators, there is only one guy that can really make a difference for the people. Also Dr. Ron Paul is on TONIGHT WITH JAY LENO - Tonight!!!