This surprises me — Romney and the GOP SuperPACs are pulling ads from Michigan and Pennsylvania, meaning they don’t think they have a prayer. And the Los Angeles Times reports that in the past few days most Romney television ads have disappeared in Ohio and some other battleground states.
We know this can’t be because the Romney campaign and the SuperPACs are short of dough. They’re rolling in it. I also can’t believe the RRs are giving up on battleground states. So what’s up?
My guess is that they decided the old ads weren’t working and pulled them before they have new ads in the can and ready to go. But how long does it take to crank out a campaign ad? Even a so-so ad would be better than no ad at all, considering the Obama campaign is still running ads full tilt.
Of course, maybe they’re all just too incompetent to run an effective campaign.
Andrew Romano at Daily Beast suggests that Republicans are stunned by Mitt’s un-bounce from his convention.
Republicans were predicting that Romney would follow in Clinton’s footsteps (rather than, say, Dole’s). Wait until the convention, they argued. Wait until all the Santorumites and Newtheads rally around Mitt in Tampa. Wait until the country sees him speak. Romney’s underwater ratings will evaporate shortly thereafter, and he’ll never look back. …
… And so, given that least one former nominee had used a convention to dig himself out of a big favorability hole, I figured that now, five days after Tampa, was the right time to check back in and see if Romney’s own popularity problem had finally cleared itself up.
Unfortunately for the GOP, it hasn’t.
Romney has issued a few ineffectual bleats this week about the Dem convention being a “celebration of failure” and the platform being “extreme,” but that’s not going to resonate with anyone but wingnuts and baggers. I suspect Romney and his aides are having one meeting after another right now about the direction of the campaign, and by next week we may see an entirely retooled Romney effort. But what could they possibly try that they haven’t tried already?
The reason they pulled them is that their internal polls have showed them there is no way they’re going to lose those states in November.
I live in Philadelphia. I see it. People are not going to vote for the President. They aren’t going to vote.
The reason they pulled them is that their internal polls have showed them there is no way they’re going to lose those states in November.
Keep dreaming. Nate Silver has Michigan and Pennsylvania solid blue and Nate Silver is never off by more than a point or two. That means polls give Obama a comfortable margin. No way “internals” would be that different.
Frankly, listening to Romney and his henchmen churn out their political spittle has been for me like undergoing a root-canal in the dentist chair. Thus, I have been paying little to no attention to what only belongs in the near-by spittoon.
However, given that I can’t see how Romney can possibly be elected and given that this is an unfortunate turn of events for the media, I wait with bated breath for the medias’ campaign to turn this shoe-in election into a closely contested one. Should be quite a spectacle – besides yet another root-canal session.
It would be just desserts in Pennsylvania, given the onerous voter id law that was passed and upheld in that state.
Looking forward to seeing what kind of bounce Obama gets after this week.
“It would be just desserts in Pennsylvania, given the onerous voter id law that was passed and upheld in that state.”
Any chance a higher court will review that before November?
“No way “internals†would be that different.”
Those could be Karl Rove’s “internal” numbers!
Maybe “Publius” is onto something ’cause he has access to those “private” numbers?
Btw, “Publius” – if they stopped advertising exactly two months in what are broadly considered “swing states,” even if they think they’re in the bag, than the Romney campaign is even MORE incompetent than it appears right now – which might be of historic levels. And I’m not just talking here in America. I’m talking about since the times Mittocles Romnememnon ran as the Spartan 3rd Party candidate against Pericles in Ancient Athens.
“There’s no way they’re going to lose those states” – ROFLMAO!!!
Publius:
What a dope! WHAT A MAROON!!!
Honesty?
So what’s up?
Don’t throw good money after bad!
Publius?
Sounds a little too tea party for me. How does said Publius come to such knowledge?
Perhaps they are waiting for the Dem convention to be over before the regroup and attack.
When the convention is over, team Romney is going to have a tough time finding “the soft underbelly”.
Obama is looking like a rock star again.
I spent many years serving the rich in one way or another, and learned that they are incredibly cheap.
The more you have, the less you give.
This is all about holding onto every dollar, not about serving their beloved country. No big surprise here.
Maybe the reason for the ads not running is they DO believe that they have Mich and Penn. in the bag. Consider this: both states DO have rep Govenors.(does anyone remember fla or even Ohio ?) sad to say but I am jaded enough to think that does matter when it comes to how votes are counted. And perhaps even who’s votes are counted.When our govenor braindead took office he put all of his own people into the election offices.Sad to say at least here , our govenor is more interested in being a water carrier for the gop then serving the PEOPLE he was elected to.Now big party members have a huge interest in making sure their bases are all covered and making sure “their guy” gets elected so they have an ace up their sleeves. If the vote is close here(some number i saw suggests 50k more absentee ballots have been requested by Dem voters in this cycle so far)I look for our govenor to refuse to count those votes because absentee voters did not show photo ID.And in as much as I admire our state supreme court, I have every reason for concern since here judges are the object of hate campaigns when they make a brave ruling such as their stand that made gay marriage legal in our state and in the case of three brilliant judges who served this state in a fair way that gave honor to the seats they held for years LOST their jobs because of their courage.Knowing their jobs will be lost, they and their families subject to threats would our supremes have the courage to rule against the gov and in favor of the absentee voters?
justme — I think even if they thought they had a lock on stealing the vote, they’d still have to go through the motions of trying to make the races close. And they aren’t close. Nate Silver gives Obama a 97.3 % chance of winning Michigan and a 91.9 % chance of winning Pennsylvania. I found a poll that puts Obama more than 8 points ahead of Romney in Pennsylvania. They can’t just lose a few absentee votes and change the outcome.
I’m no good with math, but maybe someone else can figure this out — 5,747,000 people voted in Pennsylvania in 2008. Assuming the same turnout this time, and assuming Obama wins 50 % to 42 % (which is about where it is now), how many votes would have to be “miscounted” to give the election to Romney? A lot, I believe.
You know how terrified woodland creatures run past one’s doorstep, alerting one to a forest fire? Thus with all the rightie trolls that have cruised by here in the past couple days. Their little wabbity eyes are wild, and they’re breathing hard. Something intense is right behind them.
@joanr – someone on DailyKos last night posted an article about how Rush Dimbulb is blathering stranger than usual – even factoring in the oxycontin. I think we’re starting to see the desperation, at various levels. Righties were counting on changing the world with their “Obama-2016” movie, which probably has reached its 95 percentile of max viewership by now – and which hasn’t changed anything.
joan,
Not to quibble, but it’s weasely eyes.
A wabbit is just a wabbit. A weasel is an entirely different woodland creature.
Or, maybe snakeity eyes might be better?
Oh RR will get elected. Just like they stole the 2000 election. Rove has his people in the counting rooms, the lack of paper trails to the voting machines, the ability of the state votes going to a third party for tallying, all mean a fraudulant count. I wish we could get the UN to step in here for the vote, to verify the vote. But a foreign company owns the programs that run on all the voting machines, and the american people are unable to now trust the machines, the counters, just the “trust” the results.
The only way they can do that is if the electoral college vote is very close and comes down to a few thousand votes in a couple of swing states. Right now it doesn’t look like the electoral college vote will be that close.
Jim….You’re sowing the seeds of defeat, and doing a poor at it. You’re a sloppy troll. You should craft your swill with more care .Like they say troll school…Never put your poison at the begining of a paragraph and always dress it off in a conditional tense.