Romney Spending Millions in Negative Ads to Attack Santorum and Gingrich

Once again Romney 'scorched earth' is happening in Illinois this time against fellow Republicans.  Does Romney and his people think that is the way to gain support for his nomination?  IOTW if he wasn't funded by wealthy people instead having to rely on the small donors, he would have been out of the race a long time ago with no money for attack ads.  He is not very likable and no amount of spin is going to turn him into a Conservative.  The other day on a site one of the posters said that it has gotten to the stage that Romney turns him off like Obama does when he comes on TV.  That is the exact reaction I feel today when I see his picture anywhere -- don't want to see him or Obama as President.

With the Romney 'scorched earth' against fellow Republicans, why should any of us support him because he acts more like a Democrat then a Republican which is probably truer to his roots as an Independent.  Now that his healthcare panel will be given the job of implementing mandatory Romney Care in the states, how is that different from Obama Care?  Attorney Generals around the country are concerned that a Romney victory will make Obama Care a reality as they will have lost their ace in the hole against Obama Care with Romney as the nominee and his mandated healthcare policy.  I hate even typing that.

NJ Governor Christie will not be forgotten for his role in all of this for Romney.  Conservatives have extremely long memories.  Christie now actively campaigning for him in Illinois as the current Vice Chair of the Republican Governor's Conference says all you need to know about Christie as Illinois is a much more moderate state.  Guess he couldn't send him to OK, AL, or MS because we are too conservative for a New Jersey Governor.

Pressure Mounts on Romney for Illinois Victory
Friday, 16 Mar 2012 05:56 PM 

1Pressure is mounting on Republican Mitt Romney to win next Tuesday's presidential primary in Illinois, a state considered friendly territory as he seeks to fend off a growing challenge from conservative rival Rick Santorum. 

Romney and Santorum have added campaign events in Illinois over the next few days to try to get a leg up in the state, where a Chicago Tribune poll last week gave Romney a narrow lead of 35 percent to Santorum's 31 percent. 

The former Massachusetts governor is pouring money into Illinois and sending an ally, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to campaign for him there on Friday. 

Romney's inability to put Santorum away is causing angst in senior Republican circles and leading to further speculation about the possibility of a contentious convention fight for the presidential nomination when Republicans gather in Tampa, Florida, in late August to formally choose their candidate. .

Romney attempted to tamp down such talk on Thursday. 

"Look, we're not going to go to a brokered convention," Romney told Fox News. "One or the other of us among the three or four that are running is going to get the delegates necessary to become the nominee." 

The 2012 Republican battle has turned into a grinding ground game, with Romney intent on building on his haul of delegates to try to reach the 1,144 needed for the party's presidential nomination as quickly as possible. In Illinois, 69 delegates are at stake. 

The Midwestern state's Republicans are relatively moderate and on paper should give Romney a boost after he lost to Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi this week. 

Illinois is Democratic President Barack Obama's home state and is expected to vote for Obama in the November 6 presidential election over the Republican challenger. 

Romney has 498 delegates nationally, more than double Santorum's 239 and far ahead of Newt Gingrich's 139 and Ron Paul's 69, according to CNN. 

MORE THAN JUST MATH 

But many Republicans believe he needs more than just delegate math and must produce some big wins in the state-by-state campaign to prove he is a worthy front-runner. 

"If Romney wins Illinois, people will say he is sealing the deal as a front-runner candidate," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "If he loses, then they're saying he still has a lot of work to do and he's relying on delegate math and that he may win by the numbers but he also has to win by momentum to generate enthusiasm." 

Forces loyal to Romney are pouring money into Illinois. Romney and his backers are believed to be spending more than $4 million there, while Santorum's outside group announced a $310,000 effort. 

Word on the street was that Romney came under pressure to win Illinois from some of his financial backers during a day of fundraising in New York on Wednesday. 

"The money guys made it clear that you've got to win Illinois," said a veteran Republican strategist, who asked to remain unidentified. 

Romney campaign sources cast doubt on the comment and said they were not aware of any such demand. "I don't think anything big happened or I would've heard about it," said one.
Romney has already had big victories this year when his back was against the wall. He won Florida decisively after losing South Carolina to Gingrich, and turned back Santorum in Michigan and Ohio. 

"I concede we need to win Illinois," said Republican strategist Charlie Black, an outside adviser to the Romney campaign. 

The state on paper is easier to win for Romney than Michigan and Ohio where he scraped out victories against Santorum. 

"Illinois if anything is a little more moderate than Michigan or Ohio, with a bigger percentage of suburban voters," Black said.

Excerpt:  Read more on Newsmax.com: Pressure Mounts on Romney for Illinois Victory

Finally someone stepped out to the plate about Romney and his 'scorched earth' negative ads against fellow Republicans.  Romney saying he doesn't control the Super PAC, Restore our Future, Ads is a joke.  He knows full well if he demanded that they stop the ads that they would in a nano second.  Gingrich is correct:

Gingrich Calls on Romney to Stop Negative Ads
Friday, 16 Mar 2012 09:33 PM

COVINGTON, La. — Newt Gingrich demanded Friday that Mitt Romney stop the barrage of TV attack ads that badly damage him and Rick Santorum each time they seemed poised to make big strides in the GOP presidential race. 

Admitting to Louisiana voters that he can't match Romney and a pro-Romney super PAC in fundraising, Gingrich repeated a plea that thus far the front-running Romney has ignored.\\ 

"I challenge Gov. Romney and his super PAC to pledge to take every negative ad about every Republican off the air, because it dishonors them, it weakens the Republican Party, and it helps Barack Obama," Gingrich told a cheering outdoor crowd of more than 200 in Covington. 

Romney has said he doesn't control the super PAC, Restore Our Future, which has aired most of the hard-hitting ads.

Excerpt:  Read more on Newsmax.com: Gingrich Calls on Romney to Stop Negative Ads

Romney has campaign aides and consultants that go back and forth between the campaign and the Super PAC but with a straight face, he expects us to believe if he said quit running the negative ads that they would not stop?  Give me a break!  Here is the story behind the Romney camp and his Super PAC, Restore America:

New York Times 

When Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign needs advice on direct mail strategies for reaching voters, it looks to TargetPoint Consulting. And when the independent “super PAC” supporting him needs voter research, it, too, goes to TargetPoint. 

Sharing a consultant would seem to be an embodiment of coordination between a candidate and an independent group, something prohibited under federal law. But TargetPoint is just one of a handful of interconnected firms in the same office suite in Alexandria, Va., working for either the Romney campaign or the super PAC Restore Our Future. 

Elsewhere in the same suite is WWP Strategies, whose co-founder is married to TargetPoint’s chief executive and works for the Romney campaign. Across the conference room is the Black Rock Group, whose co-founder — a top Romney campaign official in 2008 — now helps run both Restore Our Future and American Crossroads, another independent group that spoke up in defense of Mr. Romney’s candidacy in January. Finally, there is Crossroads Media, a media placement firm that works for American Crossroads and other Republican groups. 

The overlapping roles and relationships of the consultants in Suite 555 at 66 Canal Center Plaza offer a case study in the fluidity and ineffectual enforcement of rules intended to prevent candidates from coordinating their activities with outside groups. And there has been a rising debate over the ascendancy of super PACs, which operate free of the contribution limits imposed on the candidates but are supposed to remain independent of them. 

In practice, super PACs have become a way for candidates to bypass the limits by steering rich donors to these ostensibly independent groups, which function almost as adjuncts of the campaigns.   

Excerpt:  Read More at The Best Government Money Can Buy

Finally the Rove group, American Crossroads, is actually linked in an article to the Romney campaign even though a lot of us have known the fact for a long time.  Any Rick Perry supporter knew that Rove was the attack dog for Bush 41 and Romney with his underhanded attacks on Perry.  That rock deal was right out of the Rove playbook.

Yet even today the Romney support staff are convinced that Conservative Republicans are just going to jump on board the Romney campaign like we did McCain but surprise, a lot of us did that after Florida in 2008 before the Super Tuesday voting, but not doing it for Romney.  They are misjudging the dislike a lot of us have for Romney.  Not helping that his people are calling us bigots on line because we won't vote for him they say because he is Mormon.  They don't get it that most Conservatives don't like him because he is a Massachusetts liberal who supports mandatory healthcare and has no track record of being conservative except what he spins.  Using his religion to call us bigots is so far over the top that it makes you wonder what they are hiding about how much the Mormon Church is involved in this campaign.

Romney's true liberal ideology came out when Santorum said Puerto Ricans would have to have English as their language not Spanish to become a state and Romney counters that Puerto Ricans can speak Spanish to become a state.  It is either pandering for votes OR his true liberal self came out.  Toss a coin because we have no clue which it is.

Why is Romney willing to destroy fellow Republicans to get the nomination with his Super PAC going way overboard with negative ads?   No one does 'scorched earth' against fellow Republicans to barely win in states that should be cakewalk.  If someone can answer that 'Why?' then we would be well on our way to figuring out why the establishment wants Romney so bad against the 70% of conservatives or maybe more that don't want him for our nominee.