Republicans increasingly see Mitt Romney as the ‘inevitable candidate’

[alp227]

Source: Wash. Post

Buoyed by a series of strong debate performances, Mitt Romney is suddenly attracting new support from major donors and elected officials, some of whom had resisted his previous entreaties, as people across the GOP grow more accepting of the presidential contender as the party’s standard-bearer.

“He’s viewed as an almost inevitable candidate,” said longtime strategist Ed Rollins, who until last month managed the campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), one of Romney’s opponents. “He’s the heavy favorite.”

The party establishment seems to be moving Romney’s way, even as a new national poll highlighted the volatility of the race. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll showed the surging businessman Herman Cain numerically ahead of Romney for the first time, 27 percent to 23 percent, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry third, at 16 percent.

On Wednesday, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) became the latest in a string of current and former elected officials who have announced their support for Romney over the past week. Former Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson, hedge fund manager Paul Singer and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone are among the major Republican fundraisers supporting the candidate.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-increasingly-see-mitt-romney-as-the-inevitable-candidate/2011/10/12/gIQAh7GMgL_singlePage.html

[DJ13]

1. That should eliminate most of the enthusiasm on the right

Mr. Excitement he's not.

[bluestateguy]

2. Kind of like Bob Dole

Not my place to offer them advice on who they should nominate. :shrug:

[Iliyah]

4. Hell they don't

won't another black man in the running - LOL

Even tho Cain is an . . . .

White is right, anyways he won't be running the WH anyways.

[sofa king]

35. Curiously enough...

... I distinctly recall Phil Gramm being the "inevitable" candidate at about this stage of the process in 1996. He had amassed a princely twenty million dollars for his campaign, much more than anyone before, and had started much earlier than anyone else (he had $8 million in the bag two and a half years before the general election).

But his race was spiked by Patrick Buchanan in Louisiana, and then Bob Dole became the inevitable candidate.

That's why I laughed when I heard that George Bush's mentally disabled son was running for President, and had a lot of money. "So what?" I said, "Pat Buchanan will show up to screw him over, too."

But Pat Buchanan wasn't there to screw him. He was there to screw us.

[TheEuclideanOne]

3. Who else could they pick?

The black guy? ROFLOL!!!

[PM Martin]

5. This Romney?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pVqZzHm3Z4&feature=related

[chollybocker]

6. "Romney - He's Inevitable."

There's your bumper sticker, right there, GOP. lulz

[defendandprotect]

7. Whistle blew on Palin/Christie last week -- Meanwhile Romney is worth $264 MILLION ... !!!

[David Sky]

26. Just an average regular ... TRUST FUND BABY!!!

Never had to worry about getting a "real" job! Probably didn't wait on tables to earn money for college. Spent his obligatory two years in the South of France doing "missionary" work for his church, (we all spend a couple years in the South of France, "serving the world" for our religion, right?) Then there's all those jobs he "UNcreated" and made tens of millions doing so.
Oh and then there's Staples, where everything costs more than at the other office stores, but it looks so nice in the Staples stores.

Just an ordinary trust fund baby, ripping us off and making millions more doing so!

[joeglow3]

27. Missionary work would suck

I have a friend who is Mormon and he spent 2 years in San Francisco. He would be out on the streets "spreading the word" from sunrise to sunset. He would return to his apartment, with no computer or television to go to sleep, only to rise and do it again. His only contact with his family were 2 phone calls a year.

This is something I would never participate in, but the last thing it sounded like was a nice 2 year vacation that only rich people experience.

[Gore1FL]

8. A month ago that article woudl have said Perry

It is too long away to make predictions that aren't anything more than educated guesses.

[SkyDaddy7]

19. Exactly...I could see Rick Perry's supporters...

Jumping on the Herman Cain Train & if that happens we could have a long drawn out primary! I watch the Religious Right programming on TV & their radio shows & they love Herman Cain & Rick Perry NOT the Mormon!!!!!!!!

So, YES you are 100% correct this is a long way from over. The only thing that could end this is the Republican Party's long held tradition of literally doing what they are told & getting behind the next in line which would be Romney...However, the Republican Party got in bed with the Tea Party so those days might be over. We will see!

[HomerRamone]

9. Never Forget

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nsbsXhB0490/TAus9cpyviI/AAAAAAAAA1A/u39QPpvSS7Q/s1600/GoodBoyBo+Romney.jpg

[FarLeftFist]

10. LOLOLOL

[McCamy Taylor]

11. They have to hold their noses and vote for "Mittens"

[McCamy Taylor]

12. Question: How is Romney like death and taxes? A: He is "inevitable"

[TomCADem]

13. This Is Almost Funny - Wall Street and Karl Rove's Handpicked GOP Establishment Candidate

...Who most of the actual right wing Republican, evangelical right voters are not crazy ab out cruises to the GOP nomination as expected. The only reason why Christie was courted was because he might appeal to Wall Street and the Evangelical Right, but I guess the establishment decided to settle on the Big Business candidate who has been shoved down the throat of most Republicans.

Wall Street is going to invest millions if not over a billion to elect one of their own to the White House, and he has promised to repeal Financial Reform in a direct slap in the face of the OWS protests and the 99 percent movement.

Put another way, the left dislikes him, and the right isn't that crazy about him, but it does not really matter, because corporate America loves Mitt Romney and his promises to repeal and roll back reforms that were adopted under the Obama administration and crack down on unions.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. +1 The "Corporations are people, my friend" guy gets the nod. n/t

[PSPS]

14. Give me a break. The headline should say, "We, the corporate media, declare Romney our candidate"

[No Elephants]

15. It's been obvious from the start that Romney is the Republican Establishment's candidate.

Or, if you prefer, that Romney is the Establishment's Republican candidate.

[Muskypundit]

17. I like the second one better. They like to rig the game that way

[nod factor]

16. Like it or not

The establishment in both parties will always look for what they consider is the strongest candidate regardless of how truthfully conservative or liberal that person actually is.
The perception in 2004 among the 'far-left' was that Howard Dean was as liberal and pro-labor as they come and we were excited but the establishment viewed him as unelectable.
They preferred Kerry, a war hero in a time of gruesome war, who would be able to play the middle more effectively - not to say that that is what Kerry actually was or is but he played the part.
As astute as DU can be even we were fooled I remember the rants and raves that Kerry voted for the IWR and he's a centrist, a blue dog, a DINO.
'Anyone but Bush' and 'the lesser of two evils' were prevalent mantras.
That mentality is exactly what we will be up against a year from now and Romney is positioned very well because unlike with Bush who still managed to split the independent vote the polls seem to indicate independents have completely lost faith in this administration and will be more than willing to vote for a change just once it's not Bachmann, Perry, or Cain, or any of the others that are scary.

[karynnj]

29. Huge differences - Kerry polled at in single digits in fall 2003, he was NOT the establishment

candidate - and he was at least as liberal as any viable candidate running.

Kerry's record was never that he was a blue dog or a centrist. Now, I am not saying he is where Bernie Sanders, or even Ted Kennedy was, but he was in the left half of the Democrats. That is why Ted Kennedy backed him - not just because he was from Massachusetts. (What is strange is that some left writers were so disappointed that Kerry knocked Dean out, that they then backed the genuinely conservative Edwards.)

It is a PURE FICTION that Kerry was the establishment choice before he won Iowa. Kerry essentially won by campaigning positively in Iowa, where Dean and Gephardt destroyed each other. Had he been the establishment candidate, he would not have had to loan $6 million - nearly his full net worth - to his campaign. Go back and look at the media stories of Fall 2003. The main mention of Kerry was speculation of when he would drop out. There was ONE cover story in the entire second half of 2003- in the Atlantic on Brinkley's book. Dean also had far more superdelegates than Kerry. So, given Kerry had a disadvantage in money, media and superdelegates, what reason is there to claim he was the establishment choice?

Kerry became "inevitable" only after he had won about 16 contests - with Edwards and Clark, each winning one. The fact is the media was slow to give him that designation even as he won real primaries and caucuses. Where it first should have been obvious was when Kerry won 5 out of the 7 states in the first multistate day - the states were not good for a NewEnglander - OK, SC, MO, NM, AZ, DE and ND. Yet the media was that Kerry AND JOHN EDWARDS had a good day - even though this was not a good showing for Edwards. If he were going to win, he would have had to win most of these. Even in April when Kerry had almost the magic number of delegates - with many contests left, Carville speculated about a convention where no one had enough delegates and they had to turn to a savior - Hillary, of course.

I think that false speculations comes from two sources. The first was that the Democrats in the media, especially Carville and Begala, pushed the anybody but Bush meme - even though that makes no sense applied to the general election where a large percent of people are always against the other party. (In honor of Carville and Begala, I considered labeling myself "anybody but Bush" retroactively for 1992 - but thought it dumb.) It also came from early polls after Kerry won Iowa showing him beating Bush and from exit polls where people were asked if they voted for someone they thought had the best chance of winning. A yes does not mean that they preferred someone else. From the debates, I thought Kerry was by far the best candidate - and the most likely to win.

Romney really was a moderate Republican. Romney is clearly at the extreme left of his party - making him a real centrist. (Kerry, on the other hand, NEVER in his whole career ever ranked in the right half of Democratic party. Not to mention, Romney has many of the big Republicans backing him - including karl Rove, Chris Christie and others. (In 2004, Clinton supported Clark; Gore supported Dean. Kerry had Kennedy, who represented the left rather than the Clinton establishment.)

The problem is that it is rare you can equivalence people from one election cycle to another. You also can't say that Romney is the "Hillary Clinton", who was inevitable because he has not been as consistently ahead as she had at this point in time - and we did not have the flameouts the Republicans did. I don't remember the details of the 1996 Republicans. I don't think it was like 1992, where Cuomo might have been the establishment choice.

You might ask why I bother to write all this. The reason is that these comments diminish Senator Kerry from the left - ignoring that he ran an exceptionally good primary campaign winning by the virtue of who he was, what he said and the fact that he did succeed in impressing many people. By virtue of getting the nomination, he was smeared and his reputation (and that of his wonderful wife's ) were trashed by the Republicans with the help of a media that allowed character assassination. As he lost, he did not get the Presidency from which people would have seen the attacks to have been lies.

Just as Dean supporters want him to be seen as having been the first to harness the internet in terms of creating grassroots as well as to raise money and for the good person he really is, rather than for the smears against him, I want Kerry seen as the goodpublic servant he has been all his life and as a man who deserved a nomination that he, with support from MA legislators and MA veterans who knew him well, won in what was actually a surprise to the establishment.

[customerserviceguy]

20. The country-clubbers like to use the word inevitable

to maintain the illusion that they're as in control of the Repuke party as they are of the corporatocracy. However, in some places, the tea partiers haven't let them have their way. Add the fundies that will NEVER vote for a Mormon under any circumstances, and Mittens doesn't look that inevitable.

I figured Christie was playing it smart by endorsing Romney. He knows that Romney cannot win the Southern and Midwestern states with the snake-handler vote (they'll vote third party) and he'll have a fresh shot at the nomination in 2016.

[jmowreader]

21. Don't trust the debate performances, folks...

I think, as do a lot of you, that the teabaggers are going to choose the GOP nominee rather than the "establishment." Right now, the crazy is strong with Cain...but with the way things are going, we're probably looking at a brokered convention because I SERIOUSLY doubt any of these people are going to drop out of the race and cede their delegates to another lunatic.

[ClarkUSA]

22. Did Mark Penn sign on as campaign manager yet?

:rofl:

[boppers]

23. Ah, the kiss of death.

Has he ever gotten *anybody* elected?

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

24. why bother to have primaries?

Just let the big money donners choose, forget the common folk. Then again they may have someone else in mind, and that can't happen.

[David Sky]

25. In other breaking news today, the sun will again rise in the East and

set in the West!

I fail to see how this is "BREAKING" news!

[underpants]

28. aaaaand Fox News tells them to fall in line aaaaand they do

SQUIRREL! :rofl:

[LongTomH]

30. This could still get interesting:

as in "May you live in interesting times!" Things will get verrry interesting in the southern and midwest primaries where the Teabuggers and the Christian Right rule! And then, there's the possibility that someone else mentioned of a brokered convention. If that happens, look for a real Dark Horse to emerge.

"May you live in interesting times!" is my curse on the Republican party!:evilgrin:

[DavidDvorkin]

31. I was hoping for a ranting loon at the top of the ticket. Maybe the v.p.

nominee will be a ranting loon.

[fascisthunter]

32. lol... phony weirdo

[24601]

33. Four years ago, wasn't Hillary Clinton the inevitable candidate

and presumptive heir to the presidency? Gary Hart also was a sure thing - but a week is a lifetime in politics.

[Arugula Latte]

34. Come on, GOP. Take your Mitt pill. Your leaders will hold your mouth shut and rub your throat

to help you swallow.

[zonkers]

36. So did RudePundit weeks ago.