OK, so Romney beat Gingrich in Florida (and by a wide margin).
Rather than supplement my last tired post about the election with another equally tired update that few will see, I thought this called for a new post amplifying on my theme about the pointless damage caused by double negative campaigning.
As the Republicans are engaged in a seemingly relentless orgy of self destruction (or, as Roger Kimball put it, “The Suicide Club”), I think both Romney and Gingrich have an opportunity here. They can agree RIGHT NOW to put an end to it. It is obvious that Romney has the momentum overall, and is the most likely candidate to beat Obama, right?
Newt Gingrich is a sharp enough politician/historian to know this, right?
Similarly, Romney is a sharp enough businessman to realize the folly of throwing his money and energy against Gingrich in a protracted and mutually destructive campaign, right?
So why not cut a deal right now for a joint ticket? Just spare the bullshit and get on with the race.
Obama is already off to a running start.
Right now I am seeing no downside to this idea, but maybe I’m missing something.
Why is this a good time for the Republicans be mired in a protracted intra-party war with themselves?
Ideology, perhaps? Really?
Other than the fact that Gingrich’s drug war stance horrifies me, I’m not seeing more than a dime’s worth of difference (and a rhetorical difference at that) between the pair.
Seriously, it might be time to ask a serious question.
In whose interest is it for the two to battle it out?
(That was a rhetorical question, folks.)
Math is a funny thing:
…negative campaigning has a double effect. Even if the mud that is hurled happens to be truthful and sticks, the one who threw it looks bad for having thrown it. The process is unattractive to voters. And when both candidates are hurling mud, both are inevitably going to look doubly worse. (I hate it when these things come down to simple math.)
I’m not a mathematician, but I seem to remember some rule about two negatives being a positive.
MORE: The analysis is endless.
(As the lefties would say, “Endless this war!”)
Comments
6 responses to “the new newt math?”
Seems to be the ideal solution! Why not gain two big gummint statists for the efforts and cost of one?
We’ll agree to pretend they are conservative while in reality they are nothing more than big gummint socialists, and run the two of them over against a bona-fide socialist already in charge.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
As to the issue of “ideology,” neither Romney nor Gingrich would recognize said animal were it to be smacked up the side of the heads of either.
Q: If they win, what will have been won?
[…] Eric at Classical Values has been decrying all of this negativity. Sure, Romney’s onslaught “worked” in the sense that he destroyed Gingrich’s lead and handily won the race. But sometimes these campaigns remind me of businesses that focus on short-term gains at the expense of long-term gains. Does negative campaigning really “work” if the broader electorate gets so fed up with it all that they don’t want to vote for any of you in November? […]
It’s very simple. Who has the media treated gently? That’s who they – and probably the Dem establishment – want to be the next candidate. It’s who they think will be the easy-beat.
When they go into a feeding frenzy over someone, you can bet they’re scared of that particular person. At least until the nomination is in. Then the Repub candidate will get the full attack.
Maybe I’m historically ignorant, but I don’t see how waiting until super Tuesday to secure a nominee is such a big deal. I mean isn’t that what it’s for?
Regardless, I’m more dispirited this election than last time (at least we had a libertarianish VP), and plan on voting Paul (crazy as he is) in the primary and Johnson in the general as a protest vote. It’s that or stay home. I wouldn’t know what to do if I lived in a swing state.
in reality they are nothing more than big gummint socialists, and run the two of them over against a bona-fide socialist already in charge.
I agree. I like neither of them, although I can’t stand Gingrich more.
Q: If they win, what will have been won?
Obama will be out, and so will his obnoxious appointees. Which is at least something. I’d rather have right wing think tank types running the busybody agencies than hard core leftists committed to undermining free enterprise at every turn.
Kate, this would seem to confirm what you said:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/02/have-democrats-succeeded-in-pre-destroying-romney/252407/