Republican Shake-Up

By: Paul Lim
College Press Staff Writer


The Republican race was dwindled down to two main candidates, Arizona Senator John McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.  The electorate has split between Conservative voters and Moderates, each backing Romney and McCain respectively.  This divide explains McCain’s edge in the Florida primary, with exit polls showing a flat-out loss among Conservatives.

The remaining Republicans faced off in a debate in California, one of the “Super Tuesday” states.  The battle focused on the negative attacks flying between McCain and Romney.  Recently, McCain has been mentioning a comment from Romney regarding timelines in Iraq.  In the actual quote, Romney indicated a support for personal timelines for President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to help them gauge the progress made in Iraq and to evaluate benchmarks.  McCain has been campaigning that Romney wants a timeline for withdrawal.

Romney stated, “It's simply wrong,"  He explained, "By the way, raising it a few days before the Florida primary, when there was very little time for me to correct the record, falls in the kind of dirty tricks that Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible."

Elaborating on the larger scale of such an attack, the former Massachusetts Governor said, “It's an attempt to do the Washington-style old politics, which is lay a charge out there, regardless of whether it's true or not. Don't check. Don't talk to the other candidate. Just throw it out there.”  Romney has been on the stump discussing how “Washington is broken” and America cannot elect another Washington insider to change things in the country.

McCain defended himself saying the ads Romney put out were damaging to both him and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, another Republican candidate.  The Senator also went after Romney on his personal wealth, an issue that has strangely become a significant topic.  Many Conservatives question why it is a big deal, many believe the media thinks it will build an animosity towards Romney, based on envy of the self-made success.  

McCain went after the wealth question and commented on Romney’s management of Bain Capital, “I think he managed companies and he bought and he sold and sometimes people lost their jobs.”  Romney stuck to keeping a clear Conservative message and contrasting it to McCain’s record, saying, “There are a number of pieces of legislation where his views are out of the mainstream, at least in my view, of conservative Republican thought.”

This defense of Huckabee by McCain gives some clarity to a very viable conspiracy theory that was brought up by bestselling author and radio talk show host Mark Levin.

The theory began after Huckabee Campaign Chief Ed Rollins suggested an alliance with the McCain campaign.  Rollins has said, "We’re going to see if we can’t take Romney out,” he continued, “We like John [McCain]. Nobody likes Romney.”  With that comment on the record, that helps explain the recent primary results.  With Moderates and Conservatives splitting off, Moderates only have McCain to back; Conservatives are split between Romney and Huckabee.  So, as long as Huckabee stays in the race, that will consistently hurt Romney’s numbers.  

And based on Florida, it looks like it may be working.

To add to the nastiness that has developed among the Republicans, another comment by Rollins about Romney certainly has taken this campaign to another level, “What I have to do is make sure that my anger with a guy like Romney, whose teeth I want to knock out, doesn't get in the way of my thought process.”

Heading into the Super Tuesday primaries, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the Presidential race Wednesday and threw his support behind McCain.  A man who has been dogged by his own personal issues and has been bashed by Conservatives on his stance on gay marriage, abortion, gun control, and illegal immigration says, “I'm fully aboard, 100%.”

He was referring to the McCain campaign to which he explains, “I don't do things half way. I do them 100%, and when I believe in a man ­– like I do John McCain – this will become, to me, as important as my own election was.”

It is said California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is also intended to back McCain, but in a statement, the former action star said, “I've always said that I would stay out of the whole thing of endorsing anybody until our, you know, primaries are over, so I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.”

Super Tuesday is February 5, 2008.