December 5, 2011

Romney Zombies on the loose

I just finished a fantastic steak dinner at Toronto's Harbour 60, and decided there was no better time to start thinking about zombie metaphors and how zombies can be related to the current political situation in America.  Of course - doesn't the thought process follow? Steaks, zombies eating brains.  Well, it made sense to me at least.  Now, I've talked about zombie democrats before. Collectivism is suited perfectly to zombie metaphors and Democrats have shifted pretty far into that territory.  But that's sort of stale now.  There's some zombification happening in the GOP primaries as well.

With Herman Cain out of the GOP race now, I've noticed a couple of things that remind me of zombies.  Firstly, there is an opening for Cain's former support to shift.  Does it go to Paul, Perry, Bachmann or Gingrich?  It has to go to one (or more) of those choices.

Where the zombie piece comes in is the sudden and timely burst of anti-Newt advocacy from Romney supporters.  The same fervor that Palinistas were accused of having for Sarah Palin, seems to be coming out in Romney supporters.  Romney is the real conservative, Newt is awful, re-consider Mitt.  Check the comments here for an example.  There are others too.

We saw some similar fervor with supporters for Perry initially.  For Cain it was different, it was genuine enthusiasm.  The same was true for many (but not all) Palin supporters. Romney supporters seem to be coming out hard against Gingrich now because (a) he's surged into the lead and (b) there is a chance to scoop up Cain supporters.  Timing is everything.

The challenge Romney supporters have with these attacks is the same challenge facing the Bachmann camp; negativity will not create a surge.  It didn't work for her as her poll standings slipped, it also didn't help Rick Perry in trying to get tough with Romney, and it's certainly not going to work for Romney, who will only ever get more than 25% GOP support if he somehow manages to squeak out the nomination.

The reason Newt is leading is twofold - he's knowledgeable, and positive.  Positive is translating for many voters into "electable".  Some Romney supporters don't seem to realize this.  Mindless zombie tactics won't work here - leave that to Democrats.  If you have issues with Newt, or anyone else in the GOP race, stick to record versus record to support your guy (as some Romney supporters have).  I don't think that's a winning formula for Mitt's supporters either, but at least it entails some integrity.

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