En el Houston Chronicle:
With Perry leading Romney in the last nine national polls by margins ranging from 6 percentage points to 19, the former frontrunner has overhauled his above-the-fray campaign persona. Over the past week, and during Perry's first GOP presidential debate on Wednesday, Romney has begun to engage with his most serious challenger.
Some of the contrasts are direct: Romney has chosen to make the future of Social Security a key issue by declaring his strong support for the retirement program while Perry calls it a "monstrous lie" and a "Ponzi scheme."
Some are indirect: Romney says the nation needs a hard-headed businessman (him) rather than a career politician (Perry) to guide it through hard times.
Some are tactical: Romney has intensified his efforts to court Tea Party Republicans in an attempt to compensate for Perry's early successes among establishment conservatives.
Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, said Romney needs to "show some life and fight," when challenging Perry.
"The whole point is to try to show himself as an adult at a very serious time," Mann said. "And with Perry being more reckless, being a cowboy, Romney's going to convey these times are too perilous to take a chance with that."
For Romney to regain the lead, political analysts say, he needs to convince Republican primary voters who desperately want to defeat Barack Obama that he, not Perry, offers the Grand Old Party its best chance.
"What Romney has to do to beat back Perry is argue that Perry can't be elected in the general election," said Drake University political scientist Dennis Goldford. "Romney can argue that you need somebody who does more than make you feel good (with red-hot rhetoric), someone who won't take the Republican Party off a cliff."
Only twice in the past half century has ideology trumped pragmatism in the GOP nominations process: Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Ronald Reagan in 1980. But some analysts think that this unsettled year of grass-roots anger could prove to be yet another exception to the rule.
2 comentarios:
Es muy curioso, todo son consejos para que Romney pueda ganarle a Perry; especialmente de parte de los columnistas y comentaristas liberales que parecen muy deseosos de ayudarle.
En cualquier caso, ganar una primaria republicana, en los tiempos que corren, desde el centro es mas complicado que ganarla desde la derecha. McCain ya lo intentó con Bush en el 2000 y perdió; estuvo cerca, pero perdió. Y eso teniendo en cuenta que el ambiente en el 2000 no era tan toxico para un centrista como lo es hoy día. McCain que, con todos sus defectos, es un politico con buen instinto, no cometió ese error dos veces y en 2008 hizo la primaria desde una posición mas a la derecha y ganó dejando a Romney en la cuneta. Esto todavía se acentuó mas en las elecciones al senado de 2010 en las que, dado el ambiente, supo anticipar muy bien cualquier desafío por la derecha posicionandose como un conservador basico en todos los temas clave (desde inmigración hasta el aborto).
Rockford.
La diferencia del McCain de 2008 y el de 2000 no es que hiciera campaña desde el centro o desde la derecha. Es el apoyo del partido. En 2000 Bush es el candidato apoyado por el partido, McCain es el rebelde. En 2008 McCain es el candidato apoyado por el partido. Esa es la clave de su derrota de 2000 y su victoria de 2008.
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