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The Clarion | April 6. 2012
Romney gets closer to nomination, looks to general election
By David Bartholomew
via uWire
Tuesday night’s Republican Primaries
in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington,
D.C., all but supported the narrative that
Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican
Presidential nominee for the 2012 elections.
By sweeping the three primaries, Romney
has pulled ever closer to the required amount
of delegates needed to officially claim the
party’s nomination, even though the other
three Republican candidates vow to continue
their campaigns.
So now the big question is, where does
Romney go from here? Given President Barack
Obama’s latest speech to the Associated Press,
in which Obama called out Romney by name,
it is becoming ever clearer that the Obama
campaign is preparing for a general election
against the former Massachusetts governor.
“Romney will definitely make the race
close,” said Steffen Schmidt, university
professor of political science. “It will be close
because presidential races always close up no
matter what. Americans are very divided. It’s
not a 60-40 split, it’s like a 49-51 split among
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the electorate.”
Indeed this so-called “divided electorate”
could prove to be an interesting general
election in which Romney will put his
successes as a governor and businessman
against Obama’s first term in office.
“Romney’s pros are he has a strong record
on economic issues and he has a lot of money
to work with,” said David Peterson, associate
professor of political science. “But he hasn’t
done a good job of defining who he is. The
media has basically decided who he is.... He
also has trouble connecting to people.”
Schmidt echoed Peterson’s concerns
about Romney while also mentioning
Romney’s vulnerability to the conservative
base of the Republican Party, even though it
appears many conservative Republicans are
beginning to accept the idea of Romney as
their nominee.
“Romney is seen as the Republican who
can get the independents to vote for him,”
Schmidt said. “However, his biggest problem
is getting the conservatives in his party to
support him.”
Schmidt used what he called “The
Schmidt Analogy” to describe conservative
Republicans’ feelings toward Romney.
According to Schmidt, conservative voters
want to date and party with a person like
Rick Santorum, who has positioned himself
as the conservative alternative to Romney, but
they know that in the end they will want to
marry someone like Romney because of his
stability and electability, despite his perceived
moderate views. This analogy appears to be
proving true as more and more conservative
voters and politicians reluctantly voice their
support for Romney.
“Romney also has the support of the
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establishment of the GOP,” Schmidt said.
“And many Republican voters are beginning
to say he is the most electable.”
If Romney does end up becoming the
Republican nominee, the next big question
among voters and political pundits is who
is going to be his running mate? Although it
may be too early to speculate, there has been
substantial talk of potential candidates, all
of whom bring different voting blocs to his
campaign.
Some speculate that Romney may choose
a woman vice-president in order to quell
the falling poll numbers the Republican
Party is receiving from women voters.
Others say Romney may pick a Hispanic
running mate considering it is the fastest-
growing demographic in the country and
overwhelmingly votes Democratic in
elections.
“I have no idea at this point,” Peterson said.
“There aren’t many Republican women who
are nationally prominent.
Peterson went on to say that picking
someone like Florida Senator Marco Rubio,
a Tea Party favorite of Cuban descent, might
also not quite get the job done.
“Rubio will appeal to Cuban Americans,
who already vote Republican anyway,”
Peterson said. “But I don’t know if he will
make a strong enough appeal to Latinos in
Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.”
Regardless of who Romney picks, assuming
he locks up the Republican nomination, there
is a general consensus this will be a very close
general election come November. Candidates
of both parties will have substantial financial
backing as well as thousands of foot soldiers
to campaign on their behalf. Presidential
elections will take place Nov. 6.
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