case, i think he s the story. he s the big story in that party. and it s clearly not a case of familiarity breeds contempt, but breeds unease among even the most rabid of caucus goers or primary voters. just unease. i ve got to say this, harold, and we re going to be going to a national nbc news wall street journal poll in a minute that shows real divisions in the republican party. not bad divisions, but real divisions. and it breaks down this way. if you re a conservative nationally, you re going to support newt gingrich. if you re a moderate, nationally, right now you re supporting mitt romney. and that is the dynamic nationally that s taking place. not so much in iowa and new hampshire where they re getting closer looks, but just as far as the broad brush. there s no doubt, mitt romney s going to have to start polling some conservative voters over,
i saw that. therein lies the great challenge for mitt romney to say i m the true blue conservative leader. and again, that s the question harold is asking. how does the base make its decisions? do they make it on conservativeness? or do they make it on ability to win? that s one of the questions they ll have to answer. i understand joe s point about conservative versus nonconservative, or the moderate versus the conservative. but if you think about george w. bush in 2000, he ran his campaign on being a compassionate conservative, not leaving any child behind. so he tried to position himself as that. on the second note, that ron paul, one of the reasons he s been so consistent in the polls, i was with a prominent republican yesterday that outlined the thesis that each of the candidates have to have. ron paul has been the one candidate with the most consistent thesis throughout. he s a libertarian, a proud one, taken on the fed, certain policies, he s not wavered at
in a general. and according to the new poll where romney has a better shot at beating barack obama. therein lies the dilemma for republican voters. and you wonder conservative, or the guy who can win the general? and to harold s question, it s whether or not they re actually thinking about that. this may be, if i m jon huntsman, my argument is, i m the third way. you have a conservative, a person that george will and erick erickson called the most conservative in the race and somebody that everybody thinks is electable in a general election. he s been doing the rounds. he was on the view yesterday, several other networks doing interviews as if he has not missed a beat. and he s not looking at the polls, keeping his head down and moving forward. let s look into the numbers that willie was talking about. the tightening in iowa comes as wall street journal polling suggests mitt romney s main obstacle lies with the primary voters.
minds, that john this morning brought this you said it was the most incredible post you ve read from eric erickson. yes. i read eric erickson every morning. and eric does speak for true blue conservative he does and in a very articulate and passionate way. whenever you think about his views, he is a very good representative of a certain part of the republican party. this is a demolition job on mitt romney that basically says, he says he s been sitting, reading 200 pages of opo from the campaign on romney and you come to the conclusion that mitt romney is a man without any core convictions, will say anything to win, totally despicable. he trashes romney on every level and then says he will lose to barack obama. he will destroy conservativism in the process. wow. and then says it is so bad, and he is predicting romney will get the nomination and these things will happen. he says it is so bad i am now reconsidering my previous out of
win. i think that you put mitt romney with the vp candidate in herman cain who is gunning for the shot today when he said, you have the wall street experience and i have my main street experience and that is the next line like let s partner up and go for it. will the christian conservatives stay home if mitt romney is the nominee? i think that the mormon issue in the south and north carolina will be big. they want to get rid of barack obama. there s no staying home for conservatives, and so you put up two people who ostensibly have business credentials, and you know, mitt romney looking like a strong figure and i think that herman cain comes in with the true blue conservative credentials and it is tough for the president to beat.