the mitt romney platform is going to say that obama care is a socialistic abomination and it needs to be repealed, because it s killing jobs and freedom, just like the michele bachmann one would. so this is not, you know, nelson rockefeller against barry goldwater. this is really just a question of, does the tea party, does the conservative base of the republican party, you know, feel that they can trust and have confidence in romney to be that same conservative as president, versus moderate, saying, you know, we think he s faking it. well, matt kibbe doesn t. the man s sitting right here and doesn t have any confidence in the guy. well, think about the other thing that s going on is the senate is in play, and there are a historic number of targets that we can go after as tea partyers, not just in a general, where we think we ll pick up enough seats to take the senate, but in the primaries. so you think you can control the next president, no matter who he is? you re going to ha
you go to tampa next september, 2012, and they end up having to sit there with their hands under their butts while romney wins at the old establishment of the republican party wins again. yeah, and i think that s probably the most likely scenario, except watching it sort of from the outside, like you re saying, i would put a little different spin on it. i think if romney comes through this process and wins the nomination, yeah, he s the establishment candidate, but i still think in a way, the tea party s won in a very significant way, if that happens. because when you look at mitt romney, we call him sort of the moderate candidate in this race. we re calling him that because in massachusetts, you know, a decade ago, two decades ago, he definitely was a moderate. and we re calling him that because of the health care plan. and because in this campaign,
i think president obama himself is the clearest example of west s definition of american exceptionalism, isn t he, when you think about it? look where he is. and now for the big number. it might come as no surprise in this fall s gop debate since rick perry, who was dealt the most verbal punches by the other candidates. that s right, he played the role of piñata more often than all the other candidates combined. but, here s a shocker. who do you think threw the most punches at him? it was jon huntsman, with how many attacks on his opponents? 19. unfortunately for huntsman, the whacks don t seem to have provided much momentum given his blaze in the polls. 19 times at bat for jon huntsman and that s tonight s big number. up next, will mitt romney kill the tea party? if the republicans nominate romney, think about it, there s talk among conservatives of a possible third party challenge from the right. and that s ahead tonight on hardball. you re watching only on msnbc. but with advai
at the same time, a surprise drop in consumer sentiment and expectations, and that could be bad news heading into the holiday shopping season. that s the first frlatest from first in business worldwide. now back to hardball. welcome back to hardball. if people have anointed mitt romney as the gop nominee this year, someone has forgotten to tell the tea party. romney s support has remained flatline offered the past few months, in poll after poll, his support has stuck somewhere around 25%, generally lower than that. not a great place to be for the front-runner. and one reason for his inability to gain traction in the polls is because the base in the party, and most vocally, the tea party, have been hesitant to get behind him, even though they know him, perhaps with good reason. in a year when passion and anger at the current president is driving the narrative, romney has cast himself as the pragmatic choice. here is the challenge he faces,
anti-anti-government candidate. romney will never be able to appeal to those who want limited government. he fundamentally cannot. he is at bottom a center right candidate, who believes government, when run effectively and efficiently, can produce the best results for the people. it s a noble view. one that the gop base seemingly hates him for. if romney becomes the gop nominee, it will prove that the tea party project was an abject failure and that the momentum of 2010 was only temporary. romney doesn t represent taking the country back. my question is, does he have enough anger, just emotionally, against what s been going on, to be your guy s representative in the general election? does he feel and act like a tea partier? well, i don t think it s how he feels, i think it s what he stands for. and if he s going to run on repealing obama care, if he comes up with some plan but not repealing his massachusetts plan, which he s very proud of. he said so again this week. and that