So now, Romney has lost even the right-wing radio hosts.
"Puke!" "Like Nixon." "Weakest candidate ever." "Losing."
Those are samples of what they're saying on right-wing radio about Romney these days. I listened so you didn't have to. Yes, they know he's losing -- or has already lost. And they're moving from blaming his consultants to blaming Romney himself.
Here's the popular Neal Boortz from his show last Tuesday, 9/25/12:
"For all patriots out there, here’s a way to drop a not-so-subtle hint to the Romney campaign. Look around your house: find two balls. Two tennis balls, two golf balls, two baseballs, just find two balls, put them in a sack, and deliver them to your local Romney campaign headquarters. Maybe a note which says 'Here, use these, until you get your own.' …Frankly, he needs to step it up a notch -- or ten."
This radio despair is bad news for the GOP, and good for Obama. I know, we all enjoyed Peggy Noonan writing in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that Romney's campaign is an incompetent, rolling calamity. But she's writing for people who read.
The Tea Party base isn't reading the Wall Street Journal. They're listening to daytime AM radio. And what they're hearing is despair.
Here's Michael Savage, on one of his last shows, Sept. 21, 2012 , before he "won" his lawsuit against his national distribution network and suddenly went off the air last week:
"These ads the Republicans are running on every cable channel… 'Attention, Tea Party activists and patriots: Send us your money to the RNC.' Oh, puke! I'll send you nothing. What do you mean, send you money? For what? What do you stand for? Winning? That's all you stand for? Why don't you tell us what you stand for? Say you stand for something, Mr. Romney! Then maybe you wouldn't have to beg us for the money."
Even Rush Limbaugh is joining in. When Romney's 47% video came out, Rush tried to put a positive spin on it. But he knew it was bad. Here is Rush from
Sept. 18, talking about the impact of Romney's comments and how his campaign consultants won't "let him" inspire the 47%:
"I've spoken to Mitt Romney a number of times, and I don't believe he's written them off, despite how it sounds. But if he has, it's time to forget that. If he has written 'em off, this is an opportunity to educate 'em. This is an opportunity to inspire 'em… But he's gotta be able to do it. He's gotta have consultants who are fearless and will let him do it. These consultants! These people put shackles on these guys and try to get 'em to make sure they don't make a mistake when they go out and speak, and look what happens."
Here's Rush again, from
July 10, admitting even before the conventions that Romney was hardly the "ideal nominee":
“The bottom line is, we don’t have anybody on our side that anybody’s gonna fall in love with, and frankly that’s fine with me… We don’t have the ideal nominee. There wasn’t the ideal nominee this time around.”
Here's Laura Ingraham, from
August 10, assessing Romney's chances:
“I might be the skunk at the picnic, but I’m going to say it and I’m going to say it clearly: Romney is losing… If the election were held today, Mitt Romney would lose… You should be killing out there. And instead, you’re being killed.”
And here's Laura Ingraham again, from one month later, on
Sept. 10. This one got some attention at the time, but it's worth repeating:
"If you can't beat Barack Obama with this record, then shut down the party. Shut it down. Start new, with new people… And if you're Mitt Romney, with all of your expertise and all of your knowledge about how the economy works, and you're in this, you have one shot, man. This is going to be the first line of your obituary: you won or you lost. It's all on the line for the country, and it's all on the line for you… I don't know if Mitt Romney can beat him."
And Laura Ingraham has kept going on this theme. On
Sept. 29, she interviewed Newt Gingrich on the air, and said with frustration that Romney was refusing to swing at "big fat hanging slow pitches" about important issues (such as "how Obama's economic policies will destroy this nation," of course). Then she went on to wonder out loud if Romney might be campaigning so badly that he could kill Republicans' chances in other races:
"The other issue here that I think has been bubbling up is our Senate prospects and maintaining the House of Representatives for Republicans. Are you worried today about the downdraft effect on other races if Romney is not able to turn around the battleground states? If there's not a real sense of urgency on the part of the Romney campaign to do this, how much is he going to hurt other candidates?"
At least one right-wing radio host saw during the primaries how weak Romney would be this fall. Here is Mark Levin from all the way back on
Jan. 29, comparing Romney to the biggest GOP disaster of all time, Nixon himself:
"I have said that Romney is in many ways Richard Nixon… It is a disaster. … My great fear is, however, that he is the weakest candidate who can face Obama and will go into the general election with a fractured base, thanks to his own character flaws, which are now on display, and his tactics of personal destruction."
Thanks, right-wing radio! Please keep up this message through election day. Tell your fans again and again how horrible Romney is. For once, I agree with you!