This is, admittedly, only speculation, but there are increasing signs tonight that the Romney campaign may be suffering from cash shortages, leaving it hampered in its supposed plans to wallpaper media markets with a massive ad blitz between now and Election day.
Rachel Maddow on her show tonight noted that strangely, Romney's latest events calendar has him spending more time at fund-raising events than out on the road campaigning, and this at a time when he desperately needs to find a new messaging approach if he has any hope of turning his chaotic campaign around.
A Maddow map showed Mitt in such strange places as Utah and Texas. For Mormon Mitt, Utah seems like a natural spot if you need money, but not if you need votes, because his big problems right now are key capturing swing states like Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, Colorado and Florida.....all of which he is currently losing.
Same goes for Texas....great for money raising, but not for campaigning. So what is up?
The New York Times tonight headlines: Romney Campaign Cautious With Ad Budget, Even in Key States
Despite what appears to be a plump bank account and an in-house production studio that cranks out multiple commercials a day, Mr. Romney’s campaign has been tightfisted with its advertising budget, leaving him at a disadvantage in several crucial states as President Obama blankets them with ads.
One major reason appears to be that Mr. Romney’s campaign finances have been significantly less robust than recent headlines would suggest. Much of the more than $300 million the campaign reported raising this summer is earmarked for the Republican National Committee, state Republican organizations and Congressional races, limiting the money Mr. Romney’s own campaign has to spend.
With polls showing President Obama widening his lead in some of these states and the race a dead heat in others, Mr. Romney’s lack of a full-throttle media campaign is risky, especially as he struggles to get his message out over the din of news about his campaign’s recent setbacks.
The article notes that Obama is outspending Romney in key states like Colorado, Ohio and New Hampshire, all must-win states for Romney.
Why is the Romney team sitting on cash if it has it....or does it really have it? If they have it, it certainly won't do them any good sitting on it since they have just six weeks to turn things around, even if that is remotely possible. Claims are that the Republicans plan to blanket swing states with a tsunami of negative advertising.
Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist and ad-man, said the case against Obama's record will be made on the airwaves by the campaign and outside Republican groups — and it no longer needs Romney as a daily spokesman.
"On the outside, here's what going to happen: we're going to nuke Barack Obama into radioactive sludge in the swing states with 3000-4000 points of TV in September," Wilson said. "Crossroads and Restore [two Republican SuperPACs] will do the same. It's going to be hitting in concert with the terrible economic news, and it'll strike a chord."
Kos argues that such a move isn't going to change much:
So a week ago they had spent $170 million (much higher today) in order to lay waste to Obama's numbers, and the opposite has happened.
Furthermore, not only did this increase in Obama's numbers begin well before the conventions, in early August, but that upward trajectory continued through both conventions, the Republican one included. If a three-day unchallenged Republican infomercial couldn't dent that trajectory, nor the recent underwhelming jobs report ...
So now Republicans hope that wasting more billionaire dollars will suddenly change the equation, that what hasn't worked to date will suddenly lead to different results. Kind of like the old definition of insanity, huh, which is quite appropriate given the state of the current Republican Party.
It is beginning to appear that all that money supposedly piled up for Romney may not be there....even more intriguing although totally speculative is that some big donors may have become so disillusioned that they are asking for their money back, figuring that it would be a massive waste to spend it on a candidate who seems to be not just losing, but cratering.
If you were David Koch or Shelly Adelson, would you be eager to turn over a few million more to Romney right now and watch him flail away with some desperate message that accomplishes nothing? Or would you act like any prudent billionaire and recognize that sometimes you need to cut your losses and move on?