Romney won the mud ball war

People may say that they hate it when politicians engage in mudslinging, but when a politician slings better mud than the other people take notice. Romney's dirt clods are managed to stick to Newt, while Newt seems to hit himself with his own mud. Newt shined when he articulated his bold and positive message, but when Romney started the attack ads in Iowa, Newt became unglued and started to fire the mud back (1). After Florida, Romney became a stronger candidate by overcoming Newt’s attacks, while Newt sunk under his own attacks. People can’t take negative campaigning in large doses because it starts to look like reality T.V. where conflict drives the product and that leaves a bitter and ugly feeling amongst the viewers. Now that Romney is the clear frontrunner, he must move towards a positive campaign to unite the party, and he must go after President Obama because Newt is not the sitting weakened President (2).

Newt demonstrated how to throw a bad mud ball. First, a poorly thrown mud ball does not stick. Newt attacked Romney for being a Massachusetts liberal and that he is not a true conservative. That tactic did not work in Florida because even though Newt won the staunch conservative vote; Romney won the moderate voters plus enough Conservative votes to win the primary (3). Picking the wrong type of mud ball means it will blow up in your face. Newt attacked Romney for being the wealthy ruthless capitalist who gained wealth from taking over bad companies, firing workers and selling the companies for profit. Newt sounded like a liberal by going after Romney’s business record which does not work in a REPUBLICAN primary campaign when the voters like a good business man. Ultimately, Romney will be better prepared for the general election because President Obama will throw the same kind of mud. At first Romney took a few mud balls because Newt took him off guard, but the last two Florida debates demonstrated that Romney caught Newt's mud balls and threw it back in his face.

Romney showed how to throw good mud balls. Romney has a decisive edge in having a bigger war chest, so he could throw a lot of mud balls. On top of that, Romney found an ally that threw a sticky goopy mud ball that stuck. One of Newt's wives slung a few mud clods and revealed that Newt wanted to be husband with benefits and asked for an open marriage. The Floridian women did not like Newt's modern interpretation of marriage and voted overwhelmingly for Romney 52% to 38% according to Fox exit polls (3).

After the Florida mud ball war, conservative talk show hosts, political consultants and Republican voters hope that Newt and Mitt focus more on a positive message because a prolonged mud ball war does not inspire people to vote for a candidate when the candidate is constantly throwing mud balls. People need a reason to vote for someone instead of a million reasons to vote against a candidate.

Notes/Cited Sources

1. http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/how-mitt-suckered-newt/

Dick Morris is an effective political consultant and also has great insights into negative campaigning. He talks about how Romney wanted to sucker newt into a mudslinging contest.

2. http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/stop-the-negatives-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/

3. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2012/florida-primary-jan-31/exit-polls)