Thread: Romney Claws Back in Iowa Polls

Romney Claws Back in Iowa Polls
Huckabee Plans TV Ads
To Attack His Chief Rival;

By LAURA MECKLER
December 31, 2007

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Mike Huckabee's surge in Iowa showed signs of retreat as three new polls found rival Mitt Romney, who has attacked Mr. Huckabee by land and by air, climbing back. In response, the former Arkansas governor called Mr. Romney dishonest and prepared to begin airing his first TV ad directly attacking him starting today.


The three-way Democratic race was nearly as tense. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accused former Sen. John Edwards of hypocrisy for railing against special interests and then allowing an independent, labor-funded group to run TV ads supporting his bid. And Mr. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton continued their feud over who is better prepared to handle foreign policy.

On the Republican side, a Mason-Dixon poll in Iowa found Mr. Romney with 27% and Mr. Huckabee with 23%; other new surveys had Mr. Romney on top or the race at a statistical tie, and Romney aides said they were more concerned about Arizona Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire than Mr. Huckabee in Iowa.

For the Democrats, the new polls all found the race among the top three contenders tight.

Mr. Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, has been hammering Mr. Huckabee in a series of TV ads questioning his record on immigration, crime and foreign policy. Over the weekend, the Huckabee campaign concluded that it had to answer with an aggressive TV ad of its own.

"We are going to sharpen our message very quickly and we are going to respond," said a senior Huckabee adviser.

An ad to begin airing today will accuse Mr. Romney of distorting Mr. Huckabee's record in order to hide his own record on issues including abortion and fee increases while he was governor. "We're gonna come after him on his record."

The aggressive ad strategy carries risk in a state where voters say they don't like negative campaigning. For days, Mr. Huckabee has been promising to run a positive campaign.

Asked what he thought about a Huckabee TV-ad attack, Rob Moran, 35 years old, said: "He'd be at this point a little hypocritical to do that." Still, Mr. Moran allowed that the Romney TV ads had made an impression on him and said he came to hear Mr. Huckabee speak Saturday in Indianola to see how he would respond.

Until now, Mr. Huckabee has delivered his defense on the stump and in interviews, including one yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," where Mr. Huckabee called Mr. Romney's campaign "very desperate and frankly...dishonest."

"If you aren't being honest in obtaining a job, can we trust you to be honest if you get the job?" he said.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden replied: "Mike Huckabee's lashing out with personal attacks against Gov. Romney that have no merit or substance is quite unfortunate. Campaigns should be about the issues."

Mr. Romney, fighting a two-pronged battle, is running ads in Iowa against Mr. Huckabee and in New Hampshire against Sen. McCain, who has gained in polling there and is now a close second.

On Sunday, Mr. Romney noted Mr. McCain's many years of service in Washington and said an outsider would be better able to enact change.

"I don't think you change Washington from the inside," he told reporters.

Mr. Huckabee yesterday also was forced to defend his own misstatement that Pakistanis represent the majority of non-Latin American foreigners trying to enter the country illegally. And he was quizzed on his immigration policy.

In 2005, he said that the U.S. economy "would collapse" without illegal immigrants, but now proposes forcing all 12 million of them to leave the country within 120 days.

"I don't think it would collapse the American economy if people went back and did their process of becoming legal. And all of them aren't going to go back on the same day," he said yesterday on NBC.

http://online.wsj.com

Re:

Mike Huckabee's surge in Iowa showed signs of retreat

As the mythical Austin Powers would say - "Yeah Baby, Yeah!"

Retreat early and often for us, please....

Romney surging in polls before Iowa caucus
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 12/30/2007 12:19:12 PM MST

COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa -- Down more than 10 points in the polls here only weeks ago, Mitt Romney appears to be surging back days before Iowans head to their caucuses.
Two polls released over the weekend showed Romney ahead of rival Mike Huckabee by several points, while another survey out Sunday has Romney in a statistical tie with the former Arkansas governor.
That's a far cry from early November, when a surging Huckabee took the front-runner mantle from Romney and never looked back. While Iowa's caucuses -- the first test of the presidential contest - are difficult to poll given only a small percentage of the state actually turns out for the caucus meetings, the polls may indicate a change in attitudes in Iowa.
A spokesman for Romney said polling really is all over the map.
"We're still running like the underdog," traveling press secretary Eric Fehrnstrom said, "although the sense is the people of Iowa are responding to Mitt Romney's message that he is the candidate who can bring real change to Washington and fix what's broken."
A new McClatchy, MSNBC and Mason-Dixon poll out Sunday has Romney leading Huckabee 27 percent to 23 percent, while an American Research poll from Saturday shows Romney leading Huckabee by 9 points, 32 percent to 23 percent. Meanwhile, a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby International survey of likely caucus-goers finds Romney and Huckabee in a statistical tie.

Huckabee's emergence as a front-runner was followed by intense media scrutiny while Romney had already faced that earlier this year, a point that could have lead to Huckabee's quick rise and plateau in the polls.
Huckabee on Sunday went on NBC's "Meet the Press" to counter criticism that he doesn't have enough foreign policy experience after a series of gaffes on the campaign trail. He ticked off a demographic-filled list about Pakistan when quizzed about a misstep, but spent several moments slamming back at Romney for his critical advertisements.
Huckabee said Romney was running a "desperate and dishonest campaign."
"If you aren't being honest in obtaining the job, can we trust you to be honest when you get the job," Huckabee said.
Romney's national spokesman, Kevin Madden, responded to Huckabee's attack noting that the rival candidate "never refutes the facts of his troubling record."
"It's a record that is tough to defend, so his testiness and irritability when being questioned about it is obvious," Madden said.
"But Mike Huckabee's lashing out with personal attacks against Governor Romney that have no merit or substance is quite unfortunate. Campaigns should be about the issues."

http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_7843891

"If you aren't being honest in obtaining a job, can we trust you to be honest if you get the job?" he said.

Shucks Huck, I feel the same way about illegal aliens. If you aren't being honest in obtaining citizenship, can we trust you to be honest if you get the citizenship?

Dixie

I still say the Democrats are going to in for a big surprise. They keep thinking they are going to get the votes of all registered Democrats. What they aren't counting on is that alot of Democrats are not going to vote for anyone that supports illegal immigration.

Originally Posted by MontereySherry

I still say the Democrats are going to in for a big surprise. They keep thinking they are going to get the votes of all registered Democrats. What they aren't counting on is that alot of Democrats are not going to vote for anyone that supports illegal immigration.

Agree MontereySherry. Illegal Immigration is going to be a huge issue with the 2008 elections regardless of your party affiliation.

You know, I've had this funny feeling about the Dem's situation all along - but haven't said it here at all...well, yet... (and remember, I used to be one of those)...

Background: Let me restate a couple facts/aspects about the Dems that even most Dems tend to overlook -

For one, even though there is a huge amount of Bush-hate and Republican bashing at present, many average 'normal people' Dem voters are not enthralled with their choices at the Presidential level. Many would like to see some different - and better - potential options. This is especially true with the most progressive folks like the ones that had formerly broken away and voted for a 3rd party; the ones, for example that supported Nader in 2000, and various others in 2004.

Second, Bush-bashing and Republican dislike does not necessarily translate into a vote for a particular Dem prez. candidate - it all depends on what the relative options are; especially in the later stage of the process.

Having said the above, I'd be very curious to know how someone like Sen Dorgan would do if he were to arrive suddenly (which, of course, I realize a large lotter winning is far more realistic at this point) on the scene. My hunch, is that even though the name-recognition (trans. 'fundraising') would be a limiting factor, his reputation and quality as a legislator is pretty darn good. In many ways, I think Americans are hungry for the 'unknown' honest 'good guy' / 'good gal' - Byron Dorgan fills that role well. Personally, my ideal Presidential wish ticket is Lou Dobbs paired up with Dorgan - but, I know that doesn't look like a possibility at this time... but, I can always dream, can't I?