Will Romney's "Play It Safe" Campaign End Like Dewey's

There have been numerous comments regarding the Drudge Report headline that Condoleezza Rice is at the top of the list as Mitt Romney's running mate along the lines of "it will never happen as Mitt is running a "Play it safe" campaign.

 Romney has come under a lot of criticism from Republicans' some quite prominent in the media, for what has been perceived as a low key, lacklustre and defensive campaign so far. 


Certainly the notion that Romney will, in contrast to a controversial figure like Rice, choose someone who will not be a "distraction" e.g. a Portman or Pawlenty has been the general meme.


Those who hold that view in the media, especially those on the left, which is of course the bulk of the media, point to what they describe as the "disastrous" choice of Sarah Palin "who cost McCain the election' as a hobgoblin stricture that Romney should not make the same "mistake." 


Well Lord save us from our "friends and their advice. The facts are that Palin actually revived McCain's moribund campaign and put him in the lead until the financial collapse and McCain's "suspension" of his campaign which does not fit either their hatred of Palin or their "advice" to an opponent.


The commentator "technopeasant at Conservatives4Palin survey's Romney's current campaign and makes a very valid comparison to the disastrous campaign of Thomas E. Dewey against Harry Truman. 


Fine, let Romney carry on playing it safe and hoping for an economic collapse-heaven forbid he shoudl do something bold like choosing a Rice or Palin to shore up the base and galvanise his campaign. In the meantime Romney is 8 points behind Obama in Virginia which, if that holds on election day, means that Romney will have played safe right into Obama's second term.

technopeasant 26 minutes ago

A comparison between Mitt Romney and his strategy and Thomas Dewey and his losing strategy in 1948:

http://spectator.org/archives/...

Key Takeaway:

"...Well, went the reasoning, the economy was in turmoil, Berlin had been blockaded, China was in the middle of a civil war, the Middle East had just exploded in the first Arab-Israeli War, the State of Israel being only weeks old. Fresh from WWII, the concern was that WWIII was teetering on the brink."

"So what decision did Dewey make? What was to be the day-to-day of the Dewey campaign?"

"Play it safe."

"...He would--and did--play it safe. And lost the White House in a spectacular upset.

"And what unsettling similarity in thus far unfolding 2012 campaign reminds of Dewey?"

"In biorgrapher Smith's words of the Dewey play it safe strategy:"

"So there it was: a neat combination of personal preference, bad memories, political necessity, and genuine statesmanship, wrapped up in THE UNANIMOUS SUPPORT OF TRUSTED ADVISERS AND STATE PARTY LEADERS."

And finally from Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard:

"...Is it too much to ask Mitt Romney to get off autopilot and actually think about the race he's running? Adopting a PREVENT DEFENSE when it's only the second quarter and you're NOT even ahead is dubious enough as a strategy. But his campaign's monomaniacal belief that it's about the ECONOMY and only the economy, and that they need to keep telling us stupid voters that it's only about the economy, has gone from being an annoying tick to a dangerous self-delusion."

This article needs to be sent to as many conservatives as possible before the convention. It contains everything you need to know to why Romney is a loser.