doing anything to reach out to them.” Other grass-roots organizations are adopting a more wait-and-see view of Romney, however.
Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer tells Newsmax that it is too early to rule individual candidates in or out.
“We still have a lot of work to do before we even get to the primaries,” Kremer tells Newsmax. “All the play- ers are not even on the fi eld yet, so it is too early for us to commit to anything . . . We want to see who rises to the top and best represents the core values and principles of the tea party.”
So while there’s a scenario where- by the tea parties would collaborate to try to defeat Mitt Romney if he appears to be on the verge of run- ning away with the contest, there’s an other circumstance where he could at least win signifi cant tea party support if he emerges as the only viable candidate.
Backing that view is a question
Wilkinson tells Newsmax Romney probably has a modest number of support among the grass roots, “but what I’m hearing is that if Romney wins a few primaries, then the tea party will coalesce around one can- didate, the anti-Romney candidate.” Romney’s main problem, Wilkinson says, is that the biggest issue motivating tea party members is President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “They’re looking at Romneycare as the same thing,” Wilkinson says. “I don’t see him getting their votes.” Or as Matt Kibbe, president and
CEO of FreedomWorks, recently told MSNBC: “He’s so entrenched on that issue in particular, it’s hard to imagine him being able to debate the president of the United States on the question of healthcare freedom, on the question of government-run healthcare, because the president himself has celebrated Romneycare.” So far, there’s no indication Romney plans to shore up his vul-
nerability with the activists on his right fl ank. In the New Hampshire GOP debate he conceded his health- care reforms in Massachusetts were “an experiment,”
adding, “Some
parts didn’t work.” He also vowed to repeal Obamacare. Romney appears to be following a cautious front-runner’s strategy, avoiding venues that might compro- mise his ability to reach out to swing voters in the general election. One example: Romney passed up an opportunity to participate in the fi rst-ever Twitter primary debate, conducted by
TheTeaParty.net. Sources say Romney’s staff advised the organization that the Twitter for- mat would not permit the candidate to fl esh out his responses — a limita- tion that did not appear to hamper most of the other candidates. “I think there’s no doubt that the tea parties will unite against him, and he’s making it easy for them,”
TheTeaParty.net leader Todd Cefaratti tells Newsmax. “He’s not
CNN asked Republican voters earlier this year: What’s more important in 2012, a candidate who agrees with you on every issue but who may not be able to defeat President Obama, or a candidate who can beat Barack Obama who does not agree with you on every important issue? A full 68 percent of respondents said a candidate who can beat Obama. Only 29 percent said it was more important to have a candidate who agreed with them on the issues.
looking at Romneycare as the same thing [as Obamacare]. I don’t see him getting their votes.
“ They’re
That indicates Republicans are hungry indeed to unseat the presi- dent in 2012.
Or as Rep. Chaffetz put it in his recent endorsement, “Mitt Romney is in the best position to beat Barack Obama, and I really want to beat Barack Obama.”
SEPTEMBER 2011 / NEWSMAX 31 ’’
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