After a week of the press drooling over the possibility of an all-out Obama v Clinton brawl, the candidates decided to end the nastiness and debate nice just in time for super Tuesday [NPR]. So now, it’s the Republicans’ turn [Bostonist].
What’s interesting is that you don’t hear anyone among the candidates, their surrogates, or the press calling for McCain and Romney to chill out, end the bitterness and focus on the issues. The Dems got a lot of that, but everyone seems content to watch the Republican front runners duke it out - particularly the Republican front-runners. The LA Times looks at the historical roots of this battle:
On Sept. 19, 2000, John McCain rose in the Senate to rail against what he called the “staggering” sums that the federal government planned to spend to help Salt Lake City stage the 2002 Winter Olympics…
Mitt Romney, who headed the Olympics, counseled calm when reporters from Utah’s Deseret Morning News reached him in Sydney, Australia. Romney challenged McCain’s arithmetic, arguing that taxpayers would provide only $250 million…
The clash over Olympics spending, which dragged on for two years, helps explain some of the acrimony that now characterizes the race between the two front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination. The dispute provided an early preview of the fissures that still divide McCain and Romney as they face what may be decisive contests Tuesday.
“It may be a source of the sniping between the two,” said Quin Monson, assistant director of the Center for Elections and Democracy at Romney’s alma mater, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Kelly Patterson, the center’s director, agreed: “People have long memories in politics.”
This piece is on the right track, though it needs to be a lot longer. The context of the ‘02 Olympic feud only underscores the futility of Romney’s amnuition against McCain - the former Mass. Governor wants America to believe that Washington is the problem in this country, while his opponent represents nothing of the sort [washingtonpost.com, Zachary Goldfarb]:
For his part, Romney belittled McCain’s endorsements, saying, “I know that the political establishment is going to try and pull for John McCain, but I expect that I’m going to get the support of the people.”
As if McCain needed a reason to dislike Romney more.
So let the Democrats touch, feel, and unite - Romney/McCain will continue to get nasty right through Tuesday’s polls. Oh, and don’t forget about the Huckster, he’s making a great fan for the flames and a great surrogate for McCain [Conservative Pulse]:
Huckabee is someone who has been known to hold the occassional grudge and he feels badly burned by the brass knuckles campaign that Mitt Romney ran in Iowa. By staying in the race, Huckabee is drawing votes that might otherwise go to Romney. And if he stays in the race until Wednesday, Huckabee will be able to help tip things to McCain.
Huckabee would like to be Vice-President and all signs suggest McCain would like having him on the ticket. The two men get along well and have a great deal of respect for each other.
