The question has been coming up more often lately. He leads polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s expected to win in Ames, he’s doing reasonably well in the money race, and his organization has been top-notch so far. On the other hand, he’s hardly a force in the national polls, and he trails in the big, delegate-rich states. And he’s a flip-flopper from Massachusetts. And a Mormon.
Six months ago, I called him the “frontrunner-in-waiting,” though I later backed off the claim. E.J. Dionne, at any rate, thinks Mitt’s pretty well positioned. And he suggests that Giuliani and McCain, perhaps now feeling twinges of anxiety over their decisions to sit out the straw poll, are counting on Huckabee and Brownback to damage Romney in Ames.
There’s a lot riding on whether or not Romney can claim to have met expectations after Saturday’s results are in. The latest news cycle has taken something of a turn against him, putting him on the defensive over abortion and over his Mormon faith just as he should be trying to close the deal with straw poll voters. How well he recovers this week may say quite a bit about whether he really is the frontrunner-in-waiting — or just a guy who has managed to defy the laws of political gravity a little too long.
1 Response to “Is Romney the GOP Frontrunner?”
Something to say?
well, there are many of us Romeny supporters who think that he is at least a joint-frountrunner, but he won’t accept the title.
Seriously though, it depends on what strategy you think will pay off. If you think that winning the early states will build enough momentum to win on Super Tuesday, and then pick up other states after that, then, yeah, Romney is the frontrunner.
If you think that the early states have little or no effect, and that they will not give the winner momentum on ST, then Thompson or Giuliani is the frontrunner.
Left by Matt-A
August 7, 2007 at 6:52pm