With campaign on the ropes, Romney gets a Talent boost
Republican Mitt Romney turned to a familiar local face to jump start his sagging White House hopes.
Former Missouri Senator Jim Talent was in Boston this week, seeking to put a positive spin on the back-to-back losses suffered by the ex-Massachusetts governor.
The setting was a mega dialing-for-dollars push held at the city’s convention center, the second installment of the event that got Romney and Gov. Matt Blunt pictured together in the New York Times almost exactly a year ago.
This time, rather than serving as an unofficial campaign kick-off, the fundraiser was to convince donors Romney’s presidential bid is not on life support.
According to the Boston Globe’s Political Intelligence blog, Talent played the role of sports analyst:
He likened Romney’s plan to win the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary to a boxer trying to knock out his opponent in the early rounds. Now that Romney has finished second in both those contests, he said the nomination contest will be more like NASCAR’s Nextel cup — in other words a longer race to collect delegates from later states.
âThe issue is not primary finishes so much any more,”said Talent, a Missouri Republican who is now a Romney adviser. “The issue is delegate count.”
Later, Talent conceded that Romney had been blindsided by Mike Huckabee in the Hawkeye State, and just didn’t have enough time to recover.
âWe did not foresee Governor’s Huckabee’s rise in Iowa. The governor got occupied in Iowa, as he needed to be,” Talent said, according to the Globe blog. In New Hampshire, Talent said, âWe were surging in the end, and I think had the election been two three days later, we would have won.”
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OT, but I saw that Jim Talent received a passing reference in the Doonesbury cartoon in last Sunday’s comics section. Wonder if that was a first for him.