Wednesday, January 30, 2008

MITT ROMNEY, JOHN MCCAIN

No Big Ad Push For Romney. But Were The Old Ads Working?

The debate may make no major impact on this race. This, however, seems like a significant development:

In a major boost for McCain, Romney signaled earlier Wednesday that he's not ready to commit to a costly campaign in the states holding primaries and caucuses next week.

Several officials said that on the heels of a defeat in Tuesday's Florida primary, Romney's campaign was not attempting to purchase television advertising time in any of the states on the Super Tuesday calendar.

Instead, the former Massachusetts governor's current plans call for campaigning in California and other primary states, said the officials, who had knowledge of the internal discussions. There would be organizational efforts primarily for caucus states.

This may not be quite as ominous for Romney as it sounds — his two high-organization efforts in caucus states, in Wyoming and Nevada, paid off. His expensive television advertising in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida... not so much.

Still, some race observers like John Ellis had wondered if Romney's checkbook could be an unequaled force of campaign firepower, and the deciding factor:

Mitt has to make the call. McCain is going to sweep the Northeastern primary states next week. Huckabee is going to roll along down South, thus denying Romney traction there. The only way to overcome this pincer movement is through vast expenditures of cash for television advertising. The only money available to Romney at the moment is his own. So the question stands: will he write the big check? Or will he say to himself: good money after bad? It's a decision only he can make. If he decides not to write the check, McCain's the nominee.

If Mitt Romney has a good Super Tuesday, it won't be because he spent his way to victory.

01/30 10:54 PMShare