Looks like RomneyCare was Mitt's Waterloo
Jon Ward:
Interviews with top officials at FreedomWorks, a Washington-based organizing hub for Tea Party activists around the country, revealed that much of their thinking about the 2012 election revolves around derailing the former Massachusetts governor. ...
The group knows they cannot impose their will on the fiercely independent conservative organizers fueling the Tea Party. But they say the activist base is just as anti-Romney as they are.
And the two biggest reasons are no surprise: RomneyCare and the fact that nobody believes a word that Mitt Romney says.
Brendan Steinhauser, who travels around the country meeting with activists as FreedomWorks’ top liaison to the grassroots, said most people he talks to are “definitely trying to stop Romney.”
“I don’t think I’ve met any groups or any local activists that like him or want him to be president,” Steinhauser said. “They just don’t believe he’s authentic. That’s the biggest problem in addition to the health care thing.”
Three other interesting things from Ward's article, which is worth reading:
1. The FreedomWorks spokesman included Newt Gingrich on its list of unacceptable candidates.
2. According to a BYU study, of all the DC-based tea party groups trying to influence GOP primaries, FreedomWorks has the strongest record.
3. FreedomWorks head Matt Kibbe dismissed Romney's current front-runner status by comparing him to Charlie Crist:
“Charlie Crist had everything, right? He had name ID, tons of money in the bank. He was the sitting governor, he had all the advantages of incumbency, and yet this ragtag insurgent movement connected to a capable candidate and blew up that whole model,” Kibbe said. “In some ways Romney looks like the Charlie Crist of this cycle: he’s got all the money, he’s got the name ID.”
If that's what ends up happening, you can say you read it here first, more than one year ago. Just as you did with Crist, way back in early 2009.