The political consultants -- yeah, yeah, I know, but if I'm citing Dionne, I can cite them, too -- say that negative ads cut twice. For every two votes you take from your target, you lose one your own.
Consistent with this little rule of thumb is this: the Republican Presidential primary turnout this year in Florida was down about 15% to 1.6-1.7M, from 1.9-2.0M in that not-so-great Republican year 2008.
There should be no tolerance for this among the Republican establishment. If Mitt's campaign can't carry the battle itself to Newt from here on out, they should be forced to duke it out at the convention. So, as soon as pigs fly they will weigh in to stop Romney's negative ad campaigns.
Speaking of "No tolerance," how about this? Newt has challenged the winner-take-all allocation of Florida's remaining 50 delegates, according to the other rule that says that any state holding a primary before April 1 must "provide for the proportional allocation of delegates." If Newt's challenge is upheld, not only will pigs fly, but the present count of delegates will switch to
- Romney
- Gingrich
- Paul
- Santorum
13
Kewl!
Of course by the time the tribunal meets and decides, the margin will make redistribution of the Florida 50 irrelevant.
