MEMO from the Democratic National
Committee [original PDF]
Memorandum
From:
Patrick
Gaspard,
Democratic
National
Committee
To:
Interested
Parties
Date:
March
6,
2012
Re:
With
Super
Tuesday
Looming,
Mitt
Romney’s
Vast
Spending
Advantage
Gives Him
an
Edge
but
His
Blatant
Hypocrisy
and
Extreme
and
Out‐of‐Touch
Positions Will
Be
His
General
Election
Kryptonite
With
Republican
voters
from
coast
to
coast
heading
to
the
polls
today
as
multiple states
across
the
country
hold
Super
Tuesday
contests,
this
is
one
of
the
biggest and
most
important
nights
of
the
primary
season. But
if
the
GOP
candidates
have had
a
chance
to
look
at
the
results
of
the
latest
national
NBC
News/Wall
Street Journal
poll
on
the
presidential
race,
it
won’t
just
be
the
tallying
of
votes
that
keeps them
up
tonight.
In
a
strong
demonstration
of
the
damage
that
has
already
been done
by
the
incredibly
divisive
and
ugly
GOP
nomination
process,
four
in
10
of
all respondents
say
it
has
given
them
a
less
favorable
impression
of
the
Republican Party.
When
asked
to
describe
the
Republican
contests
in
a
word
or
phrase, respondents
offered
such
choice
answers
as
“painful,”
“lesser
of
two
evils,” “uninspiring,”
“poor
choices”
and
“depressed.”
But
Mitt
Romney
ought
to
be
more
worried
than
anybody.
Results
of
the
new
poll show
Romney’s
favorability
rating
has
dropped
to
an
anemic
28
percent,
with
39 percent
having
an
unfavorable
impression
of
Romney.
He’s
faring
even
worse among
independent
voters,
with
just
22
percent
having
a
favorable
impression
of Romney
while
38
percent
view
him
unfavorably.
What
might
cause
such
a
strong unfavorable
view
of
Mitt
Romney
in
the
last
few
weeks?
Perhaps
it’s
the
fact
that he’s
running
an
almost
entirely
negative
campaign;
or,
that
he’s
pandering
to
the far
right
and
in
the
process
demonstrating
that
no
one
can
trust
him;
it
may
also
be attributed
to
his
being
incredibly
out
of
touch.
It’s
very
bad
news
for
Mitt
Romney,
whose
standing
among
voters
is
now
worse than
virtually
all
other
recent
presidential
candidates
who
went
on
to
capture
their party’s
nomination.
In
fact,
as
MSNBC’s
First
Read
noted:
In
fact,
Romney’s
image
right
now
is
worse
than
almost
all
other
recent
candidates who
went
on
to
win
their
party’s
presidential
nomination:
Obama
was
51%/28% and
McCain
was
47%/27%,
per
the
March
2008
NBC/WSJ
poll;
Kerry
was
42%/ 30%
at
this
point
in
’04;
George
W.
Bush
was
43%/32%
in
2000;
and
Bob
Dole was
35%/39%.
As
the
GOP
nomination
fight
continues
through
Super
Tuesday
and
beyond, Romney
has
clearly
done
severe
damage
to
himself
should
he
make
it
to November.
That’s
because
in
greater
and greater
numbers,
voters
are
seeing
that Mitt
Romney
will
say
anything
to
get
elected. He
has
tried
to
buy
his
way
to
victory
and
has
taken
extreme
and
out‐of‐touch
positions
that
will
alienate
general
election voters.
ROMNEY
VASTLY
OUTSPENDING
HIS
OPPONENTS
IN
AN
EFFORT
TO
BUY
HIS WAY
TO
VICTORY
IN
OHIO
AND
ACROSS
THE
COUNTRY
Throughout
the
battle
for
the
GOP
nomination,
Mitt
Romney
and
his
allies
have made
it
clear
they
has
no
problem
burying
his
opponents
with
millions
of
dollars
in ad
buys
if
that’s
what
it
takes
to
win. The
Super
Tuesday
states
have
been
no exception,
where
NBC
News’
Chuck
Todd
reported
late
last
week
that
Romney
and his
Super
PAC,
Restore
Our
Future,
have
outspent
Rick
Santorum,
Newt
Gingrich and
their
Super
PACs
combined
–
an
$8.4
million
to
$4.9
million
advantage.
In Ohio, which will be one of tonight’s most closely watched contests,
the Wall Street Journal reported that Romney and his Super PAC have
spent $4 million on television
and
radio
ads,
compared
to
just
$968,000
from
Santorum
and
his
Super PAC – a 4‐to‐1 advantage.
And as the
New York Times
reported late last week, of the 11 Super PAC‐funded commercials
connected to the presidential election that have run since the
beginning of February, all but one has been negative.
Simply put,
Mitt
Romney
and
his
allies
are
carpet‐bombing
the
opposition
to
win.
Now,
according
to
NBC
News’
Mark
Murray,
new
ad
buys
by
Restore
Our
Future
in Louisiana,
Illinois,
Mississippi
and
Alabama
bring
spending
by
Romney’s
Super
PAC in
the
GOP
race
to
a
grand
total
of
$28
million.
Clearly,
Mitt
Romney
and
his
allies are
willing
to
spend
any
amount
of
money
saturating
media
markets
state‐by‐state to
knock
out
their
opponents
and
buy
their
way
to
the
top.
As
Republican
strategist and former Rick Perry backer Nelson Warfield was quoted as
saying in a recent
New York Times
article, “It’s clear the negative ads are what’s keeping this guy
alive.
It
seems
like
Republican
primary
voters
will
not
vote
for
Mitt
Romney
unless they are forced into it.
And the way they’re forced into it is when he beats the other
guy
senseless.”
EXTREME,
OUT‐OF‐TOUCH
POSITIONS
WILL
COME
BACK
TO
HAUNT
ROMNEY SHOULD
HE
MAKE
IT
THE
GENERAL
ELECTION
But
the
price
that
Mitt
Romney
is
paying
in
the
Republican
nominating
process can’t
be
summed
up
in financial
costs
alone.
As
he’s
campaigned
ahead
of
today’s GOP
contests,
Romney
has
taken
extreme
and
incredibly
out‐of‐touch
positions
that will
greatly
alienate
general
election
voters
should
he
make
it
November.
Just yesterday,
for
instance,
while
discussing
rising
tuition
costs
at
a
town
hall
event
in Ohio,
Romney
dismissively
suggested
that
students
should
“shop
around”
for affordable
tuition.
What
Romney
neglected
to
mention
was
that
the
plan
he
has embraced
would
cut
Pell
Grant
funding
and
end
a
tax
credit
for
higher
education, and
as
Massachusetts
governor,
he
cut
higher
education
funding
while
tuition
and fees
increased.
So
students
struggling
to
make
ends
meet
should
simply
bargain‐hunt
while
Mitt
Romney
actively
works
to
eliminate
benefits
and
make
college
less affordable?
Mitt
Romney
also
went
as
far
on
the
campaign
trail
as
calling
President
Obama
“out of
touch”
for
encouraging
hardworking
Americans
to
pursue
manufacturing
jobs
– as
if
that
were
something
to
be
ashamed
of
in
this
country.
Perhaps
Romney’s comment
shouldn’t
come
as
much
of
a
surprise
–
we
already
know
his
record
when it
comes
to
American
manufacturing.
During
his
time
as
Governor
of Massachusetts,
he
repeatedly
cut
funding
for
small
manufacturers’
workforce training,
and
manufacturing
in
the
state
declined
by
twice
the
national
average under
his
watch.
That’s
in
stark
contrast
to
the
President’s
record:
thanks
to
his efforts
to
help
the
American
auto
industry
recover
and
additional
measures
to
help small
businesses,
expand
exports
and
bring
jobs
back
to
America,
our
nation’s manufacturers
are
hiring
workers
for
the
first
time
since
the
late
1990s.
And manufacturing
has
added
more
than
400,000
jobs
since
2010.
But
Mitt
Romney’s
recent
collection
of
extreme
positions
and
out‐of‐touch
views doesn’t
end
there.
Last
week,
he
embraced
the
extreme
right
wing
of
his
party
by advocating
for
the
Blunt‐Rubio
Amendment,
which
would
allow
employers
to
deny access
to
health
coverage
they
found
objectionable.
This
could
severely
restrict women’s
access
to
health
care
and
is
a
fundamental
assault
on
the
rights
of
women to
make
decisions
about
their
health
for
themselves.
But
it
wouldn’t
just
stop
at restricting
women’s
access
to
contraception
–
it
could
affect
access
to mammograms,
cervical
cancer
screenings
and
maternity
care.
He’s
also
said
he would
have
supported
a
so‐called
“Personhood
amendment”
in
Massachusetts
to define
life
as
beginning
at
the
moment
of
conception.
It
could
have
banned
all abortions
and
likely
banned
many
common
forms
of
birth
control.
And
if
that wasn’t
bad
enough,
Mitt
Romney
showed
just
how
weak
a
leader
he
is
and
how he’s
willing
to
cater
to
the
worst
elements
of
the
far
right
wing
fringe
when
he refused
to
condemn
Rush
Limbaugh
for
his
slanderous
invective
against
Sandra Fluke,
a
Georgetown
Law
student
who
was
barred
from
testifying
by
Congressional Republicans
on
the
issue
of
affordable
access
to
contraception
and
other
health care
services
for
women.
Romney’s
run
to
the
right
may
be
winning
him
Tea
Party voters,
but
he’s
losing
support
from
women
after
alienating
them
with
his
policies. It’s
no
wonder
Romney
is
losing
among
women
by
almost
18
percent.
In
Ohio
alone, less
than
a
third
of
women
view
him
favorably.
For
further
evidence
of
just
how
far
Romney
is
willing
to
go
to
shore
up
Tea
Party support,
look
at
his
recent
pledge
to
repeal
the
bipartisan
Sarbanes‐Oxley
law
– which
was
passed
by
a
Republican
House
and
signed
into
law
by
President
George W.
Bush.
Following
the
infamous
Enron
scandal,
Sarbanes‐Oxley
restored
much‐needed
confidence
and
responsibility
to
Wall
Street
–
and
Romney’s
reckless
call for
a
repeal
of
this
critical
reform
shows
there
is
simply
no
end
to
Romney’s willingness
to
pander
to
the
right
wing
and
let
our
nation
slide
backward
to
the same
failed
policies
of
the
past.
ROMNEY
CONTINUES
TO
DISPLAY
BLATANT
HYPOCRISY
AND
DISHONESTY
ON THE
ISSUES
Still,
if
his
extreme
and
out‐of‐touch
positions
weren’t
enough
to
give
voters
pause,
his
hypocrisy
and
dishonesty
on
the
issues
–
of
which
some
cases
have
just
been exposed
over
the
past
several
days
–
should
do
the
trick.
He’s
railed
against earmarks
and
federal
spending,
but
he
bragged
in
2002
during
his
run
for Governor
about
his
prowess
at
obtaining
federal
earmarks
for
the
Olympics
–
even going
as
far
as
giving
a
PowerPoint
presentation
to
show
he
knew
exactly
how
to get
taxpayer
money
out
of
Washington.
And
then
just
yesterday,
a
Romney
op‐ed from
2009
surfaced
that
showed
just
how
dishonest
Mitt
Romney
has
been
about his
position
on
health
reform.
While
he’s
slammed
the
Affordable
Care
Act
signed by
President
Obama
and
said
similar
legislation
he
passed
in
Massachusetts
was
no national
model,
he
argued
the
exact
opposite
on
multiple
occasions,
including
in this
2009
USA
Today
op‐ed,
where
he
said
that
the
law
passed
in
Massachusetts
– including
the
individual
mandate
–
could
serve
as
a
national
model.
On
Iran,
Mitt
Romney
is
misleading
voters
and
completely
distorting
President Obama’s
record.
Romney
says
he
would
enact
crippling
sanctions,
isolate
Iran internationally
and
keep
a
military
option
on
the
table
–
but
President
Obama
is already
doing
all
three.
He’s
making
Iran
weaker
and
more
isolated
today
than
ever before.
In
fact,
President
Obama
spoke
just
last
week
at
AIPAC’s
Policy
Conference, making
clear
his
determination
to
prevent
Iran
from
developing
nuclear
weapons. But
Mitt
Romney
won’t
talk
about
any
of
that,
instead
continuing
his
campaign
of hypocrisy
and
dishonesty
on
issues
Americans
care
about.
These
episodes
demonstrate
yet
again
why
so
many
voters
–
even
in
his
own
party –
don't
trust
Mitt
Romney:
he
won’t
tell
the
truth
about
his
record,
and
he’ll
say anything
to
get
elected.
CONCLUSION
While
Super
Tuesday
represents
a
pivotal
moment
in
the
race
for
the
Republican nomination,
tonight
is
hardly
the
end
of
the
battle
for
Mitt
Romney.
With
466 delegates
at
stake
in
today’s
contests
and
Romney’s
current
delegate
count
at
a modest
149,
regardless
of
what
happens
tonight,
Romney
will
still
be
considerably short
of
the
1,144‐delegate
total
needed
to
clinch
the
nomination.
And
while
he may
find
himself
on
top
in
any
number
of
contests
this
evening,
make
no
mistake: with
the
millions
upon
millions
in
outspending
his
opponents
and
the
laundry
list of
extreme,
out‐of‐touch
positions
that
have
characterized
Romney’s
campaign since
day
one,
Mitt
Romney
will
emerge
from
Super
Tuesday
badly
wounded among
general
election
voters
–
and
tonight
will
be
anything
but
a
victory
lap.