Posted by
A Real American on Sunday, December 30, 2007 3:48:39 PM
Since January '07, Mitt has spent well in excess of $80 million, including at least $17.4 million of his own money, paying media fees in excess of $30 million, salaries of roughly $16 million, and consulting payments of more than $15 million.
Romney has fallen into second place in Iowa, running roughly four points behind former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. In New Hampshire, Romney's double digit lead has steadily eroded, while John McCain, who was trailing by 11 to 18 points at the start of December,
has surged to within 3.5 percentage points.
Romney's biggest setback was a December 26
editorial in the Union Leader, a conservative rag with the widest circulation of any publication in New Hampshire.
"Granite Staters want a candidate who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth....Mitt Romney has not," the editorial declared. "The more Mitt Romney speaks, the less believable he becomes.... Mitt Romney has spent a year trying to convince Granite Staters that he is [trustworthy]. It looks like they aren't buying it. And for good reason."
The Union Leader denunciation was preceded by an even more hostile assessment of Romney in the Concord, N.H., Monitor - "We talk about our ability to....see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we'll know it. Mitt Romney is such a candidate."