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Crowd Heckles Romney at NH Polling Place

Posted: January 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , |11 Comments

Mitt Romney in Manchester, NH today

Buzzfeed reports that Mitt Romney was Heckled a couple of hours ago at a Manchester, NH polling place. Voters seemed unhappy about Romney’s statement yesterday that he likes to fire people.

At what was meant to be an invigorating warmup to Mitt Romney’s primary-day victory lap here, the candidate’s flub at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday continued to dog him.

Stopping by a polling place at Webster School in Manchester, Romney was greeted by enthusiastic crowds of supporters chanting, “Let’s go MItt!” and rowdy libertarian voters shouting “Ron Paul! Ron Paul!”

But as media surrounded him to collect obligatory quotes about how “the entire nation is watching,” antagonists were committed to continuing the narrative of Romney’s record of a heartless job-slasher.

As the candidate held one voter’s infant, an activist repeatedly shouted, “Are you going to fire the baby?” Another shouted, “I don’t like firing people!”

Romney attempted to explain that his comment was taken out of context. He meant that he thinks people should be able to fire their insurance companies. I guess he doesn’t know that if he gets rid of Obamacare, as he has promised, nothing will prevent insurance companies from dropping sick people and refusing to insure people with preexisting conditions.

Funny how when you’re worth a quarter of a billion dollars, little problems like that don’t seem so troubling.

Nevertheless, Romney is anticipating a big win tonight. But the LA Times suggests that unless he gets more than 37% of the vote, a win may still be perceived as a loss because of the media expectations game.

Romney could still lose ground in the eyes of the media and professional political strategists if he fails to win by a convincing margin here, a northeastern state where he’s been campaigning for years.

How big a vote does Romney need to look like a winner? Reporters and pundits –- the unofficial Board of Expectations, if you will -– have been debating that question in Manchester’s restaurants and bars for the last week.

Here’s what they say: Romney’s standing in New Hampshire polls over the last month has ranged between 33% and 46%. If the former Massachusetts governor comes in at the low end of that range — say, 35% or below — most reporters will see it as a setback. But at 40% or higher, Romney will be declared a clear winner, with momentum that can carry him through the next contests in South Carolina and Florida –- even though he won’t have come near a majority.

We’ll know the outcome later tonight. Be sure to join us for Dakinikat’s live blog of the returns at 8PM Eastern.

11 Comments on “Crowd Heckles Romney at NH Polling Place”

  1. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    January 10, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    Latest poll shows Romney gaining on Obama.

    Obama 48%
    Romney 40%

  2. Connie, Orlando's avatar Connie, Orlando says:
    January 10, 2012 at 3:52 pm

    Just had to share this, for the dog folks out there: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/mitt-romneys-dog-incident_n_1187114.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=1509798,b=facebook

  3. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    January 10, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    Greg Sargent: Romney’s GOP critics undermining his general election argument.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romneys-gop-critics-undermining-his-general-election-argument/2012/01/10/gIQArYIVoP_blog.html

  4. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    January 10, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    Steve Benen:

    Romney has tried to argue that critics of his private-sector layoffs are borderline communists, trying to “put free enterprise on trial.” And yet, when there is no difference whatsoever between the message Dems are pushing and the attacks from Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Jon Huntsman, it suggests the Romney line is a bust.

    But more importantly, it also suggests the progressive line is what resonates with voters — even Republican voters. After all, it’s likely Perry, Gingrich, and Huntsman relied on polls and focus groups to identify the most potent message, and they all quickly found that this is the criticism that resonates.

    For all the talk about this being a center-right nation, there’s a realization that Americans are uncomfortable with excessive greed and the kind of ruthless, screw-the-workers style of capitalism Romney used to get rich. If this discomfort didn’t exist, we wouldn’t see conservative Republican candidates using the argument to make appeals to conservative Republican voters.

  5. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    January 10, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    Mitt Romney: “Who let the dogs out?”

  6. ralphb's avatar ralphb says:
    January 10, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    The Only True Republican Candidate of Our Times

    How bad is it? It’s so bad that Buddy got shut out of at least one debate — sponsored by Bloomberg News — because he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) raise $500,000 in nine days. The absence of Roemer from the debates is beyond preposterous, especially to those of us who have watched the weekly March Of The Dipshits for the last two or three months. He has more education — Harvard undergraduate and a Harvard MBA — than most of them. He has more, and more varied, political experience than any of them, having been not only a member of Congress, but a governor. And, as the founder and CEO of Business First Bank, he’s got more serious private-sector experience than anybody left except Willard Romney. He is a peppery, likable guy with charisma to burn. He also had his hands around the hottest issue of the campaign. And yet, he was locked out, tweeting away from a campaign advisor’s apartment, while clowns like Herman Cain and kooks like Michele Bachmann strutted their hour on the stage just because they could bilk the suckers out of enough money to buy a place behind a podium. The best measure of how thoroughly Citizens United has warped the process is the fact that you never got to hear Buddy Roemer look the other Republicans in the eye, and say things like the things I have heard him say
    (…)
    What Buddy gets is radio row. He worked it twice today. He did the morning-drive guys and then he did the poor souls who have to work 10-2, the dead zone of political talk. There was a zest to his step and he treated every one of the hosts like a brother thought lost at sea. It was election day in New Hampshire, and he had a case to make for the people who would listen.

    Go Buddy!

    • Connie, Orlando's avatar Connie, Orlando says:
      January 10, 2012 at 5:07 pm

      I’ve seen Roemer on several MSNBC political shows. He makes a lot of sense and would have brought both sanity and reality to the debates. But who said politics was a democratic process in the good ole U S of A? Oh that’s right, those guys with deep pockets who pull the strings on all of their marionettes. Dance, dance I say. Do as I say and all of you will be Real Boys someday.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      January 10, 2012 at 5:11 pm

      I wonder if he’s going to be on the ballot anywhere?

      • ralphb's avatar ralphb says:
        January 10, 2012 at 5:19 pm

        He’s on the primary ballot in NH, I’m pretty sure. He’s polling at 2 or 3% which puts him ahead of Perry. That being said, I’ll bet we don’t hear his name mentioned in the coverage. There seems to be a blackout of him by all except a few shows, like Morning Joe and Rachel Maddow.

        He has said he was going after the Americans Elect nomination. If he gets that, he’ll be on the General Election ballot everywhere. Go Buddy!!!

  7. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    January 10, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    Our live blog will go up at 7 pm est when the majority of the polls close.

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