Every time Mitt Romney tries a feint to the middle, even a little one, his “base” goes nuts and he retreats. The calculation is simple: You can predict that votes Romney gains from the middle will lose him votes on the right because some who fiercy hate Obama will now hate him even more. A few might even vote for the President, but most will probably just stay home. If they really stayed home and didn’t just withhold their vote from Romney, the party will also suffer.
So the big question is: Will Romney lose more from the right than he will gain from the middle? Rupert Murdock, owner of Fox News, advised Romney several weeks ago to appeal to the middle. He said that Romney already has the right and that they had nowhere else to go. I don’t think that Mr. Murdock would disagree with this analysis, but he also knows that with only the base, and without the middle, Romney has no chance whatsoever. At that time, if Romney tried for the middle, he had a slight but now diminishing chance. But a chance, however small, is better than no chance at all!
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