Well, the answer is yes. And I’ve got a screen capture to prove it:
We posted the same two stories here today that are mentioned in the picture above:
Romtastic: Guess what book is going to top the March 21st New York Times best-seller list?
Mittmentum: Romney Garners 31% Lead Over Huckabee, Palin in Early Florida Poll
Hot Air‘s use of these words are a little surprising to me as they don’t frequently blog about Romney, let alone report good news about him. The author of these two posts, Allahpundit, as well as most of his readers are clearly leaning towards the Palin camp. In fact one of those starts off as a positive post (only after mentioning the book won’t sell more than Sarah’s) then quickly turns to pointing Romney’s branding faults (or something.)
Anyway, my point was not to talk down HotAir.com, but to show the magnitude of the good news for Mitt as evidenced by his two appearances there. In fact, I should clarify: I’m a daily visitor to HotAir.com because it is a great site. Allahpundit is a great writer who’s full of insight and wit. I just sometimes weary of the “All Sarah, all the time” environment. But then again they are a business, and I’m sure posts about her bring in the visitors, so I don’t blame them.
I’m just glad to see a little more coverage of Romney there.
~Nate Gunderson
Nate owns and manages a small souvenir manufacturing business. He and his wife of 12 years have 2 children. Nate has been blogging for Mitt Romney since late 2006 and is co-founder and editor of MittRomneyCentral.com.
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Nate, As a daily visitor of Hot Air, you should know that Allah is not “in the Palin camp.” I don’t think he’s in the Romney camp either. I don’t know what camp he’s in. His job is to drive the traffic to the site. Antagonizing the hourdes of Palin supporters seems to work as well as anyone. Those two Romney posts accomplished that tonight.
Huh, I’m not quite convinced that Allahpundit is not for Sarah. Even his Romney posts somehow revolve around “how does this affect Sarah?” IF, he is not for her, then he certainly writes about her as if to appeal to the masses.
Steady there… Mitt Romney gets a lukewarm reception at HotAir (based on comments). Not to suggest he hasn’t started to, but he needs to do a better job at explaining “why he is not running away from MA’s heath insurance regime” I’m not saying he should be running away from it, only, fairly or not, many, if not most people right-of-center think he should if he is to be viable (and another big chunk of people at HotAir, as was as the other big conservative-ish blogs think the MA healthcare dooms him).
I don’t think he’s doomed; I think he can win “in the future”! But still the MA thing needs a lot of talk; not so much for “a” general election, but the primaries–should he chose to run.
The other big theme is that Mitt Romney is “boring.” Well, I actually disagree, especially since a lot of people will treat “exciting” as scary in 2012.
He has openly claimed to not be a Palin supporter. The posts you refer to are designed to drive traffic. A large number of Palin supporters frequent the site. Getting under their skin is good for business. To keep them from leaving, he throw them a bone from time to time.
shine on, romney, shine on.
Quite a development coming from Allahpundit. But I like it.
Picked a nice picture of our guy for a change too. Its not his fault he is so photogenic. Some people just are. So when they use a photo that catches him in an awkward pose its because 10 guys spent two hours trying to find the worst one. Its an editorial comment that liberals employ against conservatives often.
Unless he’s made an official declaration, I doubt it’s possible to divine Allah P’s true views on Palin (and it will likely be even more difficult after the Salem acquisition of the site); his posts aren’t mean; they’re often funny, and are clearly, primarily posted to boost traffic. Both he and EM are smart enough to probably have painfully mixed feelings about her.
Semi OT: I have a very good sense for the zeitgeist and trends, and my feeling is that Palin has peaked, either because it was inevitable, or because her Tea Party speech, and FNC appearances have not been that impressive; and the Rand Paul endorsement made me, and probably many others, CRINGE. I don’t think she will, or should run in 2012, but I do hope she, in effect, hits the books and adds more substance to her energy.
Of course we want Palin to run in 2012…as that will marginalize both Shmuckabee and herself.
Uh… I don’t think her running would marginalize her…
@Steven/ParisParamus
Mitt has explained the MA healthcare plan time and time again. He has dedicated an entire chapter to the subject in his book. “MassCare must be bad because it gives universal coverage” is a false argument by the critics that do not live in Massachusetts. I believe there is an abundant amount of cognitive dissonance on this matter. A recent poll in MA has shown 68% of MA residents like our plan. That is all that matters.
SED, I don’t disagree with you that he has explained, including to my satisfaction. The question is, fair or unfair, whether he has explained to the satisfaction of most of the people who will/would vote in a GOP primary. Maybe doing so just requires saying it more times, or saying it in a somewhat different way, but more work needs to be done. But the number of derisive comments you see on rightosphere blogs should concern you.
By the way, saying that 68% like what exists in MA isn’t much help because most Republicans would not want to live in what is accepted, even after Sen. Brown’s state, as the bluest state.
We need to call it like it is.
er… even after Sen. Brown’s victory…)
@Steven/ParisParamus
You’re right that Republicans from red state’s may not be inclined to like our plan solely based off of the individual mandate. However, to call our plan socialized medicine as many of critics do is wrong. The negative image out there regarding our plan does concern me. However, the negative image is created by out right lies. You’ve been on the Rightosphere and have been a part of the debate.
The only way we can turn the MA health plan into a positive for Mitt is for us as his supporters to be well breadth of how the program works and attack the disinformation. Senator Brown campaigned on our health care plan in MA. He won on it.
Here’s and excerpt from an AP article:
“Right now people are disgusted at the health care bill and how it’s going,” Brown said in the closing days of the campaign. “Everybody deserves health care coverage, but we can do it better; we have done it better here in Massachusetts.”
It was a message that resonated with voters like Ann Feeney. The Boston insurance agent said that health care, along with unemployment, were the main reasons she voted for Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley.
Feeney said that while she supports the Massachusetts law and thinks everyone should have health coverage, she didn’t approve of the way the national legislation was being shaped.
http://www.fox12idaho.com/global/story.asp?s=11867080
You go into
battleprimaries with thearmyelectorate you have; not the one you want ;-)(great, html tags work in preview, but not actual posting!)
@Steven/ParisParamus
Tags should work. Which one were you using? I’ll look into it.
Greetings Nate!
I used the strikeout tags and (without the spaces so they display); they work in the instant preview, but didn’t show up above to strikeout “battle” and “army”
(and I just tried them again to make sure the last time wasn’t a fluke)
Actually, they don’t even display with spaces added; well, try it yourself…
TestNot all tags are supported. Unfortunately the preview plug-in is not in line with which ones are, and I’m don’t think I can correct that.
For strikeout use the “del” tag. I edited your comment to show how you wanted.
Some brainstorming:
I don’t know what form the healthcare debate will take in 2012 (Ace and HotAir are current reporting that “Mme. Speaker” is four votes shy). If it must return as a national, rather than state-level issue, a MA-style mandate for “catastrophic” (or high deductible) coverage might be something to consider (if something must be considered), perhaps made more palatable with a contemporaneous tax decrease or credit (the premise being that if fewer people will be uninsured, then there will be less of need for tax revenues to reimburse for care for the uninsured..)
Nate, “battle” is supposed to be stricken out, too ;-)
Roger.
Getting back to the original post, don’t be so sure that “Mittmentum” was intended as something positive; I would assume the term is deriviative of Sen. Lieberman’s Joementum, which was always viewed as cute-lame…