October 29, 2009 05:55 PM UTC

Romanoff Campaign Reconsidered

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• by: JO

Recent thread here often criticized Romanoff for not posting explicit positions on issues to distinguish himself from Bennet; ergo: he’s off to a slow start, not lotsa money, doomed. RIP–not just now but forevermore.

Alternative view: Challenging Bennet is, well, a challenge. Gotta turn disadvantages to advantages, play cards smart. Counter-intuition could be valuable. Ergo:

ADDENDUM, Halloween: 538.com’s assessment:

Colorado (D-Bennet) — Jane Norton’s entry into the race creates real problems for Bennet. I may be jumping the gun since there’s only been one poll with Norton listed (Rasmussen, which showed her with a 9-point lead), but this is a state that has grown more skeptical than most of Obama and not the sort of race where you want to be running a rookie.

1. While Bennet is more or less forced to stake out positions, if for no other reason than he’s got to vote on bills, Romanoff can wait awhile and let Bennet make mistakes. Romanoff can always stake positions in light of subsequent events; Bennet is stuck with his votes. Ergo: don’t waste this advantage by generating zillions of Web pages, gambling that you’re right when you don’t know the future.

2. Building momentum takes awhile, especially the “gimme money” kind of momentum. Having a big balance in the bank now would be comforting, but if you don’t, keep working at it. Meantime, accepting megachecks from who-knows-who could yield liabilities for Bennet’s campaign; Romanoff can always hope so. Just who are those contributors from Scarsdale, and why are they giving all this dough to some guy in the Far Flung Territories, anyway? What’s the quo for their quid?

3. Naturally Bennet wants it to Be Over Already. Every incumbent does. Challengers are always traitors, until they come out on top. Being the front runner this early in the race isn’t always a big advantage, even though the early front runners would have you believe otherwise. Even among the likely primary voters–25% of the 35% of Coloradoans registered as Democrats? Lessee, that’s about 9% of the voters–only a handful require daily does 100 ml of politicum oxygeneous vacuous which is available, free of charge, right here.

Conclusion: Romanoff is an experienced campaigner who can read a calendar. Knows the urgency comes later, not now. Knows the pitfalls of voting on available information which later is shown to have changed drastically. The future is yet to be seen.

Thus endeth the reading.