Opinion: Mitt Romney spins hopeful e-mail to supporters

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

For presidential politicians who lose a primary, the glass is always half-full. ‘Well, I’m here to tell you,’ former Gov. Mitt Romney tells hundreds of thousands of supporters in an e-mail, ‘that just like in the Olympics, winning the silver in the first event does not mean you’re not going to come back and win the gold in the final event.’

Romney can be excused the double-negatives. He lost the GOP Iowa caucus to another former governor, Mike Huckabee, who was little known nationally as recently as two months ago. Romney outspent Huckabee there something like eight-to-one and ran 10 times the TV ads. This evening the two are among those Republicans squaring off in a 90-minute ABC-TV debate.

There’s another one on Fox News tomorrow. Ron Paul, who beat Rudy Giuliani in Iowa, is outpolling Fred Thompson in New Hampshire and likely out-fundraising all of the Republicans, was excluded by Fox, which has infuriated the congressman’s supporters, now organizing a boycott of the network’s advertisers.

The actual New Hampshire vote comes Tuesday. But first comes Romney’s e-mail, which asks supporters to forward it to five friends and also offers an online opportunity to record a personalized phone-answering machine greeting in Romney’s voice for a $25 donation. (‘Hello, this is Mitt Romney. I recently lost the Iowa caucus, so I’ve got a little time to answer Andrew’s phone. He’s busy right now, so please leave your message at the tone.’)

The governor’s Friday e-mail also comes up with a very helpful -- and hopeful -- historical factoid. ‘Remember,’ Romney says, ‘Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also finished second in Iowa and went on to win the Republican nomination, and I will too. I’m the only candidate who is competitive in all of the early primary or caucus states – South Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, Florida…and of course New Hampshire.’

Of course, we’ll see soon enough.

--Andrew Malcolm