New Romney web video aims to get out the vote in Iowa

If the Iowa caucuses seem at all remote or uninteresting after the holiday season, just watch this video. It snaps the impending vote into sharp focus. A blatant get-out-the-vote effort, the spot aims less at acquiring new supporters than at mobilizing the supporters Mitt Romney has already acquired in Iowa. It’s a smart move by the Romney camp even if, as a web video, the spot won’t be viewed much. Winning any election doesn’t require winning over a majority of people; it just means turning out more voters than any other candidate.

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As more and more Iowa voters appear to be excited to vote for dark-horse candidate Rick Santorum, Romney really has no alternative but to stay focused on shoring up his own support. Santorum’s surge has been fueled by belated commitment to him from Tea Partiers and evangelicals, voting blocs that Romney was never likely to win over completely anyway. Meantime, among all likely caucus-going Republicans, Romney continues to lead comfortably in the polls. If he turns out all the folks who pick him in surveys, he’ll win the Hawkeye State.

Based on his rhetoric at least, though, his campaign won’t be too affected even if another candidate does pull off a surprise win. At least, it won’t be as much of an embarrassment as it was in 2008, when Romney really, evidently wanted Iowa. This year, he’s worked just hard enough to show he cares but not so hard as to render Iowa unduly significant to his presidential bid.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | February 17, 2025
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