Republican activists are incredulous: Why
can't Republican Mitt Romney seem to break open a tight race with
President Obama given the nation's sluggish economy and
conservative enthusiasm to beat the Democrat?
"He ought to be killing Obama, and he's clearly not doing that,"
said 32-year-old R.J. Robinson, one of the thousands of activists
attending the annual Values Voters Summit this weekend.
Added Mike Garner, a 27-year-old hawking "Reagan was right"
buttons at the meeting: "If Romney loses this election, the party
really needs to do some soul-searching."
Their sentiments were echoed in interviews with more than a dozen
GOP activists and social conservative leaders who attended the
annual gathering focused on social and cultural issues and sponsored
by the Family Research Council. The summit was filled with rhetoric
meant to fire up the party's base voters. Romney needs them to turn
out in force at the polls in November and, between now and then, to
convince others to do the same through extensive get-out-the-vote
grassroots canvassing in swing-voting states.
To energize them, dozens of high-profile conservatives -
including former presidential candidate Rick Santorum and House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor - used their speeches to insist that
the president is turning the nation into a place its founders
wouldn't recognize.
Energy was high inside the hotel ballroom where the luminaries
spoke.
But frustration with Romney coursed through the hallways, where
groups like the National Organization for Marriage and Americans
United for Life promoted their policy positions and conservative
pundits hawked their books.
These so-called values voters are a core part of the Republican
base. They have never fully warmed to the former Massachusetts
governor, who previously supported abortion rights and is a Mormon,
a faith many evangelicals view skeptically. Even so, many said they
were cheered by Romney's selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, a
social and fiscal conservative hero to many in this group, as a
running mate. They said they were rallying behind the Republican
ticket, though mostly because of a desire to beat a Democratic
president. These activists said they're launching bus tours, signing
up voters and offering to organize in their churches to help the GOP
win.
But they worry that the candidate himself isn't doing enough to
gain ground on Obama, who polls show has a slight edge nationally
and in key states just seven weeks before the election. And they
offered plenty of advice to Romney for changing the trajectory of
the race in the coming weeks - echoing Republican presidential
campaign veterans who over the past week have raised concerns about
the state of the GOP nominee's run.
Tammy Baker, a military spouse originally from Texas, said she
thinks Romney should sit down for "fireside chats" with the American
people so they can get to know him better. "I'm not talking boxers
and briefs here, you know. I'm not interested in that," she said.
"But I do feel that he's pretty rigid, and because of that we don't
get a chance to really get to know that person."
Baker's other piece of advice: "Let Paul Ryan out of the box."
Bryan Fischer, an official with the American Family Association,
went even further, accusing Romney's campaign of putting "a bag over
Paul Ryan's head."
Like others here, he warned that if Romney loses, the Republican
Party is certain to undergo a tough period. "Soul-searching," "self-
reflection" and "tumult" were the words others used.
"If the Republican Party loses this election, conservatives will
have had it," Fischer said. "They will be done, finished."
