I just learned of Republicans who are against GOP Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.
Letter from Ali A. Akbar, a well known Conservative.
From Not Mitt Romney:
Our Plan to Defeat Mitt Romney
Thank you again for signing up at NotMittRomney.com and joining our ever-growing coalition of conservatives who are putting their feet down and doing what it takes to ensure that moderate, opportunist professional flip flopper Mitt Romney is not the Republican nominee in 2012. As a friend and a supporter, we wanted to share with you our strategy for stopping Romney in his tracks.
1. Coalition Building
We have already begun this process, which entails tapping courageous activists, bloggers, political operatives, influencers and everyday citizens who are willing to take the following simple, yet powerful unified stand, “Mitt Romney Should Not Be Our Nominee.” We recognize that this coalition must remain as broad as possible. Our opponents’ greatest wish is that we become marginalized, divided and disorganized, which would result in reduced public support. We stand with the 70-75% of likely Republican primary voters nationwide who haven’t chosen Romney as our nominee. This is a powerful starting point. We will continue building our coalition by leveraging our co-signers, and then we will provide this team with the tools and resources necessary to empower our base and contact thousands of early-state voters in an impactful and viral effort.
2. Our Message
As we have done already and will continue to do, we must use Romney’s own words against him to show that he will make a weak nominee if he wins the Republican nomination. Head to head national polls taken today pitting President Obama against Romney are utterly meaningless. Romney’s profound weaknesses as a general election candidate (say anything, do anything to win, no core principles, not a conservative, in the words of Erick Erickson, that we “can trust”) will make him weak next fall in the face of a billion dollar Obama campaign machine We must (and we will) remind Republican primary voters of this.
We will be quick to point out when any of the other Republican candidates create a clear contrast with Romney’s ever-changing policy positions — and we will also make it clear that Romney creates only a marginal contrast against the failed presidency of Barack Obama. After all, Romney STILL supports TARP and the wildly unpopular bailouts. If Romney were to win the nomination, these type of positions will reduce participation among activists and conservatives around the country — blocs that are crucial to the successful “Get Out the Vote” operations that result in winning swing states.
Despite all of these facts, it isn’t our job to present one alternative, but rather many — in fact, any. However, after Florida (if not right before), we must rally in favor of the highest performing alternative, regardless of whom that is. Mathematically, this will likely be our only remaining path to defeating Romney for the nomination. After all, the media is focused at their own national polls, not pledged delegates. Our effort is focused and targeted.
We also must continue to educate the press. Our mission is not futile. We must fight to change the narrative that falsely paints Mitt Romney as the “inevitable nominee,” with the “best chance of winning” which has been constructed by the press because the exact opposite is true.
3. Expose Romney’s Silent Iowa Campaign
The Iowa caucus takes place less than seven weeks from now on January 3, 2012, and Romney’s team has built a silent campaign that is poised to manufacture a serious behind-the-scenes challenge which threatens to win the caucuses with 20-24% of the vote while the conservative candidates divide up the rest. Our NotMittRomney.com coalition is prepared to take action in Iowa by empowering our supporters through a Virtual Phone Bank that we will be launching in the coming days. Through the gracious financial support of activists like you, we will purchase a voter list of 15,000+ Iowa voters, particularly high propensity, conservative caucus-goers, and use our Virtual Phone Bank to allow you to begin making calls on your own time immediately. Our goal is to first rally our base behind the cause, and then focus on broadening our base.
4. Stop Romney in Florida
Florida’s closed Republican primary is January 31, 2012. We absolutely must prevent Romney from winning Florida. If we stop him there, he will be significantly less likely to secure the nomination. In fact, if our plan works and Romney loses Florida, and then we successfully rally the base around one alternative, Mitt Romney will not be the Republican nominee. If Romney does win Florida, however, we must immediately rally around the highest performing — in terms of money, polling, campaign infrastructure, and primary visibility — alternative in order to secure a successful Super Tuesday. There will be time left to stop the “inevitable” nomination of Romney.
5. On the Ground
If our fundraising successes continue and the grassroots want us to fill this void, we would like to establish field teams in key targeted states. We believe that these efforts could prove instrumental in defeating Mitt Romney in these crucial states.
As you can see, our strategy is comprehensive, but our success in defeating Mitt Romney is going to rely solely on you at this critical time. As we mentioned earlier, we will soon be launching our Iowa Virtual Phone Bank. Please watch your e-mail, as when the time comes, we will need your help to make calls to Iowa voters to remind them why they must not support Romney. Of course, if you can afford to make a generous $10, $25, $50, or even $100 donation, that would help us continue to fund our critical voter contact efforts.
Thank you for your continued support. Together, we will ensure that Mitt Romney is not the Republican nominee in 2012.
Sincerely,
Ali A. Akbar, John Hawkins and Matt Mackowiak
Co-Founders, NotMittRomney.com
