Mitt Did Not Compete in South Carolina?Expect to hear this meme being spread by the "drive-along" media today. Now, it's true that Mitt Romney was not very competitive in South Carolina, getting less than half the votes of Senator John McCain. But did he compete?
The answer is clearly in the affirmative. Fox News reported on Saturday that Romney had spent over $4 million in the Palmetto State, and that fully half of all TV ads in the state had featured the Mittster.
The Washington Post reports that Romney did a total of
52 events in the state over a total of 22 days. He had four events on the Wednesday before the primary.
Now it's certainly true that Mitt abandoned South Carolina when he saw that a fourth place finish was likely. But the funny thing is that he didn't suffer for it; the final RCP averages showed him finishing with about 15.1% of the vote, which is right about where he ended up.
The
Politico noticed that even as Romney stopped appearing in the state, he continued his TV ads:
The Romney camp is plowing tens of thousands more dollars into all the markets that serve South Carolina, including Savannah and Augusta, Ga., per a source who follows ad buys.
Romney went back on the air here Tuesday and, with his current buy, will now saturate the state heading into Saturday.
It was a smart move politically for Mitt to fold his tent in South Carolina to lower expectations. But don't buy the line that he didn't make an effort. He did, but it was unsuccessful.
Labels: 2008 Candidates, Mitt Romney, South Carolina
