Redstate

By Erick Posted in 2008 | FRC Action — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Word on the street is that Mitt Romney has taken a play book from the Ron Paul campaign to shut out Fred Thompson.

Sorry, I had to laugh after writing that. But here's the deal.

The word at the Washington Briefing is that Romney is realizing he needs to take out Fred. In fact, a lot of people here are under the impression that one of the big candidates (Huckabee, McCain, Romney, Thompson) other than Rudy will shine after this weekend. And Romney wants to be that guy.

Building in the momentum, the Romney campaign is out to win the straw poll. They are also out to win the online poll. The Paul folks haven't seemed to be too active in the polling, but Romney has blasted out an email urging his supporters to participate in the polling.

Mark DeMoss, Romney's "Faith & Values Steering Committee Co-Chair" sent the email last night writing

As many of you know, virtually all of the Republican candidates for President are speaking this weekend at the Values Voter Summit sponsored by the Family Research Council. What you may not know is that Family Research Council is also conducting a straw poll and allowing people to vote whether or not they attend the conference.

Time has almost run out. We have until Saturday at noon.

I wouldn¹t be writing you this evening if I didn¹t believe you could make a major difference for Governor Romney¹s campaign.

At this crucial moment for the campaign we want to make sure that America knows that voters like you, who care about values, support Governor Romney.

Now this is the great test of the election and it is why this weekend is so important. First, are Romney's online supporters as fired up as Ron Paul's? Can Mitt dominate an online poll?

Second, can Romney pull the fence sitters off to his side? The social conservative leaders are hoping to rally behind a guy. We'll see if Mitt can do it.

[UPDATE:] By the way, on the reverse side, check this out from Justin Hart. Fred is really pushing the "I'm the pro-life guy" message here. I think he and Mitt both recognize that one of them needs to come out of this standing.