2012: detalles de la reunión de Romney en DC

Hace unos días nos enterábamos de la reunión de Mitt Romney con gente de K Street en Washington DC. Ahora American Spectator nos da más detalles de aquel encuentro.

(...) MEETINGS WITH MITT

Back in the 2008 primary season, Mitt Romney's staff ran a tight and close-knit shop, and when meeting with prospective donors felt confident enough in their campaign to lay it on the line bluntly. "I remember being at a meeting of [Gov. Jeb] Bush alumni here in D.C.," says a former Bush staffer, "and the Romney people who organized the meeting telling us something along the line, 'You need to make your decision soon; either you join us or you're out of luck. I left there joking about finding a horse head in my bed if I didn't sign up right away."

So perhaps Romney and his fundraising team didn't intend to make a recent donor recruitment luncheon feel like an organized crime meeting, but the all-expenses-paid lunch they hosted at Carmine's Italian eatery in downtown Washington had that feel, according to several attendees. The lunch, attended by about 25 men and women who were active fundraisers for candidates in 2008 and 2010, was one of several Romney and his team are holding around the country to recruit new people to Romney's money team.

Aides to Romney cautioned attendees that their candidate had not made up his mind about running 2012. "We thought given the layout and the kinds of people who were there that that was intended as a joke," says one attendee.

The luncheon featured a detailed PowerPoint presentation that laid out a case that Romney has been raising more money and supporting more Republican candidates than others in the prospective 2012 field. He explicitly targeted Newt Gingrich, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, but had nice things to say about Sen. John Thune, whom Romney insiders say the former Massachusetts governor regards as not a serious threat to win a GOP presidential nomination that Romney believes is rightfully his given his failed run in 2008.

"It was an impressive road show," says another attendee. "He had answers for everything, and clearly is going to run on the economy and his finance background. He even had a better answer for why Romneycare isn't like Obamacare. He's clearly running, so why they make it seem like he isn't makes the whole exercise a bit of a farce." (...)