Last week Romney received more negative sentiment in election coverage from fellow Republicans outside of his campaign than did Obama. His “47% video” was rebuked by GOP Congressional candidates who feared a detrimental Romney trickle-down effect into their own campaigns.
Fellow Republicans Went Negative On Romney Last Week
Chart shows sentiment breakdown of statements from declared Republican newsmakers outside of the Romney campaign in election coverage. Time frame is September 16-22.
Yesterday 4thEstate published a post that discussed Romney’s difficult week last week due to the “47% video” being leaked by Mother Jones. Romney received significant criticism from third party newsmakers (those outside of the campaigns). Interestingly, fellow GOP’ers outside of Romney’s campaign were among those who were hard on him last week for his comments on the 47%. Out of statements in election coverage from declared Republican newsmakers outside of the Romney campaign last week, 15.2% were negative to Romney. Obama received almost 2% less negative criticism from Republicans than did Romney.
This is not to say that they praised Obama, however. Romney did still do better than Obama in the plus category, with 9.1% positive statements from Republicans newsmakers last week outside of his campaign, compared to Obama’s 3%. Although the significant amount of negativity from those within his own party shows the backlash and retribution that Romney has gotten about his statement.
GOP Congressional Hopefuls Drove Negative Coverage from Republicans
Chart shows newsmaker types of declared Republican newsmakers outside of the Romney campaign in election coverage, with breakdown of topic within each bar. Time frame is September 16-22.
Among the negative statements from Republicans last week, 61.8% of them were from partisans and former politicians, GOP analysts & commentators, GOP chairs across the nation, Republican pollsters and GOP candidates for Congress. Over 95% of the negative statements about Campaign issues (grey) were specific to Romney’s Campaign Strategy. Republican Senators were also very harsh on Romney. 20.6% of negative statements from Republicans in election coverage last week came from them, and all of them were about Entitlements and the 47% statement. They and the GOP candidates (currently designated as Partisan newsmakers) are nervous of a “trickle down” effect from Romney’s campaign into their own and are distancing themselves from what he said.
