Democratic strategist James Carville said Mitt Romney is almost
certain to win the Republican presidential nomination, and that both Rick
Perry and Herman Cain are not serious candidates.
“I don’t think so,” Carville said Thursday on ABC’s “Good Morning America”
in response to the idea that anyone other than Romney could get the nomination. “I mean, Rick Perry’s completely blown himself up. There’s zero chance that
Herman Cain’s going to be the nominee.”
Carville said the only way Romney won’t become the nominee is if the former
Massachusetts governor is unable to win enough delegates to clinch the
nomination at the Republican National Convention.
“The only thing that I can see is that Republicans just don
’t like him
enough, that he can
’t accumulate half the delegates as he goes through
this,” Carville said.
“That these candidates just keep going and
becoming such an irritant that he can
’t close the deal — but that
’s almost
impossible to imagine.”
At this point, Carville said, Perry should just drop out of the race.
“The best thing Rick Perry could do for his family and his friends is just
get out of the race and go back to Texas,” Carville said. “This man
is evidently not up to this. He had plenty chances to do it. He can’t debate,
he can’t give a speech, he can’t hold a position paper, he can’t go on
television.
“He is incapable of running for president. He can’t do the things that are
necessary to run for president. He’s behind Newt Gingrich in the polls right
now. He’s just in something that he should’ve
never gotten into. He’s in over his head. It’s not just evident to me, it’s
evident to 95 percent of Republicans.”
Carville’s comments came the same week that Perry announced his tax plan
centered around a 20 percent national flat tax. The plan is a direct attempt to
breathe new life into the Texas governor’s campaign as he struggles in the polls against Cain
and Romney.
Cain has been able to catapult his campaign ahead of Perry by pushing
his 9-9-9 tax-reform proposal.
Meanwhile, Romney has remained near the head of the Republican pack in recent
polls but has not been able to gain more ground, holding at around 23 percent to 25 percent.
“If Romney’s able to go over 50 percent, there’s nothing stopping him, but
there’s great resistance,” Carville said. “Every time you see these
polls Romney can’t get above 25 percent. [Republicans] don’t want to be for
Romney. It is perfectly clear: Everybody goes up, everybody goes down. Romney
stays the same.”
