TAMPA — Mitt Romney was not Gena Bell’s first choice among the Republican candidates for president. Or her second.

She is not alone among Tea Party activists who, with their zeal for downsizing government, are trying to redirect their enthusiasm to the Republican Party’s nominee from Massachusetts. During the nominating process, Romney, the principal author of the 2006 Massachusetts law that became the prototype for President Obama’s health care overhaul, was something of a nonstarter for many of the activists, who are playing a greater role at this convention and on the ground in elections.

Comments

atomicdesigner

08/28/2012 05:08 AM

Here we go with the endless stream of why some obscure person decided to finally like candidate x, as if it matters.

salemreader

08/28/2012 07:01 AM

As long as Mitt keeps dogging the economy, he will lose. Americans realize the economic problems are global, not Obama's fault.

NER-MCFC

08/28/2012 08:12 AM

The Republican base may not care for Romney, but they really hate Obama, and Romney's choise of Paul Ryan reassured them that he'll do as he's told if elected. So unless he really screws up, they will hold their noses and vote for him. Of course if he loses, they'll claim they never really liked him anyway and that next time they should nominate a "real conservative".

blisterpeanuts

08/28/2012 08:43 AM

Americans have also noticed that Obama has done little or nothing to fix our economic problems. He allowed the national debt to rise by $5 trillion during his 3.5 years in office, and spent most of his time focusing on handouts to his supporters: free ownership of GM to the UAW, free healthcare to the masses, and a pathetic attempt to jump start the economy through even more deficit spending that created not one job. Meanwhile Obama scared businesses with his hostile attitude and class warfare rhetoric. Even though American corporations are sitting on a pile of cash, they're not hiring, at least not in the U.S. Good job, Barry. "You didn't build that." Now for his next act, let's see him run on his international record of leading from behind.

Potlemac

08/28/2012 09:12 AM

Does this mean Romney's lost all sense of decency?

eastbrewster

08/28/2012 09:19 AM

also known as lazy reporting ... first cousin to press release reporting. and further evidence that news reporting is in a tailspin and for good reasons.

NHampshire

08/28/2012 09:37 AM

Um this title is deceiving. 12,000 tea partiers rallied on Sunday for 6 hours. They still support Ron Paul and always will. About 2000 went to hear TowhHall.com's rally with Bachmann and Cain... that is NOT the tea party. Even though billed as a Unity Rally, there wasn't much there. Now then, where is your coverage of all the lawsuits against Romney? The caucus fraud and manipulation done by his campaign on his behalf? The requests to erase any delegates that don't support him and strip them of their right to vote at all? What about his denial to Ben Swann of FOX news that he even knows about this or the attempts to change convention rules for the future as requested by HIS LAWYER? How much lying and corruption can this man produce before people wake up to see what kind of president he would be? WHERE IS YOUR COVERAGE OF THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THE ELECTION?