BEYOND OUR KEN (Mark Steyn)

National Review The Corner ^ | February 2, 2008 | Mark Steyn

[greyfoxx39]

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Beyond our Ken   [Mark Steyn]

I get more mail each day along these lines:

Mark:  I am a big fan of yours and I am sorry the Canadian bureaucrats are annoying and harassing you. 

But get your head out of your ass about McCain.  I get you do not like McCain.  I respect that—McCain deserves a good horse whipping at CPAC.   I don't like a lot of McCain positions either, but you claim Mitt Romney is the better candidate in the election?  Where does that come from, listening to Hugh Hewitt?  Mitt has had essentially every opportunity, outspent his competition 10:1, and has still lost the GOP primaries to McCain...  I respect that Mitt Romney is a successful businessman and good family man, but I want a president with brass balls.  We are still at war.  Sometimes I think even Hillary has more of that mojo quality than Romney.  Very few people of any political persuasion seem excited about Romney (even among conservatives).  Some conservatives may like Romney over McCain, but that is about it.

This problem is entirely of Romney's making. He needed a Mister-Moderator-I'm-paying-for-this-microphone moment, and every time McCain offered him one, with some contemptuous snarl in his direction, Mitt would put on his more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger expression and say prissily that he wasn't going to descend to personal attacks. It's never good to play to your caricature, and Mitt's caricature (as Kathryn well knows) is that he's an insipid technocrat Ken doll propped up by a lavishly funded campaign. I mentioned a day or two back the Powerline post about McCain's willingness to knee his opponents in their privates. By just taking it, debate after debate, Mitt gave the impression that, like Ken, he didn't even have private parts to be kneed in.

Everybody on the Romney campaign mailing list knows what it's like on debate night: You get a rapid-fire response from Mitt's guys every 15 seconds about McCain's latest "Straight Talk Detour". Cute. But at some point Mitt needed to do that for himself - to get indignant and clobber McCain back, live on TV. Iowa and New Hampshire are gone: there's no more retail politics. It's TV image now, and the image of Mitt - not the answers, not the command of policy, but something more basic - has led many Republicans to conclude there's something missing.

To return to what I said about playing to caricature, most of us know very little about Mormonism. To the general populace, the word conjures two enduring stereotypes: old-time bearded patriarchs with multiple brides, or Donny and Marie. Romney very obviously wasn't the former, and so he wound up getting dismissed as some obscure ninth Osmond brother, too nice to slug it out with the gangsta death-metal crowd. The campaign should have understood this and nailed it well before NH.

02/02 03:57 PM

 

[greyfoxx39]

"Mitt's caricature (as Kathryn well knows) is that he's an insipid technocrat Ken doll propped up by a lavishly funded campaign." (Snort!)

[NeoCaveman]

so he wound up getting dismissed as some obscure ninth Osmond brother, too nice to slug it out with the gangsta death-metal crowd. The campaign should have understood this and nailed it well before NH.

No one writes like Steyn.

[B Knotts]

Agreed. He should be vigorously going after McCain’s weaknesses.

As in: “This guy tried to grant amnesty to 20-30 million illegal aliens. Is that what you want?”

[gpapa]

Steyn nails it.

[bvw]

Okay, let's measure sperm count. Mitt brings more proof of his -- just take a look at his kids!

McCain's ejections tend to end up in more places, sorta Clinton-ezquely

[okie01]

As in: “This guy tried to grant amnesty to 20-30 million illegal aliens. Is that what you want?”

And as in "You said 'amnesty', Senator McCain, and I presume you meant it".

And "Given our First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech for a free society, would you care to explain why nobody can run ads against a sitting politician, including yourself, within thirty days of a primary?"

And "If, as you said, you prefer 'good government' to 'free speech', who do believe is most competent to define 'good government' -- would it be incumbent politicians or the voters?"

[fullchroma]

I don't like a lot of McCain positions either, but you claim Mitt Romney is the better candidate in the election?

Simple. McCain is unethical and not very smart. Romney is more ethical and very smart.

[okie01]

An "Don't give us this crap about 'patriotism before profit'. Charles Keating bought you. So, what's your price now? I could probably meet it..."

There are just so many things to beat McCain over the head with. And you know the MSM will use every one of them, once he's the nominee.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>It's never good to play to your caricature, and Mitt's caricature ... is that he's an insipid technocrat Ken doll propped up by a lavishly funded campaign.

OUCH! Take away Willard's millions in cash and he's left with nothing but a record in support of centrist-liberalism. From a conservative perspective, Romney's an empty suit.

[Hugin]

In the last debate Mitt should have turned to McCain and said, “You know John, I hear you talking about commanding an air wing, and being a POW, and supporting Reagan in the 80’s. What I don’t hear you talking about is your record in the Senate. Why aren’t you talking about the McCain-Fiengold, and the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill? Why do you seem to always sponsor bills with the most liberal Democrats? And why did you say you think Senator Clinton would make a good president? Most Republicans think a Hillary presidency would be a disaster, and the Republican Party should be represented by a candidate who shares that belief.”

Instead Mitt once again recited his resume.

[Palladin]

Too bad McCain is the Media Candidate. They are trying to force him down our throat.

I hope Joe Average IQ wakes up and realizes this.

[William Terrell]

I respect that Mitt Romney is a successful businessman and good family man, but I want a president with brass balls. We are still at war.

Every despot, dictator and socialist in the history of the world was and has been dedicated to the defense of his country.

We have to have more than that. What kind of country and society will we be defending?

[CASchack]

It’s too bad that we do not have a candidate who can put it all together and make a case for the Presidency. The fact that such a flawed candidate in McCain is the front-runner speaks volumes as to the weakness of the other Republican candidates—including Romney.

Mitt should have found a way to take that smirk off of McCain’s face at the last debate. He didn’t, and it’s too late to save his candidacy.

[LZ_Bayonet]

"I mentioned a day or two back the Powerline post about McCain's willingness to knee his opponents in their privates."

In all fairness, I seem to recall many Freepers wishing that "W" would do that occasionally.

[Old Professer]

A caller on the Phil Valentine show came up with a line one night that Phil told him he was going to steal, “That guy ain’t got no C.O. Jones!”

[greyfoxx39]

LOL!

[Tennessee Nana]

Instead Mitt once again recited his resume.

__________________________________________

yes but never his own liberal record...