Posted on 01/06/2012 7:50:30 PM PST by neverdem
Some people today seem to have trouble with my formulation that the consistent anti-Romney sentiment (for such it is) of around 75 percent — reflected in the Iowa caucuses results — is somehow logically fallacious, and that one could just as easily make the same short-end equation regarding Perry, Paul, Gingrich, Bachmann, et al.
They entirely miss the point. From the start of the GOP race, the contest has been divided between Mitt Romney on one side and Everybody Else Plus Ron Paul on the other, as conservatives examined possible alternatives to the front-runner, Willard. This explains the sine-wave shape of the race so far, with various not-Romneys rising and then falling as they have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
It’s instructive to note that Romney has gained not at all from the successive collapses of the second-tier candidates, and that while it may have just been dumb luck on Santorum’s part to be the last man standing, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Does anyone doubt that had Rick Perry not proven himself to be a tongue-tied imitation of George W. Bush that he would have put Romney away handily? It wasn’t Perry’s position on immigration that did him in, it was his sheer ineloquence.
The Mittbots might want to ask themselves this: if Romney is so great, why did Santorum — a guy who was barely a blip on the radar screen a couple of weeks ago — come out of nowhere to nearly nip him at the wire, while Mitt stayed stuck at . . . 25 percent?
As John Podhoretz put it yesterday:
The results last night make it clear that Romney is unquestionably the weakest party front-runner in contemporary political history, scoring fewer caucus votes in Iowa in 2012 than he received in 2008.
As I said on the most recent NR cruise, if Romney is the nominee, he will lose. He has no idea what Axelrod & Co. are capable of, nor of the depths to which they will stoop to destroy him. They will attack him as a flip-flopper, as a panderer, as a rapacious and heartless one percenter, and, yes, as a Mormon. They will damn him with faint praise as a liberal accomodationist, as the spiritual father of Obamacare. He’s a gentleman in a mug’s game, and this is no time for gentlemen.
UPDATE: It’s already starting.
I happen to agree with this. I have the standard set of disagreements with Romney on a whole host of issues, but IMO he would make a reasonably mediocre president. That’s way better than “flaming horrible” = what we have now.
But I so seriously doubt he can beat 0bama.
Correct on all counts.
If Romney is the nominee, WE will loose.
No way Romney beats Obama.
Absolutely right. But what might be most interesting is that this comes from th NRO. A bunch of smart guys but they have a tendency to be apologists for the Republican establishment. I would call this progress.
If Romney is the nominee, the one thing he’ll have going for him is the Obama record. It may be enough.
Oh please, don’t drink the KoolAid, unless of course you are actually the KoolAid. ANY of our candidates can beat the big BO as long as we don’t keep falling for this gloom and doom nonsense.
Lets choose our candidate and then fling him into office, any of them are light years better than what we have.
Actually, none of our candidates can beat Obama. I see his second term as a sure thing.
“They will attack him as a flip-flopper, as a panderer, as a rapacious and heartless one percenter, and, yes, as a Mormon.”
I’m not Pro-Romney but I don’t get this line of argument. So if Gingrich is the nominee then he won’t be attacked in every sort of way? Which candidate exactly won’t get pilloried mercilessly?
Romney can’t beat 0bama. We’ve already had a preview of this race when Romney’s mini-me Nutmeg Whitman was whipped by Gov. Moonbeam who is still lost in the 60s.
“Oh please, don’t drink the KoolAid, unless of course you are actually the KoolAid. ANY of our candidates can beat the big BO as long as we don’t keep falling for this gloom and doom nonsense.
Lets choose our candidate and then fling him into office, any of them are light years better than what we have.”
Hear, hear!
- Alexander Hamilton
The democrats will be thrilled with Romney. They were singing this week when they saw him arm in arm with the magnificent John McCain. I felt like Nostradamus came down and deciphered the quatrain of what we are looking at this fall.
The only one who has the makeup and gravitas to take down the beast is Newt Gingrich. We see this with the amount of money being spent to destroy him.
I appreciate the high-ground principled outlook but I do not think we have a recognizable country, much less a republic left after four more years of 0bama.
Other than Perry, Romney is probably the LEAST ELECTABLE of any Republican still running.
Romney’s biggest problem is that there WILL be a conservative option in November, if he’s nominated. The conservative will be Third Party, but he will be there - maybe Sarah, maybe even Ron Paul (who’s not a conservative, but no one will care at that point), or maybe a real conservative like Tancredo.
But the bottom line is that conservatives will have a viable protest vote...and half of them will use it. We gave the establishment their candidate in 2008 and we got Obama...we’re not going to let the (Republican) establishment get away with another crappy candidate.
I just don’t see my conservative family and friends supporting Romney. I just don’t see him as a conservative much at all. The liberal neighbors around me think Romney is a wonderful candidate.
Obama will do a rare thing (telling the truth) and simply state that the vast majority of his policies are almost direct clones of RINOmney.
Why vote for RINOmney and get a slow liberal death when we can do the job quickly by letting the Cretin-in-Chief continue his felonies?
My dream is the Obamaloon in prison.
And - of course - he’d be the mama.
Amen. So true. Newt is our last hope. This piece shows clearly that Mitt would not be able to stand up under the demons attacks.
Obama, while a true leftist ideologue, is also very lazy. He has not the inclination or ability to fight a Republican Congress and Senate. He will be on a 4 year vacation which is A-O-K with me. Put a ROMNEY RINO in there and the left movement continues unabated.
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