Posted on 08/10/2014 8:06:44 AM PDT by IChing
I was in a spiritually-oriented meeting a week ago, and there were about fifty people in the room. Halfway through, a guy in the center of the room chimed in and announced that he was going to open his speaking time by sharing with us his personal, painful example of the worst kind of betrayal. We all leaned a bit closer to listen as he described, with tongue secretly hidden in cheek, a time when he bit into what he’d thought was a chocolate chip cookie–only to realize with shock and dismay that it was actually a raisin cookie.
He was making a wry point, of course; about expectations, and about accepting and appreciating reality. Later in the meeting, another speaker picked up on the thread, and proceeded to wax allegorically on the relative merits of raisin cookies.
Some of my friends are going to skin me alive for writing this.
As much as I’d like to see someone as fierce and as fundamentally righteous as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, or South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, to be the Republican nominee for president in 2016 and subsequently the winner of the general election, I have to accept the reality that (for various reasons understood by those who understand these things) nobody of their bright, bold stripe is likely to be the one. Of course, I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but I think we’d better adjust ourselves to seeing someone like Cruz as the elusive chocolate chip conservative cookie.
Enter the humble raisin cookie, familiar to all, and perfectly palatable in its own right. Not exactly what you were dreaming of, but still very good with a few gulps of cold milk.
Mitt Romney’s star has suddenly reappeared in recent weeks, and it is rising again. Barack Obama has shown himself, to the overwhelming majority of people in our country, to be a total disaster as president, and the buyer’s remorse is palpable. A CNN/ORC poll from late last month had Romney beating Obama in the popular vote 53% to 44%, if the 2012 election were held again today.
Romney’s foreign policy proscriptions and prognostications during the 2012 presidential campaign, once widely mocked and ridiculed by Obama supporters (and most of all by Obama himself, in the debate in which Romney made them), are now looking like pure prophecy, in light of the horrific developments in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The world is hurtling violently into the flaming, bloody abyss on Obama’s non-watch, and American families are hurting from year after year of the democrat neo-socialist Keynesian quagmire and the far-left police state his heavy handed regime has enacted. We are sick and tired of this crap.
Mitt Romney, by comparison, can realistically be seen by the larger body politic as not only a relative breath of fresh air, but the guy we should have listened to all along–someone to whom we, as a country (not necessarily as only us conservatives, mind you), perhaps now owe at least a term in the driver’s seat.
Sure, we’ve seen the prequels, but this would be a whole new movie, with a different villain and, we pray, a better ending.
Romney’s flaws are well-known–all the more reason to get over them already. They are certainly nowhere near as deal-breaking as those of Hillary, or of Wampum Warren.
Most of all, Mitt’s widespread recognition and public familiarity make for an easier time with the endlessly sought-after swing voters, I think. Plus, it sure doesn’t hurt that he has been so thoroughly vindicated in so much of what he laid out, both very forcefully and sometimes rather ineffectively, in the 2012 debates against Obama.
It just occurred to me, after typing all the above–the guy I mentioned in the meeting from last week, the one who was talking metaphorically about personal betrayal and biting into a raisin cookie–maybe his example would actually be closer to an Obama voter who realizes that what he got after the election was not what he thought it was….? Oh, cripes.
Too late, I’ve already baked the batch, and I’m not about to throw them out. Don’t forget what I said earlier about cold milk (go ahead and draw all the Sarah Palin analogies you like; she was right on the money about foreign policy, too, by the way!).
It’s been clear for a long time that the party establishment will do anything and everything they can to sabotage those not in their “clique.” People will say, “Well, how did Dubya overcome it ? He was a Conservative !” Well, Dubya was NOT a Conservative (his open borders stance confirmed that), but the Bushes are part of that establishment. They were the ones backing Bush, Sr. over Reagan in 1980.
Cruz will have to run against both the establishment and the Democrats (de facto allies). The establishment will hope to take him out ahead of time. If he does get the nomination, I expect we may see Goldwateresque attacks and endorsements by some RINOs of the Democrat nominee, dragging up the usual talking points against non-leftists.
Make no mistake, the establishment sees the rising tide against them and are in panic mode. They don’t want to lose their power. The anti-establishment challengers were underfunded and lacking in a definitive winning game-plan. But 2016 will be a fight for the soul of the party. If we lose, the Democrats will win again. One thing is clear, our side needs to continue to fight from here on out and draw up battle plans NOW. We can’t wait until just before the next primaries. The establishment will always have deeper pockets and resources, but they can be outworked by the passion of our side.
I have answered repeatedly.
You're a retread, then?
You know that they will; the question is, can he overcome it?
No
No
No
No
and
HELL NO!!!
All valid points, except there is genuine curiosity in the body politic about his prospects, given how right he is being shown to have been, and recent polling. One writer observed that Americans do love a comeback story.
My point exactly. Reality trumps fantasy. How do we get the chocolate chip cookie?
Took awhile to get it out of you. Still, I’m dubious.
Bingo! I called it!
BTW, where did you get your “widespread perception” comments from ? I remain curious why you never cite the known perceptions about Willard’s negatives ?
By destroying the party establishment completely and absolutely. They are as much the enemy of Conservatism and small, Constitutional government as the Democrats/Media are.
No there isn’t, liberals have always supported your support for Romney, he despises conservatism as do they, and evidently you.
Willard’s “comeback” is more akin to a recurrence of cancer.
My point exactly, my very argument. Reality. We are few in number, compared to the LIV and establishment powers. Is it wiser to chase fantasies of surmounting reality, or to leverage reality and co-opt it?
It’s a Relapse.
Sorry about the type....it should have been 2012.
DO not be shocked if stupid republican primary voters nominate him again. GOPe loves him. GOPe hates Ted & Rand.
NJ Fats has a bridge too far. If Jeb does not get traction, Mitt could be the defacto winner. Between Jeb, Mitt and Fatso, I think Fatso would be better in debates with either Hillary or Liz.
I wuz just messing with you.
Fatso would be more entertaining but, would he and Crowley slop mud on each other as they fought over the green room goodies?
So you're a retread troll who's been kicked repeatedly out of Free Republic and slithered back in again and again. Got it.
Didn’t even finish the first sentence.
Mittens is a no. No yes vote here. All in.
I rode shotgun on Air Force One when Reagan was in office, and was on AG John Ashcroft’s protection detail following 9/11 when Al Qaeda had him at the top of their hit list. Served as a GOP precinct captain and state convention delegate, as well as a tireless Tea Party activist. Got fired from the ICE HQ operations center for bashing a communist punk, my “senior” watch officer, upside his head after he got in my face, him having said among other things that the Fort Dix Six were merely “economically disadvantaged” and posting on his social media profile that his favorite book is The Communist Manifesto. Served multiple tours in the Middle East on active duty, one as NCOIC of the anti-terrorism program for USMTM in Riyadh. My activities on internet boards are hardly of grave concern.
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