Posted on 01/22/2010 6:06:18 PM PST by restornu
As The Wall Street Journal points out in an opinion this morning, this is a good day not only for Scott Brown, the new senator from Massachusetts, but for Mitt Romney as well. Glenn Beck doesn’t trust Brown, he says. But with Brown toting friends like the popular former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld, John McCain and Romney around on his bus, it might not be such a good day for Glenn Beck.
The WSJ’s Kim Strassel pointed out that Romney’s closest aides flooded to Mr. Brown, bringing with them the savvy of his national operation.
“From a perch atop his Free and Strong America PAC, Mr. Romney has been raising money, nurturing his team, keeping himself in the national spotlight. With the Massachusetts Senate race, he sensed an unexpected opportunity to step to the front of the GOP presidential ranks,” she writes.
I doubt that the Tea Party’s tent will fold with the election of Brown, but something else has happened: The river that runs between traditional Republicans and insurgent conservative populists now has a bridge in Scott Brown. In fact, it has another bridge in Virginia with the new governor, Bob McDonnell, who will give the Republicans’ response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Wednesday. The insurgents have built a new base for organization and now, with the election of Brown and McDonnell, it is being absorbed into the mainstream.
But when the very first thinking about regional identity started to surface here in New England as a militant defense against federal overreach, Romney was the governor of Massachusetts and he was already incorporating the same elements of thinking, not as revolutionary polemic, but as practical and effective management strategies here in Massachusetts.
Thus the phrase, “One size does not fit all,” which he began to use as governor, used throughout his presidential campaign and used again this last week in a Fox Business interview. It is his theme song. Texas Gov. Rick Perry now uses the phrase as well, and so does Sarah Palin.
Republican pundits report that Romney’s stock has been down because of RomneyCare, the healthcare program that Romney instituted in Massachusetts. Some of the features suggest ObamaCare, and as large numbers oppose ObamaCare’s vast federal spending, the thinking goes, they would therefore oppose RomneyCare. But that misses the point.
“The bill that was being pushed in Washington was not good for Massachusetts,” Brown said after his election. “It may have been good for other states, but we already had everything and a lot of what was being proposed.”
That is just the point in Romney’s thinking about healthcare: What is good for one state and region is not necessarily good for others. Romney is in fact in the avant garde with this thinking, which has become the base camp of the states’-sovereignty movement.
Romney was unique in the history of Massachusetts governors in that he came to us from the west. He had personal experience in the Western states, in Michigan and in Massachusetts, where he went to college.
My observation here when he was governor was that he had that rare quality which Zen Buddhists call “beginner’s mind.” He does not rebel from new ideas and new people but continually incorporates aspects of new thinking in his own ideas to make a better fit. And he is aware that the country has changed since 1776, when the west was forest and later when it was frontier, and even the 1930s, when the vast majority of Americans worked in one of two places, the floor of the factory or the field.
One-size-fits-all-federalism might have been the perfect system then. But today for a country as full and rich and varied and alive as ours, the old system is a disaster. Romney was the first to catch on.
Oh snap! LOL
Ouch....
Beck doesn’t trust Brown but trusts Romney. Well, I wonder why?
It is my wish that she stop embarrassing herself. Taking a third or fourth grade course in English grammar would help her at least try to make a coherent argument. As it is she just comes off like a dunce...or another words a Romney supporter.
2. John McCain is EEEEEEEEEEVILLLLLLLL!
Finally you got it right. Good job.
errr...another words = in other words
I see what you did there. :)
Well, that implies you CAN read the hearts of some. I mean really that is quite a godly talent you have.
I grow impatient with the orchestrated infiltration of this conservative forum by socialist-loving Romney supporters.
They caused the election of Obama despite our best efforts during the primary season to get the truth out about der schlictster. These mindless idiots are out to destroy conservatism.
Jim will have his fun with them. Trust. He’s made it VERY clear this is not a forum for Romney and will never support him.
Who is pushing Socialism?
Rush says when one can’t discuss on a subject they find the need to resort to using bad mouthing or name calling!
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By pushing the slimy RINO, mitt Romney YOU are pushing socialism. Mitt is just Obama with an “R” after his name.
And ummm...got news for you, the idea (and phrase) “ad hominum attack” was around LONG before Rush. Rush may say that (and the statement is true), but it is not his idea.
And, it is interesting that you accuse others of ‘ad hominium attacks’ when you so often resort to them against several of us freepers.
Huh?
““Anyone pushing Romney must love socialism...Piss on Romney and his enablers!!” ~ Jim Robinson”
Anyone? How ‘bout the # 1 advisor of McCAin AND Palin who says Romney has the best chance in 2012.
FRED MALEK
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2435557/posts?page=10#10
I wish he would take a gander at #45 and the following discussion. I truly believe the Zotfather has one caught in his web.
Huh?
And that disqualifies the statement how?
Anyone? How ‘bout the # 1 advisor of McCAin AND Palin who says Romney has the best chance in 2012.
It's normally customary that if you are discussing someone's comment you should put their name in the "To:" line. If you have a problem with the quote, it's not mine. Take it up with the author.
Huh?
Huh?
Yeah...I believe someone has outed themselves as anti-conservatism, pro-destroy FR.
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