Posted on 10/07/2011 7:54:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Two new sets of Republicans are feeling deflated today — the Chris Christie hopefuls and the Sarah Palin stalwarts. The Christie decision didn’t surprise me, perhaps because I grew up in Jersey. In fact, Christie and I attended the same high school. Anyway, Jerseyans are many things (not all of them nice), but slick dissemblers we are not. When Christie said, repeatedly, and in ever more colorful terms, that he wasn’t running, I believed him. And, while I understand the boomlet for him, I’m also a little relieved to see that he is indeed a truthful guy.
Sarah Palin, by contrast, has finally dropped the longest tease in the history of presidential politics. Her bus tours, her visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, her coy references to the importance of finding just the right candidate to challenge Obama (prompting predictable chants of “Run Sarah Run” from her audience). Her refusal to say whether she was in or out. She could use some Jersey straight talk.
Still, there are a few diehards out there who cannot quite relinquish the pursuit of a knight errant. No sooner did Governor Christie reconfirm that he will not be running for president than some of the great mentioners began to whisper that the “big donors” are encouraging Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) to make the race.
Sheesh. It is no reflection on Mr. Cantor to say that this is beginning to look desperate and even a little pathetic. I confess to having participated, to a point, by urging first Gov. Mitch Daniels (choir sounds please) and then Rep. Paul Ryan to run. But those pleas were in December 2010, and August 2011. It’s too late now. The first primaries are only a few weeks away (bad move Florida, but oh well). Preparing to run a presidential race is just too complex. It takes months — even years — to assemble the local activists (also called the ground game), the money, the advisers, the advertising team, the speechwriters, the advance men, and the other necessities of modern campaigning.
Additionally, the candidate him or herself has to bone up on dozens of issues so as not to be caught flat-footed in debates (some of the current crop neglected that part). No one can do all of that at this late date.
So, realistically, we have our field of candidates, and we’re going to have to settle for one of them.
Yes, settle. I’m disappointed, too, that my favorites decided to sit this out. And I wish the Palestinians really wanted peace, that Vladimir Putin were a democrat, and that the San Andreas fault would go quiet. But part of being a conservative, I believe, is taking the world as you find it and dealing with it.
So, how do we feel about Romney? A year ago, I made the bold prediction that he was going nowhere. Romneycare, I believed, would prove a millstone around his neck and he would be unable to recover from it.
I was wrong about how much of a role health care would play in the race. Obamacare remains important, but as a part of the larger issue of the failing economy. And Romney is widely perceived to be strong on economic issues.
Romney has also proved very fortunate in his adversaries. First Tim Pawlenty swung and missed (or, actually, failed to swing). Then Perry stumbled in attempting to recite Romney’s past flip flops. It’s as if some Harry Potter figure has placed a charm on Romney, causing toads to fall from his opponents’ mouths when they open them — or making them produce gibberish.
To be fair, Romney, who was a good candidate in 2008, has become an excellent one in 2012. He’s knowledgeable, unflappable, and dignified. He doesn’t frighten independents and he may be the Republican party’s strongest nominee — and we simply must win in 2012.
But for Romney to overcome the hesitation among conservatives, he needs to shed his excessive caution and boldly embrace a platform of profound reform. This is an epochal political year, pitting competing governing philosophies against one another in the starkest match-up since 1980. On entitlements, the great anchor dragging down the ship of state, Romney has been vague and timid.
Romney’s literature promises that he will repeal Obamacare, yet his proposed reforms are not so much a bold departure from the top-down Obama approach as a promise to be a better manager. His website promises, “Mitt will use limited federal regulation to correct common failures in insurance markets, while eliminating counterproductive federal rules.” It’s proposals like that that make our hearts sink.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Here is the problem. If we just get the Senate and House against a Rat WH, all of the crippling damage that already has been implemented will go on for 4 more years. Let’s not forget that we have every Gov’t agency like the EPA working overtime implementing rules and regulations. So we have a united front against Obummer in a 2nd term and we have huge majorities. This POS in the WH will just back door everything. Plus by then, Obamacare will be so far reaching in the country it might be impossible to repeal it. Our only option would be to monkey around with it. That would be devastating.
This is the hard place, or is it the rock?
Was Scylla or Charybdis the ugly one?
You raise a very good point. Not to mention SCOTUS issues that may arise.
Perhaps they could never adjourn, not allowing a back door appointment to anything? Not likely.
We could begin defunding agencies wholesale.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid can't be compared to the Repubics on their worst day. They had massive majorities and took advantage of it. As you can see, it is going to set the Rats back generations with all the election losses and distrust they have sewn in the country. I just look at the model of Bush and his Amnesty or that weak RINO woman he wanted on the Supreme Court. We as citizens activated and shut it down. We have a better chance of being effective with a RINO in office than Obummer as we saw with Obummercare protests on deaf ears.
I am not advocating Mittens. He will not win. He is stuck at 25% in the polls. There is no way he will sway 75% of base voters no matter how much cash he raises. I am just looking as situations if everything goes against us.
Money is the main factor. You need money to run adds, money for polling, money for focus studies. You need money to reach the people, and to know HOW to reach them.
Cain as of yet, doesn’t have the war chest to run long term. One of the reasons Romney wants to accelerate the primaries is that it forces everyone to move on to the bigger states. Cain can run in Iowa and New Hampshire, they are small states. He doesn’t have the cash on had to sell adds to all of Florida.
yeah, but the whole ‘prebate’ idea is STUPID STUPID STUPID~!!
do you mean to say that you LIKE IT???
The only way Romney gets past the primary is if enough people will hold their nose and think he can beat Obama because the pundits think he's electable. That's a dangerous game, because Romney is an extremely flawed candidate once someone gets past his salesman style. He's a sometimes good speaker who is capable of home run speeches and strikeout speeches of pandering. Bain Capital has a lot of skeletons. Romney flip flops so often that it alienates all sides.
I can think of two more electable candidates off the bat. Perry is more consistent and has a longer record. Huntsman is the "moderate" but is more consistent. Cain has a better business background and I think has equal chance as Romney.
I'll cross that bridge when I get there. In the meantime, I know that there needs to be one candidate who is the "anti-Romney" so we don't get a McCain effect. In 08, Romney was establishment pick. McCain was the "independent" and "budget hawk"pick. Huckabee was the social conservative pick. Ron Paul has his crowd. The rest of us picked the least worst. McCain won by default.
Until I have to make my general election choice, I will be voting for not Romney. I can support Cain and I can support Perry. If one of them runs away with this, that's my vote.
Talk is cheap, and Mitt Romney's talk is worth less than that.
On taxes, Mitt raised them as governor.
On Obamacare, Mitt gave us Romneycare.
On spending cuts, he'd be modestly better than Obama.
The headline should be:
Promoting Romney (Why the lame brain media are unhappy unless they can pretend Romney is the Republican front runner)
Go Cain!
“Money is the main factor.”
I absolutely disagree with that statement! It is necessary but it is NOT the MAIN factor.
I was not defending Mittens. If you read my previous posts, I was looking at the race from us losing out on the Conservative wing. Purely academic. If we somehow get stuck with this stiff Milt, I think we can overpower his liberalism easier than Obummer.
There is one thing that we should take away from the ‘10 election. The Tea Party movement has legs and can effect change in the most hostile of environments. Palin, Levin, DeMint and Rush have lead the way in this. We can’t sit idly by no matter who the person in charge is. This is going to be a fight every single day, every single minute.
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