Posted on 11/21/2007 6:06:37 AM PST by Reaganesque
So this is probably the last thing I saw myself doing nine or ten months ago when I first started seriously following the 2008 race and committed to support Sam Brownback. But here I find myself doing it nonetheless. So I suppose a little bit of explanation here is in order.
In the first place, I want to rehash something I said a long time ago (Nov. 27, 2006 to be exact) about a three-way race between Romney, Rudy, and McCain:
More below...
As I said several months ago - in a three-way race between Romney, Giuliani, and McCain, I'd vote for Romney. Apart from Brownback (who can't win, however much I like him), there are no personally committed pro-lifers on the 2008 slate. While a committed pro-lifer would certainly be the most desirable choice, the second choice would be a guy who knows which side his bread is buttered on. So, if faced with a choice between a guy like McCain, who has a pretty good pro-life voting record, but recently joined Christine Todd-Whitman's "We hate the religious right" PAC, his voting record is less important than the fact that he's historically shown a willingness to spit in the eye of social conservatives just for kicks and press accolades. Mitt, on the other hand, can apparently be trusted to pander to the voters he needs, which in this case is us.
That analysis still stands. For a while, the Fred Thompson campaign gave me hope for someone who might be a little more solid on the issue, but looking at the polling right now leads me inescapably to the conclusion that Fred Thompson is toast. He's not polling any higher than third in any state right now, and Romney has even moved into second in the crucial state of Florida. I just don't know that Thompson has what it takes to get back up off the mat right now. And while I feel a lot better about supporting McCain than I did a year ago, I still just can't make myself trust him at all. I made it a special point to get on McCain's conference call last week so that I could hopefully get just that little assurance I needed to sway me into his camp - and in my estimation, he blew the question. Like I said, I could get behind McCain a lot more easily than I could at this point last year, but he still isn't my first choice. As for Huckabee? Well, let's just say that I lived in Arkansas while he was governor, and my state tax burden was higher than my federal tax burden. And also that I worked on Jim Holt's 2004 campaign. I hope that explains why I have never seriously considered voting for him.
So what about Romney? Well, you know what? I'm going to maintain some intellectual honesty about all of this. I think a lot of his positions are staked out based on his estimation of what the voters he needs want. That's not exacctly the most comforting feeling in the world, even if you're in the group he needs at the moment (as us SoCons are). But I have to think at this point that, at least on abortion, he doesn't have another flip left in him, and I think he knows it. So that's good enough for me.
As for the rest, there's a lot to like about Mitt Romney (Crank's excellent and well-researched series on his weaknesses notwithstanding). The guy, I think, did a good-faith job of governing as a conservative in a liberal state. He's shown a real competence at managing organizations - which, let's face it, is a welcome change of pace after the last four years. His personal history is squeaky clean - absolutely no skeletons in the closet. And I think his health plan will be hated enough by both sides of the aisle that we won't see any national healthcare plan passed during his tenure in office, which is a victory in and of itself. In all other areas, I don't seriously doubt that he'll govern as a conservative. I have, in all honesty, a *lot* less doubt about that than I had about Bush in 1999.
You know, I think one of the things about blogs and the internet is that it's made it a lot easier to go back and nitpick what people have said and that doesn't always do us a service. We're not always going to get a guy who's been a doctrinaire conservative from birth, although the internet has made it so that we expect that. And if it appears at times that Romney is a relentless triangulator - well, for Pete's sake, he's a freaking politician. That's what politicians do. And if the end result of their triangulation is that they pretty consistently come down where you are, then I guess it's time to be happy about that.
The bottom line for me right now is that for all my personal naysaying and doubting, I have to admit in the end that Romney has worked the hardest, run the smartest campaign, and outlasted all other Republican comers save Rudy, and we all know how I feel about Rudy. In the end, if I had to choose between seeing Romney and Rudy standing, it wouldn't even be a close call. When I examine the field, I see only one candidate left standing with a reasonable shot of winning the White House who would govern as a conservative, and that candidate is Mitt Romney. So from now on, I'm tossing in with him, for better or worse.
In closing, let me say a few things that I hope some Romney supporters will take to heart. It doesn't really do a lot of good to pretend that Romney is perfect, or that he hasn't made a mistake, or that his positions on certain things haven't changed. That's just insulting to people's intelligence and it turns people off from the candidate. May I humbly suggest that the better way to convince skeptical Republican voters that Romney is someone they could support is to encourage them to ask themselves, "Will he govern as a conservative?" I know that part of the reason it took me so long to come around to this position is that I heard too many people saying the former, and not enough repeatedly asking me the latter.
My first round vote will go to Duncan but if the party goes with Mitt I can live with that—but I wouldn’t be surprised if— having run right — Romney governs left.
There seems to be a large contingent on Free Republic, one of the Internet's best forums for conservatives, a forum made up of people who know what conservatism is and who represents that ideal (at least most seem to). 86.6% of us don't seem to find too much Conservative about Mitt...
Of course all of us could just be idiots, but we don't want to surrender Conservatism on the altar of hopes and best wishes that a man "may" stay conservative despite his past...
Gun grabber?? That’s silly he is a life long member of the NRA for at least 14 months now. LOL
Yeah, I know it’s crazy to say he’s pro-abortion too! I mean, he’s been pro-life for almost a whole year now! lol
Words of wisdom. But they will no doubt be lost on the single-issue voters who frequent this forum.
Although I support hunter with Thompson as my back up, I am increasing ly resigned to votign thrid party adn trying to get the most conservative congress we can to counter which ever liberal we get.
Never heard of this guy. This post should probably have been made under “Bloggers/Personal” anyway.
Yeah, I think Romney’s chances are not as much as 50-50 against Hillary. But the only one I’d give a 50-50 chance of beating Hillary is Giuliani.
Its currently a two person race between Romney and Guiliani.
I won;’t vote for Guiliani under any circumstances. He’s the same type of Republican that screwed up Ohio since 2000.
See Voinovich, or that idiot DeWine for examples of what I’m talking about.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928826/posts
Is the above the reason you changed your mind?
You mean, you’ve never heard of the ever popular Leon H. Whatshisname?
You must have been living under a rock. He’s been famous for as long as Mitt Romney has been a pro-life 2nd amendment supporter. Almost a full week now. Where ya been? :p
I don’t know of Leon wolf. Assume he is a blogger at Redstate. I searched and it looks like he was also with Swords Crossed?
I am not sure if I am suppose to care.
Of the one's left, I don't think Fred has it in him. Hunter still reminds me of my high school disciplinarian, but I'm kind of hoping that he can get his image fixed.
So that leaves Crazy John and Mitt. I'm leaning to Mitt.
There is no Reagan in this race. The real sad thing is that there is not even a Bush.
So we should support him because he’s a hard worker??? Give me a break.
Oh MY...
This is not good...
When did it become standard procedure to support a candidate due to what the polls say rather than what the candidate says? I am quickly losing all faith in my fellow Americans.
The last time I looked “FDT” was running at 3% in NH. He’s in last place behind Ron Paul. Maybe time to start looking at another candidate.
9.29: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
9.30: And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!
Rudy is the best guy to deal with the greatest threat to our civilization as we know it.
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