The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

If You Think Mitt Romney Is ‘Electable’ …

Posted on | March 6, 2012 | 73 Comments

. . . just wait. Maybe you’re right. But if you’re right, why are liberals so eager to have Romney as the Republican nominee? Maybe you think George Stephanopoulos is stupid?

Rick Santorum will hold a party tonight in Steubenville, Ohio, which he and his supporters hope will be a “Super Tuesday” victory celebration. Yet the latest polls indicate that Mitt Romney could win the Ohio Republican primary and, coming on the heels of Romney’s narrow win last week in Michigan, a Buckeye State victory might be enough to effectively clinch the nomination as the GOP Establishment’s “It’s His Turn” candidate. Whoever wins the Ohio primary, however, the result of today’s vote will be actual news, in contrast to the ridiculous ginned-up controversy that has swirled around Rush Limbaugh for the past week. And the story of how “SlutGate” became such an all-consuming affair is worth re-examining chiefly because it demonstrates the operational methodology of what the late Andrew Breitbart called the “Democrat-Media Complex.”
Go back to Saturday, Jan. 7, when ABC broadcast from Saint Anselm’s College in Manchester, N.H., a debate among six Republican presidential candidates, with George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer as moderators. After the first commercial break in the broadcast, seemingly out of the blue, Stephanopoulos posed this question to Romney: “Senator Santorum has been very clear in his belief that the Supreme Court was wrong when it decided that a right to privacy was embedded in the Constitution. And following from that, he believes that states have the right to ban contraception.… Governor Romney, do you believe that states have the right to ban contraception? Or is that trumped by a constitutional right to privacy?” . . .

That’s from my American Spectator column today, which suggests the possibility that clueless Republicans have been manipulated like puppets on the media’s strings. And by “clueless Republicans,” I mean the 31%-38% of Ohio GOP primary voters who, according to the Real Clear Politics average, are willing to nominate the man Team Obama wants to face in November:

Mitt Romney could all but guarantee he’ll be the GOP presidential nominee by winning Ohio on Super Tuesday. …
“Ohio is a state that [Rick] Santorum cannot afford to lose,” said GOP strategist Alex Castellanos, who worked for Romney in 2008 but is neutral in this race. “If Santorum loses Ohio, it’ll be practically impossible to stop Romney.”

Exactly. For all intents and purposes, Ohio is the nomination, an unfortunate reality for which we could blame many factors, if we wanted to engage in hindsight recriminations. But there’s no point today in scapegoating the Republicans who have heretofore unwittingly aided the candidate they claimed to oppose by supporting Not Romneys who were clearly doomed from the outset.

Maybe Santorum can win tonight in Ohio, and we won’t have to contemplate the likelihood of a Romney-led debacle in November. And maybe, as I said, you think Mitt is “electable.” Maybe you think you’re smarter than George Stephanopoulos and his ABC News colleague Claire Shipman and their good buddy Jay Carney.

Why, however, are all these liberals convinced that Mitt is such a perfect choice as the Designated Republican Loser for November? I hesitate to endorse their cynical logic, but does anyone else remember how our Designated Republican Loser in 2008 grinned all the way to the nomination after winning “Super Tuesday” with a semi-secret tailwind of anti-Mormon prejudice?

Yeah, maybe I’m the only one who remembers that, or maybe not. Crack Emcee at The Macho Response doesn’t seem to care much for the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I link his post not to endorse such anti-LDS views, but rather to remind you what kind of stuff is out there.

Maybe all you Republicans who think you’re smarter than George Stephanopoulos are now saying to yourself, “Wait a minute! Are you trying to tell us that the Democrats would be willing to exploit such religious bigotry merely to win an election?”

Damn right they would – and will. If they can’t beat Romney with the “greedy Wall Street 1-percenter” class-warfare argument, the Democrats will not hesitate to Do Whatever It Takes to Win.

If Romney gets the nomination and we reach late September with Romney leading the polls, what do you think the Democrat-Media Complex will do? Whatever It Takes to Win, sweetheart.

Can’t you see the five-part New York Times series on the history of Mormonism? Can’t you see Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News and David Gregory on Meet the Press doing Serious Journalism about all the beliefs and practices of the LDS, and ponderously asking What It Means for America?

Maybe you can’t imagine such cynical political manipulation by mainstream media, but maybe you’ve forgotten how they made Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers and Frank Marshall Davis magically disappear as topics of Serious Journalism four years ago.

Or maybe you’ve forgotten how they were able to convince a majority of Americans in 1998 that the President of the United States had a constitutional right to Oval Office blowjobs from interns.

And maybe you think this political puppet-show over “SlutGate” was just about something Rush Limbaugh said on the radio.

Maybe you are genuinely stupid, and there’s no point in my warning you that Romney isn’t as “electable” as you may think.

At any rate, I’m driving four hours to Steubenville, Ohio, for the Rick Santorum party tonight in hope that Ohio voters are smarter than the latest polls would seem to indicate. I’ll be taking my 13-year-old son Jefferson with me. Please hit the tip jar.

It’s not so much that I need the money, but I’m just kind of depressed today, and it always cheers me up when people hit the tip jar.


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Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney, Ohio, Rick Santorum, Rush Limbaugh, Shoe Leather Fund

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  • t-dahlgren

     Ok, how about this one:

    Romney is Obama with a Taxachussetts accent.

    And, go fuck yourself.

  • SDN

    It’s not hard, if you’ve ever looked at Mitt’s actual record as opposed to his campaign fliers.

    Oh, and we’ll be happy to leave the GOP to the landfill next to the Whigs. Those who stop fighting slavery always disappear.

  • SDN

    And RINO conservative.

  • SDN

    Of course, the Democrats lurved them some John McCain, too…. until they didn’t. Of course, if ORomneybots learned from history, they wouldn’t be ORomneybots.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    I don’t think Willard has the testicular fortitude to, first, pick Mr. West and, second, if he did, I agree he’d undercut him.

    Willard will play it safe.  The best we can hope for is a Rubio-type.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Read a book.

    May I suggest anything by Russell Kirk.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    But, but…Willard will make a lovely concession speech on 06 November!

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    Oh yes, because their attacks on Catholics and Evangelicals (and their rather underhanded nastiness to Jews) have been monumental problems for them…

    And somehow I don’t see Romney as another Reagan or Lincoln (and it would probably be very wise, mi amigo, to refrain from talking about Mitt the way the left does about Barry….really, really offputting and creepy, really).

  • M. Thompson

     This could be the year joy comes to Wrigleyville.

    But, it’s not likely.  There’s always next year.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    Between their words and where they spend their money, I believe the money.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

     As opposed to which candidate who would not face the same thing, and would respond better?

    But yes, I’ve always criticized ineptitude where I see it, and I tend to see it almost everywhere.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

     Gingrich supporters should not speak of such things.  People might learn the truth.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

     Read it.  The actual text, not the spin of the pundits.  Decide for yourself if he recommended the mandate as national policy or not.

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    NO!  And I say that lovingly as a resident of the LoL that has learned to live with the despair (of both the LoL and waiting for joy in Wrigleyville).
    It’s like one of the signs of the Mayan doomsday apocalypse — Cubies sweep the series, four horsemen seen charging  down the Dan Ryan while the sun goes black; I think Nostradamus mentioned it.

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    And actual facts as opposed to pundit spin is exactly what the general public are going to be given?

    That isn’t even taking into consideration the Axelrod Army of Astroturfers.

    This was going to happen to any GOP canidate, but how much is the base willing to put up a fight for Mitt? 
    The turnouts for the primaries are starting to look very distressing (or should).  Romney may be inevitable, but he sure isn’t causing a lot of enthusiasm in the process. He needs to do something about this now (waiting until he gets the nod is too late).

  • Confutus

    Yuu don’t see what I see.  Fair enough, I don’t expect you to, and I won’t press the point. 

    The various religions have more in common than most people expect, and current conditions are beginning to make those similarties more important than the differences.  A threat to the  the religious freedom of one church is is an attack on them all. 
     
    In my own mind,   Obama has crossed the line between a bad politician and an evil man, between a nuisance and a dire threat. And I cannot, I dare not be silent about it.

  • http://www.outsidethebeltway.com Dodd

    “Maybe you think you’re smarter than George Stephanopoulos and his ABC
    News colleague Claire Shipman and their good buddy Jay Carney.”

    I don’t *think* I’m smarter than them.

    That said, I was thinking earlier that every right-winger in America needs to add one simple phrase to their verbal arsenal, to be deployed whenever the “Democrat-Media Complex” tries to gin up one of these social issues distractions/traps so many (including guys like Rush who really, really ought to know better) can’t seem help falling for: “I refuse to rise to that bait.”

    That short phrase both negates the question and goes straight to heart of what the “bait” is really all about. If the GOPers on the stage had taken that approach to George’s battlespace preparation in the first place, this whole nonsensical diversion from Obama’s assault on the First Amendment right to freedom of religion might have been very different.

  • t-dahlgren

    Amazing how you con be so cognizant of what I have or have not read, yet be so foolishly ignorant of what Romney said in his own essay.

    http://mittromneycentral.com/op-eds/2009-op-eds/mr-president-whats-the-rush/

    How you can mistake that for anything other than advocating for national Romneycare, AND a tax penalty enforced mandate is beyond comprehension.

    Obama and the MSM are gonna have a field day with that one, your petty bleatings not withstanding.

  • Pathfinder’s wife

    Oh, I see it.  I’ve also noticed that only a few religious groups rallied in support of another one when it was time to take a turn in the fish barrel, and that most people either a) paid it no mind; b) attacked whatever religious group was getting hit.  Very few spoke up, so I think whatever ill will it costs Barry isn’t making up for the points he can score.  He’s going to go for it (or rather surrogates will and in a “nuanced” fashion), and it’s likely to not cost him that much.

    Hey, I didn’t say it was right or good — just that it’s probably going to happen.

  • K-Bob

    I guess it’s knives all around, then.

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