by Smitty
Byron York in The Examiner is worth a full read:
Romney stages perfect events. For example, on the eve of the primary, Romney’s rally in North Charleston was perfect from a production point of view: stage just right, big flags, big Romney signs, smooth introductions from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, all topped off by a showy entrance by Romney, who arrived in his big campaign bus that drove right into the room.
It was perfect in every sense but engaging with the voters. Romney’s stump speech was a clipped — some would say dumbed down — list of generalities, concluding with this: “I love this land, I love its Constitution, I revere its founders, I will restore those principles, I will get America back to work, and I’ll make sure that we remain the shining city on the hill.” Romney offered his supporters very little to chew on. In this primary race, voters are hungry for substance, and Romney didn’t give them much.
So, the media and GOP-elite anointed candidate is 1 for 3, and the media darling, Huntsman, is long gone. Sure, the Tea Party favorites like Bachmann, Perry and Cain are also extinguished, but what does that 1 for 3 record say for all of the Really Smart Guys of the Rove set?
I submit that maybe it isn’t just Mitt getting the Trump treatment here. Rather, faced with an informed set of voters, it’s the entire GOP elite that is looking as chumpy as BHO. It’s not just Romney looking a teeny bit cannibalistic over the ‘shining city’ phrase. This GOP had better wake up and join the Tea Party, STAT.
via Riehl World View
Meanwhile, over at Power Line, Scott Johnson doesn’t see the positives:
As of this morning, Romney’s campaign is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. She had the air of inevitability and the financial wherewithal for a long national campaign. By contrast with Newt, however, Obama also had an excellent campaign team with a superior strategic vision of the way through the nominating process. I find it hard to believe that Newt can improvise his way to the nomination. But to quote Mitt this past Thursday: “Maybe!”
Romney has been helped along so far by the division of the conservative Republican vote among the various conservative non-Romneys in the race. Santorum will persist, but conservatives harboring the non-Romney animus will coalesce around Newt. To the extent that Newt has now emerged as the conservative alternative to Mitt, Mitt has a serious race on his hands; we have a race on our hands.
What now? Newt seems to me an implausible presidential candidate. I thought he had exhausted his political capital among conservatives in a remarkably short period of time more than a decade ago. I was wrong. He is not a popular guy among the American people, who already have a strong impression of him. Americans view him even less favorably than they do Obama. I understand the result last night, but it’s hard for me to see how this story has a happy ending — for us, if not for Newt.
Of the four GOP men standing, three of them have variously reached out to the Tea Parties. Paul has always postured himself as the fiscal responsibility outsider, Santorum is the everyman who does his own taxes and can’t afford a full sweater, and Newt is the master of forgotten history.
So instead of bemoaning the death of The Ruling Class, country club GOP knobs represented by Mitt, let’s just admit they are done, cut off the rot, and have the GOP continue to re-connect with America.
I don’t grasp why this is so hard, other than forcing the Karl Roves of the world to wash their hands a bit more, but it can be done.
Update: Dondero at Libertarian Republican serves up the Mitt aftershock:What else would we expect Romney to say, exactly? “I went down to the pet store, got a small animal, and killed it with my bare hands in frustration.”
Update II: Legal Insurrection:
the hyperbole being expressed by Romney supporters in the media and inside the party has crossed over from argument to fearmongering.
Or is it the death wail of the GOP elite?
Update III: linked at Daily Pundit:
Would we had more intelligent men who can talk about and explain that history in clear, concise, compelling terms, and thereby bring the torch of liberty lit by our Founders and Framers in long-forgotten eras and places to a new set of hands better able to hold it aloft than the faltering claws of the anti-American gang currently waging war on every aspect of America.
Yes, America, ask what your birthright really is, what it truly means to be an American what sort of sacrifices were made by those who came before you to ensure that being an American has always meant you were better than any other nation of people ever to walk the face of this planet.
Our candidates have ultimately been a mirror of our own failings.
As I’ve admitted already, I did little more than vote, in my rational ignorance, until around January 2008, when Liberal Fascism went off with all the subtlety of a grenade.
