Tuesday, July 14, 2009

More Wheel Spinning on the Right

A Sullivan reader writes about how Mitt Romney now has a chance to take over the Republican Party and position himself to be the nominee in 2012. My favorite part of his letter was this:
What Romney can do that others can't is highlight his resume and brand himself as the competent and practical chief exec he actually kinda sorta is.

He says this like it's a good thing. It's not. Obama has rearranged the furniture in the presidential election chamber. He wasn't elected because people saw him as competent and practical, although he is both those things. He was elected for two reasons: 1) most were inspired by his rhetoric, by his personal journey in life, and his unflappable demeanor during times of conflict. Remember how cool he was during the economic collapse over the summer? It didn't require a suspension of his campaign to get things done. So forget about his debate performances, although they were examples of mastery over an increasingly unhinged opponent. That leads me to 2) the rest were absolutely aghast at McCain's selection of Sarah Palin, the most highly unqualified person ever to occupy a major party ticket in US history, as his running mate. There are plenty of holes in Romney's supposed executive experience that can be exploited, so I don't think he'd stand a chance against an incumbent Obama.
If he can make the central focus ability and competence instead of cuddly and slick, nobody in the GOP can touch him. As important, it makes indies like me sit up and take notice. Does it make primary season tough? You betcha -- he'll have to either get on board or around the wackjob wing of the party. I'd recommend around; don't pander to the Huckabee crowd that likely would have reservations about voting for a Morman [sic] anyway, make the case to the sane right and independents that flooding the primaries will put the Palin/Huckabee idealogues to bed and give the GOP a legitimate electoral shot at Obama.

I'm pretty sure that Romney understands full well that the GOP doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against Obama, and I don't think he's stupid enough to run against an incumbent when he has the ability to wait four more years and take on the next Democratic leader. He'd stand a much better chance at that point.

I would love to see a Republican stand up in full view of the press and publicly state that the radical religious wingnuts have rendered his beloved party impotent. I'd love to see that faction sputter and claim religious persecution, and threaten to leave the GOP and start their own party. It has been my prediction all along that this will happen anyway. It would make sense from a practical point of view. After all, the GOP has never successfully achieved any of the stated goals of the religious faction -- a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, or gay marriage, or school vouchers, or even its dark and secret agenda of scrapping the First Amendment and making Christianity the official religion of America.

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