Infinite MonkeysSomebody help me here. Apparently our favorite shock joke has his panties all in a bunch over this article by Jim Geraghty at National Review Online.
Why?
Honestly, characterizing Geraghty's article on Romney as an off the rails broadside is, well, an off the rail broadside. Anyone who does not believe that Romney is going to have thse "quirks" thrown at him by the Dems should he be the GOP nominee is, at best, naive. Hugh knows electability is a real life concern (it's why Newt would not stand a chance), yet he seemingly will not allow any questioning of the electibility of his guy (and my guy too, until Fred! jumps in). Closing your eyes and ears to it won't make it go away. Nor will trying to shut people like Geraghty up by resorting to name calling. And ignoring these potential vulnerabilities now means not being prepared for them in a general election.
It's bad enough when the Left trots out the "racism" or "bigotry" card, but when we do it to ourselves, it is, as Hugh might suggest, "not helpful."
Posted by JamesPh. at July 7, 2007 09:49 PMThe only problem I have with Geraghty's article is that he doesn't get right to his point, which is that Mormonism is going to be a big issue in a Romney campaign. All of the other "quirks" he mentions up to that point are minor at worst, if not completely irrelevant. Pointing out that Google gives 202,000 hits when using "Romney" and "creepy" as search terms, for example, loses much of its import when you spend another 30 seconds to discover that "creepy Obama" brings up 579,000 hits, and "creepy Clinton" 1,120,000 (though, admittedly, that one's a twofer.)
If you want to write a piece about Mormonism being a deal-breaker, I say just do it. Leave the PC eggshell walking to the lefties.
Posted by: Poochucker at July 7, 2007 10:38 PMStupid Townhall blog. Still doesn't work in Safari.
As a person who grew up being a conservative Republican with libertarian leanings (as opposed to a libertarian Independent with a conservative hangover, which I am now) I still have a hard time understanding why a principled conservative would support someone like Romney. The so-called "center right" (an incorrect label, to be sure) spent the 90's using Hillary's socialist health care plan as the punchline for jokes as well as evidence that the Clintons were the most liberal White House occupants since LBJ. But now those same folks are enthusiastically defending a Republican candidate whose own health care plan (which he managed to ACTUALLY PASS while in office as Governor) is virtually indistinguishable from Hillary-care on all of the major points.
Mormonism is nutty, but compared to his actual policies it should be the LEAST concern for Republicans.
More on the conservative about-face regarding executive power over at The Cato Institute's excellent weblog.
Posted by: Monkey RobbL at July 7, 2007 11:14 PM