I don’t have the motivation to cover every single detail of this boring GOP primary. The race is over, but on a night like tonight the press beats the Rick Santorum dead horse because there’s nothing else to do. The press has to have something to cover. I get it. Many on the conservative side have brainwashed themselves into believing that Joseph Ratzinger Rick Santorum is the perfect GOP candidate. The Examiner’s very own David Freddoso has gone all in on Santorum. His take on tonight’s pointless election results are comical:
If he can pull that off — and especially if he finishes ahead of Gingrich in Colorado, where results are just starting to trickle in — Santorum will have strengthened the case that he, and not former Speaker Newt Gingrich, is the proper alternative to Mitt Romney in this race. A great night for Santorum. A very bad night for Romney, but possibly an even worse night for Gingrich.
So the alternative to Mitt Romney is a guy who is not even on the ballot in Indiana or Virginia? This development is bad for Romney? Everyone would love to see campaign drama, but this race is as dull as it gets. Mitt Romney will be the nominee unless something spectacular happens. Tonight wasn’t spectacular. Remember when General Wesley Clark won the Democratic primary in Oklahoma in 2004? I didn’t think so… I suspect that no one will ever remember that Santorum won the GOP 2012 non-binding caucus in Colorado.
Here’s another entry in the Bad Lip Reading soundbites. This isn’t as good as the Rick Perry classic, but it’s still funny.
Santorum might as well adopt the “I’m crazy and I’m right” as his campaign slogan. I still believe Perry could have turned his campaign around if he would have just said that we need to “save a pretzel for the gas jets” during one of the debates.
Last night in Tampa, Florida was another horrible debate. Brian Williams asked a series of pointless questions about sugar subsides, manned missions to Mars, and the candidate’s “path to the nomination.” I’m not going to go into it any further detail because we’ve written about these dumb leftist moderators ad nauseum. Who can be shocked that Brian Williams turned in another Gossip Girl performance?
The most obvious change in last night’s debate was the audience. There was no cheering or jeering. I prefer the hushed tones instead of the near gladiator style debates that were held in South Carolina. These are supposed to be debates and not an angry mob scene. Newt Gingrich is threatening to pull out of the remaining debates if the crowd continues to be silenced. It’s understandable that Gingrich prefers the red meat style debate audiences since he’s basically carved a path to the nomination by seizing the heart of the mob.
In 2008, I thought that the Democrats brainless adulation of Barack Obama could never be topped, but the rise of Newt Gingrich is at least a close 2nd. Americans are increasingly skipping the details and settling for the narrative. You see this in almost every avenue of American culture. We are prisoners of the moment.
Last June I wrote that time was running out for candidates to get in the race. In the case of Texas Governor Rick Perry he waited far too long to get in race. Perry bowed out of the race today after getting trounced in Iowa and New Hampshire. While political junkies wring their hands over the next two weeks the race is already over. Newt Gingrich may surge, but Mitt Romney has been running for president for six years. The Romney campaign is a well oiled machines with boots on the ground in every major state.
This system of selecting the president is not what the founding fathers intended. To be a serious candidate for president you have to have millions of dollars in infrastructure. The other issue is exposure. For candidates entering the race late the media scrutiny is intense (unless you’re a Democrat). In 2008, then Senator Obama seemingly came out of nowhere, but he had been receiving glowing press since 2004. There was no question he was going to run for president in 2008. Part of the reason why people like Romney and Gingrich seem to have escaped all their political baggage is because it’s old news. Romney has RomneyCare, but what else is there to write about it? Voters have short memories.
For those who were getting to know Rick Perry in the fall of 2011 there was a lot to digest. Perry’s ideas about immigration hurt his chances, but that was nothing compared to what happened next. For those unfamiliar with Perry the first impression of the governor of Texas was his weak debate performances. Then November 9th happened. There’s absolutely no way to recover from that kind of brain freeze especially if you’re trying to introduce yourself to the American public.
So here we are two days from the South Carolina primary and there’s no true conservative in the race. It’s basically Romney versus Gingrich. Santorum is still in the race, but he’s almost irrelevant. If Gingrich pulls out a win in South Carolina it’s unlikely he’ll win in Florida, Nevada and Maine. The race is over and Mitt Romney is the nominee.
I had a long boring post about where it went wrong for Huntsman, but like his candidacy it’s long gone. WordPress ate it and my motivation to write it again. Next time Huntsman should run an honest campaign and quit insulting potential voters. It’s too bad. Huntsman was a pretty good conservative in Utah. He just didn’t seem to want to admit it.
This guy did stuff and no one cares.
Last night was the last debate before the Iowa caucus on January 3rd. Once the voting is over in Iowa we’ll likely see the end of Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann. Bachmann has been a fire thrower for the past two months, but she’s not gaining any ground. Santorum is a manikin that talks about itself in the third person. Rick Perry is getting better in these debates, but I’m not sure what that means. Ron Paul is really outside the mainstream on Iran and foreign policy in general.
Most of the analysis will be about Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich, but I don’t have the motivation to cover what happened tonight. There have been 13 debates in 2011 and there’s nothing new coming out of these exercies. Mitt Ronmey looks like a political opportunist even if he’s not and Gingrich is all over the place. In the end, Romney is the safe choice. That should tell you all you need to know about how bad things are for the GOP. Oh yeah, Jon Huntsman was there.
Hot on the heels of Rick Perry’s meltdown Herman Cain has his own entry in America’s Search for the Most Incoherent Candidate. The Journal Sentinel asked a simple question: “Do you agree with President Obama or not?” Cain’s non-answer is mesmerizing.
In some ways this is worse than Perry’s brain freeze because it shows a complete lack of understanding about the issue. Even when Cain gets his feet the answer he gives is horrible. The air should go out quickly in the Cain campaign. Mitt Romney is going to be the GOP candidate by default.
With Herman Cain’s struggles and Rick Perry’s meltdown the new flavor of the week is Newt Gingrich. I’m here to remind everyone why that’s a horrible idea. If you want to be let down Gingrich is your guy. In the grand scheme of things Gingrich is worse that Mitt Romney. What, you don’t remember? That’s what I’m here for, to remind you that Gingrich is a bad news.
Remember when he called Paul Ryan’s Path to Prosperity “right-wing social engineering?” This was right after Gingrich said he would have voted for the plan. Huh? I know, this is how Gingrich operates. If it were just one indiscretion he would be forgiven, but Newt has displayed a pattern of odd choices. Michael Brendan Dougherty at Business Insider makes a compelling case against Gingrich.
Ever wonder why Newt Gingrich has so many ideas? It’s pretty simple. Ideas come to you easily when you have no principles to get in the way of your roaming untrained intellect. So what are some of the ideas Newt Gingrich has promoted? Are they even conservative ideas?
- He promoted the return of the Fairness Doctrine.
- He was for a federal individual health-care mandate, the lynchpin of ObamaCare.
- He was practically spooning Nancy Pelosi in commercials about the need for government action on global warming.
- He supports green energy projects [Solyndras] and farm-subsidies.
- Even as late as this year he was pitching for more government intervention in the health-care system at the progressive Brookings Institution.
How is Gingrich an improvement on Mitt Romney?
The prosecution rests. The problem with Romney is that he is asking voters to accept his conservative conversion. The problem with Gingrich is that he has a two-decade track record of being all over the place when it comes to important policies. A Gingrich administration would be a much larger gamble than a Romney administration.
I’m not endorsing Romney, but the idea that Gingrich is some kind of conservative savior isn’t based on reality. Gingrich has wisely refrained from debating candidates directly. This positive strategy has yielded great results, but he won’t be able to survive the onslaught when it comes and if he keep rising in the polls the onslaught is coming. Gingrich’s record is ripe for attack.
It’s almost November. We’re almost one year away from the general election and I have a major problem. I have no one to vote for. I’m going to concentrate on the four real choices for the GOP nomination. Paul, Bachmann, Huntsman, and Santorum are a carnival act. The quicker they get out of the race the better. One of the four people below is likely to become the next President of the United States.
Mitt Romney: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is the perfect candidate. The problem he wasn’t the perfect candidate ten years ago. A vote for Romney is an endorsement that the man ten years ago was a fraud and the man that exists today is genuinely honest. Awesome. Where do I sign up?
Newt Gingrich: There’s not a better idea man in the United States than Speaker Gingrich. However, he doesn’t have the temperament for the office. Too many times in the past Gingrich has tried to appease others or ended up sticking his foot in his mouth about stuff that doesn’t matter (see: riding in the back of Air Force One). The only reason his candidacy is still alive is because no viable anti-Romney candidate has sealed the deal.
Herman Cain: Cain has really benefited from Perry’s problems. In a lot of ways Cain is getting a free pass because he debates better than Perry. What else can explain why Cain has endorsed TARP, Alan Greenspan, and made odd comments about abortion? Cain’s statements about abortion would sink most GOP candidates in most elections. If we have learned anything it’s that this isn’t an ordinary election. Cain doesn’t really have a campaign. At this stage, Cain’s ability to debate should keep his campaign afloat. Cain represents Romney’s best case scenario. Cain isn’t strong enough to defeat Romney, but he’s strong enough to keep Perry down.
Rick Perry: On paper there’s not a better candidate than Perry. Perry has been abysmal in the debates and he’s shown a propensity not to stay on message. This week he launches a flat tax plan and on the same day makes some idiotic comment about President Obama’s birth certificate. Why even bring it up? I’m not sure Perry can be resurrected. Immigration is the third rail of GOP politics. Perry’s position on immigration isn’t alarming to me, but this wedge issue has been effectively used by Romney. Simply avoiding the debates isn’t going to cure Perry’s problems.
There’s still a lot of time before the voting begins, but the merry-g0-round anti-Romney stuff has probably come to an end. Conservatives will likely never rally around one candidate, so that means Romney is probably going to win by default. I’m not sure I can bring myself to vote for anyone.
After two weeks of “considering,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to announce that he’s not running for president. It’s odd that he even has to announce he’s not running. Christie has been adamant for months he’s not running for president. It’s too late for him to get in the race and I’m not even sure there’s a path to the nomination with Mitt Romney in the race. There’s certainly a lot to like about Christie, but he’s more liberal than Mitt Romney.
Where does that leave the race? There are two choices. It’s Romney versus Anti-Romney. Over the past month Romney’s support has remained the same and the Anti-Romney canidate has been represented by Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and now Herman Cain. Perry has crashed since the last debate because he’s too liberal on immigration and the HPV vaccine. Can Mitt Romney become the nominee just because there’s no viable alternative? That appears to be Romney’s path to the nomination.
The next two weeks will be big for Rick Perry as conservatives realize that the Mitt Romney nomination is inevitable if conservatives do not rally around a candidate. Michele Bachmann has already faded out. I’m not sure Herman Cain has staying power.
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