First, this: Appearing on Laura Ingrahams’s show this morning, George Will made the following observations (paraphrased):
1) Despite what the polls are saying, there are only 3 top tier Republican candidates remaining for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and John Huntsman (in a Gallup poll released today, Pawlenty is at 6% and Huntsman at 2%; Sarah Palin, meanwhile, gets 15% and Herman Cain 8%). Romney, you will recall, lost to John McCain, who lost badly to Barack Obama. And he has not disavowed Romneycare.
2) Should the GOP nominate a conservative — or what Will called a “populist insurgent” — Barack Obama will take 45 states, according to Will. This despite another report of 1.8% growth for the first quarter of 2011 and an unemployment situation that is stagnant or worsening — with the latest blame being tethered to the Japan tsunami and earthquakes, spiking oil prices, and cuts in government spending. Evidently, the “suburban voters in places like Denver” who decide the elections — that is to say, the “moderates and independents” who broke overwhelmingly for the GOP in 2010 — will run screaming back to Obama and his no-growth, big government, high-unemployment record rather than embrace the message of one of the “populist insurgent” candidates trying to run on free market capitalism and the founding principles of individual liberty, autonomy, and equal protection under the law. Those people are, as Will noted, “preaching to the choir.”
3) All of which leads me to believe that, to Will’s way of thinking, the only way a conservative can ever become President is to sneak in as a moderate and then tack hard right. But then, George Bush was a moderate, and he was framed as a kind of rightwing totalitarian before he ever tacked — and if anything, on domestic policy he moved left. So there’s that.
4) It bears noting that George Will did not initially support Ronald Reagan. He was a supporter of George HW Bush, and then Howard Baker. So. Food for thought.
Second, this: Charles Krauthammer, in commenting on the loss in NY 26 by the GOP candidate, is claiming that the election was, in fact, a referendum on Medicare and Paul Ryan’s budget (5 Republican Senators voted against it, by the way, including Scott Brown and Lisa Murkowski) — this despite the fact that the Democrat candidate was actually tougher on Obama and his $500 billion cut to Medicare than was her Republican opponent, and despite the fact that a Democrat candidate, using his own money, siphoned off 9% of the vote while dishonestly and with revolting cynicism running as a “Tea Party” candidate.
And the GOP, having gotten behind the plan, is now “stuck with it,” as Krauthammer put it. As a result, they need to push Ryan to run for President, as he seems to be the only Republican capable of making it sound less than disastrous. To his credit, Krauthammer doesn’t think the GOP should backtrack at this point.
5) Krauthammer was a one-time speech writer for Walter Mondale, and he’d probably tell you that, with Daniels out of the race, the only remaining “serious” candidates on the GOP side are Romney, Pawlenty, and Huntsman.
6) So.
****
update: I’m beginning to think there’s some sort of establishment GOP journo-list. I ain’t on it.
(thanks to geoffb)
“Beltway conservatism”
That’s a new one for the list of self-contradictory statements, like “jumbo shrimp”
Does anyone else get the feeling the “beltway conservatives” actually want an Obama victory in 2012?
Charles can be wrong. That is EXACTLY the way the media want to spin the loss of NY 26.
Does anyone else get the feeling the “beltway conservatives” actually want an Obama victory in 2012?
He throws boss parties, Spiny.
Neither George nor Charles is keen on private gun ownership either. I tend to like Charles, but like Carin said, he can be wrong.
Jay Cost yells “FIRST!“
Huntsman?!? Knackah please. That guy is the kiss of effin’ death. Obama will win in a landslide against him; and Romney won’t do much better. I’ll withhold judgement on Pawlenty, for now, but I’ll be damned if Cain couldn’t do well against Obama; let’s just say he doesn’t seem like the kind to shrink from calling a spade, a spade, so to speak.
Will is a Rockefeller Rethug! all the way, I recall his support for big Bush and his fear that Reagan wasn’t “electable”.
Same with Krauthammer. He’s a reformed Democrat, who went straight to neo-con. I agree more with his observations of foreign policy than domestic politics. That said though, I agree with him more often than I disagree.
He gets more of a pass in my book than the Brooks, Wills, and Noonans…
Pawlenty signed some good pro 2A legislation while he was governor of MN.
Romney is for “commonsense gun control laws.” (From what I can tell, Romney likes to lead by following)
More than likely, Huntsman would sign any gun control legislation that crossed his desk. (Huntsman is left of center, at best)
George Will has spent too much time enjoying the Beltway Cocktail circuit if he thinks Romney and Huntsman are serious candidates. Huntsman and Romney are non-starters. Pawlenty still has a lot of questions to answer.
I recall an October, 2008 column from George Will wherein he posited that a certain someone running for President at the time had class, while another certain someone, who was in the VP slot on the opposing ticket, did not. Further, class was not something that could be taught. Leaving aside the Will’s little exercise in “hey, I believe the received wisdom that Palin is some hick snow billy,” anyone who would write that Obama had class, even in 2008, marks themselves as too stupid to have their judgment taken seriously. About anything. Ever. I wouldn’t trust the guy if he were telling me what bow ties were fashionable this year.
Jon Huntsman “top tier”?
Someone help George Will out, please? Doesn’t matter which way he came in, just help him out.
Journolist Schmernolist. It don’t matter. With a media so in the clutches of The One that when a writer for a respected magazine with a pedigree going back over a century publicly suggests, on no evidence whatsoever, that the husband of the vice-presidential candidate raped his daughter who gave birth to a baby the vice-presidential candidate then pretended was hers and AND he and his magazine aren’t hounded out of the business that you just know what’s in store:
Not re-electing Obama is just like a lynching. EVERYTHING is going to be a code word for racism.
BTW am I the only one who thought the 70’s liberals’ anointing the phrase Law and Order as code words for racism very amusing? They were so serious, even lugubrious. Never dawned on them that they were in effect saying all criminals were black.