“Those of us who believed that a primary fight would toughen Mr. Romney up have little to show for it. Far from sharpening his proposals to reach out to a GOP electorate hungry for a candidate with a bold conservative agenda, Mr. Romney has limited his new toughness to increasingly negative attacks on Mr. Gingrich's character. It's beginning to make what we all assumed was a weakness look much more like arrogance.”
--William McGurn, Wall Street Journal
William McGurn and the Wall Street Journal are establishment and behind Romney. But as we have noted and as McGurn writes above, the Wall Street Journal wants Romney to co-opt tea party reservations about his conservative bona fides and more specifically, to back a bold tax reform proposal. Romney has time to respond, but thus far, arrogance instead.
In the meantime, conservative disgust with Romney’s campaign is broad and deep enough to help kill Mr. Romneycare’s general election chances. Listen to unhappy conservative voices:
Newt, Romney supporters crow, is a loser and "embarrassment." But what about their own candidate? . . . He has been taught how to play a semi-conservative Republican on TV, but his deepest instincts remain liberal. Hence, his dogged pride in Romneycare, legislation that Barack Obama himself would have fathered had he governed the Bay State. . . the GOP will pay a severe price for the Faustian bargain of "electability" . . . A party that chooses power over principle will lose both.
--George Neumayr, American Spectator
In Florida, the Republican empire is striking back. Somewhere. . . is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Gingrich may be an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support. . . but in truth, if you connect the dots between the ideals of the Reagan Revolution, Gingrich’s Republican Revolution and the Tea Party movement, you get a straight line. The GOP establishment is right to fear Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party, just as they once feared Ronald Reagan.
--Milton Wolf, Washington Times
conservatives throughout the country are now keenly aware of the opinion the Establishment has of them, as well as what has been going on behind the curtains in Washington. The current Republican nominating process has further exposed the true nature of the Establishment and their self-centered concerns. . . Mitt Romney has been chosen to be the next Republican nominee for president [and will] fall in line with what is expected of a Republican insider.
the collective and coordinated vitriol and false or misleading accusations against Newt Gingrich by virtually all in the Establishment, led by the so-called conservative media, is unprecedented. . . the fact that he has been successful in fighting for conservative ideals but in an unorthodox and often contentious, and at times unreliable, fashion has the Establishment in near hysterics. . . Never has the Republican Establishment trained its guns on any one candidate in such an unbridled and unrestrained way. The Establishment could not have made a more strategic blunder. . . the damage they have inflicted upon themselves is approaching irreversible. The public now sees the length to which the Establishment will go to make certain their hand-picked candidate is chosen.
--Steve McCann, American Thinker
ordinary voters . . . don’t like and don’t trust the Establishment. They remember that the Establishment supported Dole and McCain (both of whom endorsed Romney). And they want an electable reformer, not a cautious moderate. Those endorsements signal that Romney is not a Reagan, but (at best) a Ford. . . electability is not one of the [reasons to vote for him.] Romney needs to present some dramatic reform plans, starting with income-tax cuts and ending pointless government agencies. If he succeeds without these things, the “Reagan Revolution” is dead. That may be why so many Republicans oppose Romney. . .
--Richard Miniter, Forbes
Romney is being boxed in as the establishment candidate. I think [the Dole and McCain] endorsements are limiting for Romney overall, because you have a a tea party that has largely sat out between Romney and Gingrich -- but when they see all the [establishment] people coming out for Romney, who they blame for the problems in the first place….it pushes them toward Gingrich. He’s not a perfect vehicle at all for any of them, but they really don’t like Romney.
--Eric Erickson, “Redstate”
conservatives will under-vote for president in 2012 rather than support another Bush-Dole-Bush clone in the White House. Heck, there are lots of positive things to say about the Bushes and the Doles, but little good to say about Romney. He’s Bush-Dole without character. But give him this: The guy really, really wants to be president.
--John Ransom, “Townhall”
there needs to be some understanding of the reckless accusations that have become part of the all-out attempt to destroy Newt Gingrich, as so many other political figures have been destroyed, by non-stop smears in the media. . . the poisonous practice of irresponsible smears is an issue that is bigger than Gingrich, Romney or any other candidate of either party.
The[se] practices may well have something to do with the public's dissatisfaction with the current crop of candidates in this year's primaries . . . Character assassination is just another form of voter fraud. There is no law against it, so it is up to the voters, not only in Florida but in other states, to punish it at the ballot box -- the only place where punishment is likely to stop the practice.
--Thomas Sowell, Stanford’s Hoover Institution
[Romney] is the weakest candidate who can face Obama and will go into the general election with a fractured base, thanks to his own character flaws, which are now on display, and his tactics of personal destruction. Moreover, while Romney can swamp his Republican opponents by 3 to 1 or more in every state with his spending advantage, Barack Obama will be raising more and spending more to beat him in the general election, meaning Romney's financial advantage will be non-existent.
--Mark Levin, conservative talk radio host
No comments:
Post a Comment