Just over two weeks out from the Iowa caucuses, the Des Moines Register has endorsed Mitt Romney in a less-than-passionate editorial that claims Romney is the one Republican candidate with “Sobriety, wisdom and judgment.”
Romney is accused of being a “flip-flopper.” He has evolved from one-time independent to moderate Republican in liberal Massachusetts to proud conservative today. He does not deny changing his position on some issues, but he will say he has made mistakes and has learned from them. Though Romney has tended to adapt some positions to different times and places, he is hardly unique. It should be possible for a politician to say, “I was wrong, and I have changed my mind.”
But more subtle distinctions apply to Romney on some major issues where he has been accused of flipping or flopping. He helped create health-care reform in Massachusetts that is strikingly similar to the much-derided “Obamacare,” for example. Yet Romney argues reasonably, though not entirely persuasively, that while all states should be free to experiment with their own reforms, it is wrong for the federal government to force a one-size-fits-all plan on the entire nation.
They make their assessments of the other candidates, too: Gingrich is unfocused, Perry’s kind of a moron, Bachmann’s often wrong, Ron Paul is occasionally “nutty,” and Santorum is running for “minister-in-chief.”
While the Register doesn’t often pick a winner, (the last time they chose the candidate who eventually became president was George W. Bush in 2000. UPDATE: Nope, they picked John McCain in 2008, too, though the Register endorsement didn’t help him win Iowa.) I think this is another sign that Gingrich’s momentum is quickly fading. Public Policy Polling has him plummeting in national and Iowa polls, and his latest controversy has just begun its moment in the news cycle. Turns out, the FBI was thisclose to setting up a sting operation on Gingrich back in 1997:
It is a curious case in the annals of the FBI: The bureau considered a sting operation against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich after sifting through allegations from a notorious arms dealer that a $10 million bribe might get Congress to lift the Iraqi arms embargo.
Well, we’re much safer with Gingrich on the loose and Barry Bonds convicted.
All I know is I want the GOP to give the American voter a clear choice between the Family Values of the sensible, stable, mainstream Christian American Dad and the hypocritical, cheating piece-of-shit who’s been living in sin with his doxy ever since she converted him to mackerel snapping. It’s all I want for Christmas.
Mackrel snapper? I’ve never heard that in real
life, only read it in John Irving novel…
Newt still leads in Iowa going to be interesting
For all the coverage of the Republican candidates, one of the interesting missing stories is the complete absence of dissent on the Democrat side of the house (unless you call Occupy both Democratic and dissent…the former being possible but given their proclivity towards “protesting” that they want higher sales taxes…the latter being unlikely).
In 2008, Obama was enough of a lefty to keep Nader out of the race and the battle was between blue collar Clinton Democrats and effete urbist coastal types and southern blacks for Obama.
3 years later and President Obama sits as far right as say a Ross Perot might have ended up, if elected! And yet, still no challenges from anyone inside his party, even though with 44 percent approval ratings, there’s a good chance they’re all gonna go riding the Donkey barrel off the falls in November.
The Republicans…on the other hand….seem like the Democrats circa 1972…with who knows how many candidates spanning the political spectrum like the FM radio dial…from Romney’s Adult Contemporary M.O.R. sound to Rick Perry’s Extreme New Ruralism.
That parallel should scare the GOP. In ’72 the Democrats were so sure that they would unseat Tricky Dick, that they could afford to do almost anything, and say almost anything from their platform’s grab bag, until finally they picked McGovern, a quasi-Left Liberal, but really a mainstream party guy, in a race everyone thought a Democrat could win with both hands tied behind his back.
In all seriousness, who else but Romney COULD it be?
And @5 , does anyone (even the Repubs) seriously think that they can “win with both hands tied behind their backs”?
@6 Romney will still not get Tea Partiers in the primaries nor Evangelicals of any persuasion. The blood bath starting in Iowa will make Clinton vs Obama through 2008 look like Barack and Hillary recreated the pottery scene from Ghost in comparison.