By George F. Will
Ready-made slogan: Is this the best we can do?
If he popped up in the pinch he should of made a base hit and the reason he didnt was so-and-so. And if he cracked one for three bases he ought to had a home run only the ball wasnt lively or the wind brought it back or he tripped on a lump o dirt roundin first base."
Ring Lardner
Alibi Ike" (1915)
WASHINGTON The Republicans 2012 presidential nominee will run against Alibi Ike. Lardner a Chicago sportswriter created that character (His right name was Frank X. Farrell and I guess the X stood for Excuse me.?") who resembles Chicagoan Barack Obama. After blaming his predecessor for this and that and after firing all the arrows in liberalisms quiver the stimulus cash for clunkers etc. Obama seems poised to blame the recoverys anemia on Republican resistance to simultaneously raising the debt ceiling and taxes.
So the Republican nominees campaign theme can already be written. In 1960 candidate John Kennedys theme was: We can do better." In 2012 the Republican candidate should say Is this the best we can do?"
In the contest to determine who will wield those words there have been three important recent developments: Michele Bachmanns swift ascent into the top tier of candidates Tim Pawlentys perch there becoming wobbly and Jon Huntsmans mystifying approach to securing a place there.
Bachmann has been propelled by three strengths: Her natural aptitude honed by considerable practice has made her formidable at the presentational side of politics. She has perfect pitch for the nominating electorates passions. And she has substantive private- and public-sector experience as a tax lawyer and as a legislator on among others the House Intelligence Committee.
But she also has a deficiency indiscipline that can if not promptly corrected vitiate her assets. Unprepared for the intense scrutiny presidential campaigns receive she trustingly repeats things told to her (confusing Concord Mass. with Concord N.H. and John Wayne with the mass murderer John Wayne Gacy) and she plunges into peripheral and utterly optional subjects she has not mastered (e.g. the Founders and slavery). Her staff which is not ready for prime time is not serving as a filter to protect her from eager but misinformed supporters and from herself.
Pawlenty a more ardent than discerning admirer of John McCain is suddenly echoing McCains unhistorical and nonsensical canard that skepticism about nation-building in Afghanistan and opposition to the intervention in Libyas civil war constitute isolationism. America" Pawlenty says astonishingly already has one political party devoted to decline retrenchment and withdrawal. It does not need a second one." The Democratic Party supporting a Democratic presidents plunge into Libya is devoted to withdrawal"? If only.
Occasionally there are Democratic presidential candidates who appeal to people who really do not like Democrats (e.g. former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt in 1988) and Republicans who appeal to people who think Republicans are among natures mistakes (e.g. Illinois Rep. John Anderson in 1980). Huntsman seems to be auditioning for this role which is puzzling because such people are not nominated.
Huntsmans campaign manager John Weaver a former McCain man believes the Republican Party is nowhere near being a national governing party" a view usually held by people called Democrats and that the simple reason" is: No one wants to be around a bunch of cranks." Many of the cranks are called ... the Republican nominating electorate.
Announcing his candidacy near the Statue of Liberty where Ronald Reagan began his 1980 post-convention campaign Huntsman promised civility" because I dont think you need to run down someones reputation" when running for president. Actually you do.
You must say why your opponent deserves a reputation for inadequacy. So Reagan at that spot said Jimmy Carters whole sorry record" was a litany of despair of broken promises of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten." Reagan said Carters cynical" proposals had produced human tragedy human misery the crushing of the human spirit." Reagans forthrightness was neither uncivil nor in the electorates November opinion untrue.
Who will carry the Is This the Best We Can Do?" banner? So far the serene front-runner Mitt Romney has nothing to fear from Huntsmans politics of high-mindedness. Bachmanns saliency with social conservatives and the lurchings of Pawlentys campaign threaten Pawlentys all-in wager on Iowa. And the potential fragility of Bachmanns campaign turns attention to the last piece of the Republican puzzle Texas Gov. Rick Perry a high-octane social and economic conservative whom nobody could confuse with Alibi Ike.
