Its been a mixed week for Mitt Romneys campaign. On one hand Romney won Iowa but on the other he was endorsed by John McCain.
Until the first actual votes were cast Tuesday night it appeared as if some elements of the Republican Party were becoming the mirror image of a liberal mob.
The wild swings -- at least in the polls -- from one populist right-winger to another suggested that some Republicans were determined to change the meaning of conservative from normal person who wants to protect whats best in mainstream America to perpetually indignant restless carper against everything obsessed with symbolic issues determined to punish the country for its impurities.
Some Republicans we were led to believe would only be satisfied with angry denunciations of Obama as a Kenyan colonialist and demands for Barack Obamas birth certificate -- without ever spending five minutes of calm contemplation to see that he had already produced it.
And if theres anyplace for a zealot to shine its in a caucus state like Iowa.
But Romney won -- in a razor-close finish with another plausible candidate Rick Santorum.
The reason the Iowa caucuses rarely produce the partys eventual nominee is not because Iowans are wacky white Christians as some in the media have claimed but because caucuses are ridiculous ways to choose a presidential candidate. It is a process that empowers the pushy and loud much like a Manhattan co-op board meeting but unfortunately not like anything envisioned by our founding fathers.
Instead of arguing for hours in public with partisans in order to cast a ballot voters are supposed to put on their shoes fight off the Black Panthers on the way to their precincts vote in private and go home.
So the fact that the Iowa caucuses avoided giving the gold to Newt Gingrich Ron Paul or some other sure-to-lose candidate shows that Republicans are dead serious about beating Obama this fall. Even in Iowa the only Republican with a chance of doing that won.
Conservatives are naturally suspicious of any candidate deemed electable on the grounds that the mainstream media always anoint the most liberal Republican preferably pro-choice as the electable one. And then that guy goes on to lose.
But just because liberals misuse the word doesnt mean there is no such thing as electable.
Michele Bachmann was not electable as president because she is only a congresswoman which is why she has now dropped out.
Newt Gingrich is not electable for many reasons including that he too was only a congressman; he took $1.6 million from Freddie Mac (his latest excuse is that he got only $35000 of that money and the rest went to overhead -- theres a great fiscal manager); he cut a global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi; and because he cheated on not one but two wives.
Ron Paul is not electable as president for several reasons including that he is only a congressman is bad on illegal immigration favors drug legalization and is off the charts on foreign policy.
(But it would serve the rest of the world right to have Paul running the show for a term or two. Then theyd find out what its like to be entirely on their own protecting their own sea and air lanes digging themselves out of their own earthquakes getting invaded and nuked by hostile powers having their computers hacked by terrorists and buying oil from the new Islamic caliphate. After eight years of President Paul it would be generations before wed hear a peep of anti-American sentiment again.)
Rick Perry is not electable as president for three reasons: First he seems too much like Bush; second he gave illegal immigrants in-state tuition; and third uh oops ... I cant remember the third reason.
As a two-time senator from a light-blue state Rick Santorum is not as obviously unelectable as the rest. But dont leap too fast Republicans. Remember how Rick Perry broke your heart.
Santorum is not as conservative as his social-issues credentials suggest. He is more of a Catholic than a conservative which means hes good on 60 percent of the issues but bad on others such as big government social programs. Hed be Ted Kennedy if he didnt believe in God.
Santorum may not be a big spender as far as professional politicians go but he is still a professional politician. In 2005 one of his former aides described him as a Catholic missionary who happens to be in the Senate.
The Catholic missionary was fantastic on issues like partial-birth abortion but more like a Catholic bishop in his support for No Child Left Behind the Medicare drug entitlement program (now costing taxpayers more than $60 billion a year) and a highway bill with a Christmas tree of earmarks including the famous bridge to nowhere.
Santorum cites his fathers admonition to put any extra money in the poor box at church to explain his wanting to use the federal government to help the poor.
You get only one or two big issues in a presidential campaign. But in the middle of the second Great Depression Santorum is on the campaign trail saying The reason I ran is cause I think people know there is more than just a little narrow issue called jobs.
Actually this year its pretty much just jobs.
This is going to be a tough election and a man with the presence of Rick Lazio is not the strongest candidate to send in against Obama. Santorum is more assistant-manager type than presidential material.
So it was a relief to see that when the first votes in the Republican primary were actually cast -- even in a caucus system ideal for zealots fanatics and mobs -- reason prevailed. Romney won.
Not a professional politician Romney has created a lot of jobs and also knows how to fire people something heretofore untried in the federal workforce except briefly by Reagan.
Having spent his life turning around companies in the private sector and not sitting on some Senate committee spending money hell get to Washington and be as shocked as the rest of us are at how taxpayer money is wasted even by conservative senators like Santorum.
Iowa shows that Republicans are still the party of normal people -- normal people who are determined to defeat Obama.
Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors Slander Treason How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) Godless If Democrats Had Any Brains Theyd Be Republicans Guilty: Liberal Victims and their Assault on America and Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.
Its been a mixed week for Mitt Romneys campaign. On one hand Romney won Iowa but on the other he was endorsed by John McCain.
Until the first actual votes were cast Tuesday night it appeared as if some elements of the Republican Party were becoming the mirror image of a liberal mob.
The wild swings -- at least in the polls -- from one populist right-winger to another suggested that some Republicans were determined to change the meaning of conservative from normal person who wants to protect whats best in mainstream America to perpetually indignant restless carper against everything obsessed with symbolic issues determined to punish the country for its impurities.
Some Republicans we were led to believe would only be satisfied with angry denunciations of Obama as a Kenyan colonialist and demands for Barack Obamas birth certificate -- without ever spending five minutes of calm contemplation to see that he had already produced it.
And if theres anyplace for a zealot to shine its in a caucus state like Iowa.
But Romney won -- in a razor-close finish with another plausible candidate Rick Santorum.
The reason the Iowa caucuses rarely produce the partys eventual nominee is not because Iowans are wacky white Christians as some in the media have claimed but because caucuses are ridiculous ways to choose a presidential candidate. It is a process that empowers the pushy and loud much like a Manhattan co-op board meeting but unfortunately not like anything envisioned by our founding fathers.
Instead of arguing for hours in public with partisans in order to cast a ballot voters are supposed to put on their shoes fight off the Black Panthers on the way to their precincts vote in private and go home.
So the fact that the Iowa caucuses avoided giving the gold to Newt Gingrich Ron Paul or some other sure-to-lose candidate shows that Republicans are dead serious about beating Obama this fall. Even in Iowa the only Republican with a chance of doing that won.
Conservatives are naturally suspicious of any candidate deemed electable on the grounds that the mainstream media always anoint the most liberal Republican preferably pro-choice as the electable one. And then that guy goes on to lose.
But just because liberals misuse the word doesnt mean there is no such thing as electable.
Michele Bachmann was not electable as president because she is only a congresswoman which is why she has now dropped out.
Newt Gingrich is not electable for many reasons including that he too was only a congressman; he took $1.6 million from Freddie Mac (his latest excuse is that he got only $35000 of that money and the rest went to overhead -- theres a great fiscal manager); he cut a global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi; and because he cheated on not one but two wives.
Ron Paul is not electable as president for several reasons including that he is only a congressman is bad on illegal immigration favors drug legalization and is off the charts on foreign policy.
(But it would serve the rest of the world right to have Paul running the show for a term or two. Then theyd find out what its like to be entirely on their own protecting their own sea and air lanes digging themselves out of their own earthquakes getting invaded and nuked by hostile powers having their computers hacked by terrorists and buying oil from the new Islamic caliphate. After eight years of President Paul it would be generations before wed hear a peep of anti-American sentiment again.)
Rick Perry is not electable as president for three reasons: First he seems too much like Bush; second he gave illegal immigrants in-state tuition; and third uh oops ... I cant remember the third reason.
As a two-time senator from a light-blue state Rick Santorum is not as obviously unelectable as the rest. But dont leap too fast Republicans. Remember how Rick Perry broke your heart.
Santorum is not as conservative as his social-issues credentials suggest. He is more of a Catholic than a conservative which means hes good on 60 percent of the issues but bad on others such as big government social programs. Hed be Ted Kennedy if he didnt believe in God.
Santorum may not be a big spender as far as professional politicians go but he is still a professional politician. In 2005 one of his former aides described him as a Catholic missionary who happens to be in the Senate.
The Catholic missionary was fantastic on issues like partial-birth abortion but more like a Catholic bishop in his support for No Child Left Behind the Medicare drug entitlement program (now costing taxpayers more than $60 billion a year) and a highway bill with a Christmas tree of earmarks including the famous bridge to nowhere.
Santorum cites his fathers admonition to put any extra money in the poor box at church to explain his wanting to use the federal government to help the poor.
You get only one or two big issues in a presidential campaign. But in the middle of the second Great Depression Santorum is on the campaign trail saying The reason I ran is cause I think people know there is more than just a little narrow issue called jobs.
Actually this year its pretty much just jobs.
This is going to be a tough election and a man with the presence of Rick Lazio is not the strongest candidate to send in against Obama. Santorum is more assistant-manager type than presidential material.
So it was a relief to see that when the first votes in the Republican primary were actually cast -- even in a caucus system ideal for zealots fanatics and mobs -- reason prevailed. Romney won.
Not a professional politician Romney has created a lot of jobs and also knows how to fire people something heretofore untried in the federal workforce except briefly by Reagan.
Having spent his life turning around companies in the private sector and not sitting on some Senate committee spending money hell get to Washington and be as shocked as the rest of us are at how taxpayer money is wasted even by conservative senators like Santorum.
Iowa shows that Republicans are still the party of normal people -- normal people who are determined to defeat Obama.
Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors Slander Treason How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) Godless If Democrats Had Any Brains Theyd Be Republicans Guilty: Liberal Victims and their Assault on America and Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.
