In a good column yesterday which gets at some of likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s flaws, Peggy Noonan remains nevertheless optimistic about his presidential prospects:
Mr. Romney should feel optimistic.
If the issue is our national economic life, the GOP will very likely win. If the subset of that issue is freedom and personal liberty, the GOP will win with meaning. The Obama campaign knows this. That’s why they’ll do anything to throw Republicans off those subjects. Two weeks ago it was contraception, next week it will be another social question. They used to scorn Republicans for using wedge issues, but now their entire strategy is a tribute to the political hacks they hated. And if any Republicans were sad that contraception actually came up as the subject of public debate, they were not as sad as Democratic strategists, who were hoping to save it for September.
Read the whole thing. She’s spot on about the Democrats willing to do anything to change the subject — the big reason we should be grateful that Rick Santorum won’t be the nominee. He can’t seem to fix his focus on the issue foremost in people’s minds.
This is not to say that Mr. Romney doesn’t have some larnin’ to do. The American people, Peggy says, “just want to hire somebody to come in and fix some essential problems.” They don’t want someone who think he’s a “superior human”, divinely ordained to lead.
He just needs to keep talking like he did Tuesday night, keeping hitting his economic freedom agenda. And talk about his plans to address America’s pressing problems, like our burgeoning debt and the coming insolvency of federal entitlements.
I really enjoyed the entire Noonan column. She has it within her to be very crafty in uncovering nuances that make a difference. And I am glad that Noonan’s Volvo and Brie period with the Upper East Side pundits and wags has cooled down and she no longer strives to “belong.” She sold her soul there for awhile trying to help mold the establishment. Cable TV and the local nabobs of negativism in the liberal New York salon corrupted her vision and then turned on her. She has been bitten and is now appropriately “twice shy” and has returned to her basic gifts and kissed the salon crowd good-bye. She learns from her mistakes. And she has a very clear understanding of David Corn, the Columbia J School, Sy Hersh, S.I. Newhouse, Graydon Carter, David Remnick, Hendrick Hertzberg, Tina Brown, David Brooks, S.I. Newhouse and a vast stable of other fashionable trends setters in the political correctness industry of salon approved journalism.
That right there isn’t optimism, that’s self-delusion.
If unemployment doesn’t just keep falling, but falls at an accelerated rate, Peggy seriously thinks voters will go “Well that’s nice, but I don’t see what this has to do with President Obama”? There’s a difference between Republican talking heads going on about how Obama and the Democrats own the recession but Republicans and the free market own the recovery, and voters actually swallowing that tripe.
Except for the fact that Obama has been screaming since 2010 that the Republicans in Congress are responsible for everything and that he hasn’t been able to do anything — AND how everything Republicans have done has been toward the free market and away from the Obama-controlled socialism that is more “fair”.
Hence, Obama has admitted straight-up that anything that happens after 2010 is solely the province of the Republicans and that he has nothing to do with it.
You forget, Pomposity: you are a bigot. You are mentally incapable of being consistent because you blindly worship Barack Obama. That’s why it is so easy to make a fool of you here; we know that you will repeat anything Barack Obama says as gospel, and then flip-flop later, because that is what your Barack Obama does. Barack Obama has never been in a situation other than being surrounded by blind bigots like you who will do whatever he says; thus he makes contradictory and stupid statements constantly because he doesn’t know any better.
Serenity,
Whilst you have your Kool-Aid all mixed and have been sipping on it liberally (groan) …. perchance you can tell us just how it will come to pass that the people who have stopped looking for work and spent through their unemployment welfare and have high gasoline prices and higher food prices staring them in the face are going to sweep Obama back into office.
I suppose they are going to look at their cousin who knows somebody who got a job and rejoice in his good fortune.
Just this week a local game company consolidated into three other locations across the nation and closed the doors of a state of the art CD/DVD production plant and fired 200 local employees. Perhaps the plant could be used to build batteries for the Chevy Volt or solar panels on helmets to power the Segway crowd as they commute hither and yon through every city, middlesex, village and farm.
Meanwhile, you could do a whole CSI series based on tracking down clues of where the ratholes are that swallowed the stimulus. You could even have a few episodes looking for shovel-ready jobs. Think of all the grips, best-boys, gaffers and do-nut dusters such a series would employ.
“She’s spot on about the Democrats willing to do anything to change the subject — the big reason we should be grateful that Rick Santorum won’t be the nominee. He can’t seem to fix his focus on the issue foremost in people’s minds.”
Agreed 100%. I don’t trust Santorum for a second. Idon’t trust him to keep his yap shut on contraception during the campaign. I don’t trust him not to make whacky statements about how he’ll “throw up” when reading speeches he doesn’t agree with, and I don’t trust him to even be able to talk about faith in a way that doesn’t turn off a lot of Christians, let alone non-Christians.
Rather, Santorum will play right into the hands of Obama and his minions in the media. They’ll try and make this election about contraception and abortion and he will helpfully give them all the ammunition I need.
I seem to be the only Republican in my neck of the woods who is pro-Romney, and the conversations with my friends are tough at times, but I console myself by knowing that in the end my guy will get the nomination and likely the White House.