2012–Already Decided

Cancel 2012. No, not the movie that I have zero interest in seeing. Actually, cancel that too. Cancel the 2012 Republican primaries. Skip Iowa and those twelve people in Dix Hills Notch, New Hampshire. They are like Punxatawney Phil the Groundhog. When they see their shadow, they give themselves fifteen more minutes of self-importance.

Cancel the GOP nomination because the nominee has already been decided. It was decided in 2008. For those of you backing other candidates, you have no say. You don’t get to choose. The nominee is decided. Mitt Romney is the nominee.

Whether you like Mitt Romney or not, this doesn’t matter. He has been anointed.

Republicans preach conservatism, but when it comes to picking presidential nominees, we are the biggest bunch of socialists on the planet.

Democrats may be wrong on every issue, but at least they have real primaries. Obama is dreadful, but Hillary was not given her coronation. We Republicans are a hierarchy. We always pick the person who is next in line.

I am as thrilled as anybody that Ronald Reagan was given three chances, but this was an aberration. In real life if somebody keeps running for President and losing, and then is handed a nomination as a consolation prize, there is a chance they may lose again. We are not a charity. Just because liberals reward people like Arab sympathizer Helen Thomas for violating the law of averages does not mean we have to do the same.

The entire rational in 1996 for Bob Dole’s candidacy was that it was “his turn.” John McCain was handed the 2008 nomination because he lost in 2000. This is not Summer camp where the last place kid gets a prize. We would all be better off if the last place kid was told that he sucked, but that he may or may not be good at something else. Maybe if Simon Cowell was allowed to screen GOP nominees we could weed out the chaff.

I have nothing against Mitt Romney. He looks like a presidential nominee. He is tall, has good hair, and is inoffensive. That means Tim Pawlenty will be the vice presidential choice. He is tall, has good hair, and is so harmlessly inoffensive that he may be standing in your living room.

Mitt Romney is what we call “acceptable.” Rudy Giuliani was loved by the Neocons and other foreign policy conservatives. He was fine with the economic conservatives. The social conservatives were suspicious of him. Mike Huckabee is perfectly qualified to be King of Iowa, but Republicans do not get elected without support from the Wall Street Journal editorial pages and Sir Charles of Krauthammer.

None of the three legs of the Republican stool would be in a state of open revolt over Mitt Romney. 2008 was a year where we needed a sexy nominee on the ticket. We had to swing for the fences. After four years of Obama, people will have had all of the sexiness they can handle. Like a hot woman at a bar, sexiness left us broke. In 2012 the social, economic, and foreign policy conservatives look at Mitt Romney and think, “fine. He’s good enough.”

We have so many talented people in our party that never get mentioned. One person I love is Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. Three people helped the GOP take back the congress in 1994. Newt Gingrich brought the strategy. Rush Limbaugh brought the media and the message. Haley Barbour brought the money and the bourbon. The bourbon was used in a late night meeting with Gingrich, which is how he got the money. After Hurricane Katrina, some Louisiana lady was crying that she was “so overwhelmed.” Haley Barbour was rolling up his sleeves, turning into the Rudy Giuliani of the South, and getting the job done. Never send a liberal to do an adult’s job.

Another great choice would be Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle. She is a Jewish Republican who got elected in a state with virtually no Jews and no Republicans. She simply vetoes everything. In one recent legislative session there were 33 bills, and she vetoed 27 of them. Of the six that became law, one was a children’s health care bill. After all, anything for the children has to be good. A few weeks later she did not like how the law was working, so she had it overturned.

I just want the GOP to have a real primary. The media creates tension. George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Reagan in Iowa. George W. Bush stumbled in New Hampshire. It doesn’t matter. Mitt Romney is next in line, and his opponents are running for the right to lose and be handed the nomination the next time around. If people want to prove me wrong, that would be fine. Otherwise, let’s cancel the primary and give the money back to Republican voters in the form of a tax cut.

eric

10 Responses to “2012–Already Decided”

  1. Toma says:

    eric, I tried to post a comment but it disappeared????

  2. Dav Lev says:

    Absurd, no Jew or Mormon has a “Chinaman’s chance” (pardon
    the expression all you Chinese lurkers to this website), of becoming
    President of the US., a Senator, yes, but President?

    A smart party will look to, for example, someone who can unite
    the American population, ( the way the Democrats did) with
    a candidate who will entice the minorities into changing their attitudes
    about what is ultimately good for them.

    What about the current Republican leader, what’s his name?

    We Republicans have a lot of work to do to undue 4 years of
    the failed Obama administration.

    But it’s not too late, guys.

  3. I disagree with Dan that a Jew or Mormon could never become president. It would be easier for a Jew or Mormon if he or she was a Democrat, but even a republican of those varieties could win. The problem for republican Jews and Mormons (or Jehovah’s Witnesses, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minority republicans) is getting nominated. And here’s what gets to Eric’s post…

    The GOP is bascially a bipolar, hierarchical tent: Wall Street Republicans (re: Establishment Republicans) and Neo-Dixiecrats (the Voting Base). While the GOP establishment has been successful in moving the old Dixiecrat voters away from Progressive Populism (albeit Racist Progressive Populism), they have not been successful at moving them away from their base prejudices. In fact, in a Faustian Bargain, they parlayed those prejudices into GOP support, so now they’re stuck with them. Here’s where Mitt Romney runs into trouble, and why his father never had that trouble. Back when George Romney ran for president, the Dixiecrats were still mostly Southern Democrats and the GOP was still most Northern Industrialists and Western Agro concerns. The old GOP didn’t care if you were a Mormon. All they cared about was tax cuts and deregulation for powerful interests. Now the GOP is stuck with the idiotic, paranoid, xenophobic pathologies of the Neo-Dixiecrat voters, and anyone other than a conservative Protestant is going to have a hard time .

    I don’t know what will happen three years from now, but if history teaches us anything, the voters will forget the abject failure of the GOP decade that was first of this millenium. So once again, the GOP must rely on our lesser angels. What that spells for the GOP establishment is hard to say, but again history would dictate that a puppet like GWB would do well for the Establishment, placating the Neo-Dixiecrats while towing the Establishment line.

    JMJ

  4. Micky 2 says:

    Right Jersey, so whats new ?
    You’re little shpeel only works if your an ignorant hate filled liberal.
    Theres plenty of successes for the republicans across the last millenium that give plenty of us reason to look back and give reason to oust you bums for the collosal failure thats taken place in record time this year.

  5. dnlchisholm says:

    The GOP will have a real primary in 2012, but Mitt will win. Mitt is simply the best candidate and that’s why he’ll win. His life is full of fixing huge problems and that’s exactly what our country needs right now.

  6. Micky, I don’t think you actually read my post.

    JMJ

  7. Micky 2 says:

    Yeah, I read it.
    Its typical jersey crap that acts as if the right has never done anything right ever while ignoring most of the truth.
    Yawn

  8. Micky 2 says:

    “Micky, I don’t think you actually read my post.”

    Typical liberal response also. Always discredit the opponent somehow besides challenging him on any relevant point.

    You didnt read it
    you’re stupid
    you’re insane
    need your meds.. etc…

  9. You were too vague, Micky. I have no idea what you were actually critiquing.

    JMJ

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.