Two months ago, I wrote an editorial headlined “Evitable.” The subhead captured the thrust of the piece: “It might not be Mitt. It could be Newt. It could be someone else.”
The editorial concluded:
“Or, if Iowa (January 3), New Hampshire (January 10) and South Carolina (January 21) produce fragmented results, and the state of the race is disheartening to Republicans, a late January entry [I'd now say an early February entry] by another candidate isn't out of the question, eitherross douthat agrees:
And do you know what? He’s (bill kristol) been right all along. Right that the decisions by various capable Republicans to forgo a presidential run this year have been a collective disgrace; right that Republican primary voters deserve a better choice than the one being presented to them; and right, as well, that even now it isn’t too late for one of the non-candidates to change their mind and run.
runmitchrun.com
3 comments:
I think Mitch Daniels would actually mean a relative rise in the sanity of the GOP field.
I just read this interesting take on the state of the GOP race by Conor Friedersdor, one of the Atlantic's libertarian bloggers. He blames the GOP establishment for Newt's resurgence and the craziness of this race because they have harnessed and supported the unhinged Limbaugh-esque fringe. As he puts it, "Is there any candidate in memory whose persona so closely resembles an egomaniacal talk-radio host?"
The Kristols and Douthats of the world are panicking because they see what the GOP has unleashed upon itself. Kristol is probably especially freaked because he helped make it happen.
I love the Limbaugh-Gingrich comparison. They share an ability to fire up the base through outrage.
One of the big rumors around why Mitch decided not to run was that he didn't want to have his marriage (and divorce/remarriage to the same woman) rehashed in the press. He had to defend her pretty strongly against charges that she abandoned her children to be with another man. Frankly, their story seems pretty tame compared to the personal history of SC's pick.
I wonder if Mitch is reconsidering now, given how well Newt is doing despite his, um, character issues.
mitch might be a pretty vanilla candidate (in comparison) but throwing anyone new into the mix seems like political insanity to me at this point. it's happened before but it seems like it would further highlight the disarray and disharmony in the party. i say: bring it!
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