Super Conservative American Spectator : "The GOP is signing its own political death warrant by backing Mitt Romney". - "The "electability" argument is bankrupt on both philosophical and practical grounds. It destroys the party's soul and guarantees defeat"

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"A party that chooses power over principle will lose both".. :


American Spectator
Romney's Cheap and Empty Win
The GOP is signing its own political death warrant by backing him.
By George Neumayr
February 1, 2012

Romney's Cheap and Empty Win


Some excerpts :

Even though Romney paid for this Florida win on his debit card -- outspending Newt by millions -- he still couldn't nail down the rank-and-file vote. Seven out of ten self-described conservatives didn't vote for him. This foreshadows the boredom and disgust that will keep conservatives home in the fall.

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The confederacy of weasels that is the GOP establishment couldn't even find a moderate with an engaging personality to run. They settled on a robotic bore.

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All one can say for Romney is that he looks presidential. If Newt looked like Romney and Mitt looked like an overfed blowhard, Gingrich would be winning.

That Romney is a corny businessman of narrow learning and culture wouldn't be so deadly if he harbored conservative convictions. But he doesn't. He has been taught how to play a semi-conservative Republican on TV, but his deepest instincts remain liberal. Hence, his dogged pride in Romneycare, legislation that Barack Obama himself would have fathered had he governed the Bay State.

What's notable about the rise of Romney is not the extent to which he has pandered to conservatives -- the usual media narrative -- but the ease with which he has left his liberalism open for all to see and still won. In the debates, he has defended statist mandates, extolled gay rights (short of marriage), and waxed nostalgic about FDR's New Deal. Remember his rebuke of Rick Perry for even contemplating a system other than Social Security? Good Republicans, Mitt let Perry know, don't entertain such impure thoughts.

Almost two years after energy from the Tea Party swept Republicans back into congressional power, a politician who embodies the antithesis of that spirit stands on the verge of victory. This is regress, not progress, and the GOP will pay a severe price for the Faustian bargain of "electability" that it entails. A party that chooses power over principle will lose both.

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