The title is facetious, of course, but nonetheless relevant in light of this “leak” of a portion of Will’s upcoming column which skewers Mitt Romney:
Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate: Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the tea party and other conservatives, who will be deflated by a nominee whose blurry profile in caution communicates only calculated trimming. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from ‘data’ … Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?
So why do I title the post “George Will for President! (?).”
Because there doesn’t seem to be any candidate in the race acceptable to Will. He has previously declared Newt, Perry, Bachmann and Cain as all but unfit. The only one as to whom he has had kind words is Rick Santorum, who has no chance.
So who does Will think is fit to be the nominee? Perhaps we’ll find out when the full article runs on Sunday.
Update 10-29-2011 – The full column is up on the website now, Mitt Romney, the pretzel candidate. Mostly Will focuses on Romney’s “straddling” of positions.
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“Perhaps we’ll find out when the full article runs on Sunday.” …or maybe not? More than a few of us have abandoned Will, Noonan and many old-guard “moderates.” George, Peggy & Co. do hit ’em out of the park now and then, but it’s a long long now and then.
He’s right about Romney’s deflationary potential – but Will is quite late in reporting what we’ve been saying for four years: Yesterday’s Plan ‘B’ is not today’s exciting, motivating Plan ‘A.’
And for poetic irony, Will’s “conservatism” is barely distinguishable from Romney’s.
I think he is trying to make sure his “Only Obama, Pawlenty or Daniels Will Be President” statement comes true … 🙂
Heh, but seriously … I like the article snippet I saw. Call it confirmation bias, but its about time someone in the GOP establishment said what every other conservative is thinking.
I was moving him back up a notch for saying what he said, but you did a good thing by following that to the next logical step … great question. I’ve got no answer for you …
The dirty little secret is that the GOP establishment reads, and credits, the derisive, consciously partisan description of the GOP candidates that originates with the MSM, which supports the Democrats.
http://bigjournalism.com/jpollak/2011/10/27/new-okeefe-video-jay-rosen-clay-shirky-discuss-how-the-new-york-times-promoted-obama-protected-occupy/
Personally I’m of the opinion that George Will’s pompous pontificating is one of the reasons for our current dearth of candidates and the public’s refusal to listen to the pundits. He is so dry, humorless and so puffed up with self importance. (granted he does have integrity and perhaps is honest but he’s not what I would call a conservative. Too pragmatic and willing to take the lesser of two evils.)
I wish someone would answer his prayers and make him the MLB baseball commissioner so he could sink into obscurity.
George: stfu and stfd you don’t have a good enough prophetic record to qualify as an oracle though you might be as a Cassandra but frankly I’m tired of your negativism.
If you don’t have anything good to say; shut up!
George Will chose Pawlenty and Daniels as his preferences in his amazing prescient prediction.
“Either Daniels or Pawlenty will be sworn in as president January 2013”
http://recovering-liberal.blogspot.com/2011/08/george-wills-cloudy-crystal-ball.html
BTW-what’s with the obsession with Faithfull? (but keep posting the clips)
Professor Jacobson, the obvious answer is that George Will is a Palinista like me. (sarcasm)
Of course, Will’s points are absolutely correct about Mitt Romney. His nomination would necessarily marginalize the efforts of thoughtful conservatives like Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin, and others.
One of my concerns about Romney is the possibility that after he has safely secured the Republican nomination, Obama will see the writing on the wall and bow out (naturally, “in deference to his family,” so Michelle can slip out to shop at Target without it being on the front page), and the Democrat nominee will then be Hillary. Hillary would have no trouble running to the right of Romney (just like Bill, the “moderately conservative southern Democrat,” had reasonable success running to the right of Bush the elder). In addition, we would have another “chance to be part of the making of history” by helping elect the first woman president! I don’t think Romney would have a chance in that situation. 🙁
Even though she’s “not running,” can we the people nominate Sarah?
I think George Will is a great columnist. That said, lets not become distracted by details at this point.
I’m not a Romney fan, however, I will vote for him as the anti-Obama as I’m sure many people will. This election is about one thing, and that’s getting rid of the charlatan we have in the White House right now.
If the Republicans nominate Romney and he doesn’t win, that will be the absolute end of the Republican party as we know it today. People are real tired of the old guard and since Romney is their man, as Romney goes, so will the RP.
For this reason I believe we should all keep Prof. Jacobson’s Operation Counterweight in the forefront of our minds. If Obama gets re-elected, we will need enough votes in the Senate to impeach him. I believe a few people are working in the basis for this action right now. Lets at least give them the votes they will need.
Right now, there is no upside for Will to be for anyone. It’s always safe to be negative, especially in a fluid situation, and it attracts for more eyeballs.
Being postive risks being “wrong” and Will doesn’t have the stomach for that right now. But he’s forced to write anyway so I expect a lot more this until we get a binary choice.
George is a glass-half-empty fellow. He seems to be getting more morose with age.
(Having said that, I’m glad one of the elite GOP talking heads is speaking truth to Romney)
The GOP establishment wanted to run a RINO stampede in the face of the greatest grass roots movement in America since the Revolution, a movement that has only grown stronger, and now they find themselves worried that their “front runners” may not be electable.
This is not going to be your typical election next year. The two likely big party candidates are so unappealing that it is hard to believe that there won’t be at least two independent candidates. The libs are probably run Bloomberg while the GOP is fearing that Ron Paul may decide to run independent. And then there is Trump. I see this as preferable than a Romney victory where he gets 50+%.
It won’t matter who wins if the winner only garners 40% or less of the vote while the Tea Party scores big victories in Congress. After all, twenty Tea Party conservatives (1/12th of 1/2 of 1/3 of the government) stood the government on its head when the GOP leadership was protesting that being only 1/2 of 1/3 of the government, they were powerless.
Operation Counterweight looks like a winner next year.
Some people are saying that the presidency is not as important as the house and senate. That may be true but as obama has shown, a president who abuses his power or takes on more power than he is entitled to is a danger to us all. His EOCs are bypasing congress. Congress will not pass one of his iniative, so he writes a EOC making it so. He is making congress irrelevant. He has already made the judiciary irreleant by igoring court orders. He was ordered to end the moratorium on the gulf, yet refuses to issue permits. He is still implementing obamacare even though a federal judge ruled it unconsitutional. He refuses to sign an amendment rescinding longterm care in obamacare. He is doing this because if part of this cr*p is repealed, all of it should be repealed. I won’t go into the green companies, Fast & Furious or the EPA going beyond its bounds. Also the idea of suing states is ridiculous especially about laws that are the same as federal laws. Obama is one of those people who sees what the traffick will bear and acts accordingly. In other words, he will go down the road to dismantling this country without stop until someone stops him. I don’t see anyone in sight doing this. He is Robert Mugabee to the life and he is trying to turn our country into Zimbowee.
The WaPo is running a nice puff piece about Hillary today. It says that according to a Time magazine poll (probably a bit biased, but we should heed the warnings), “Matched against leading GOP contender Mitt Romney, Clinton won a head-to-head matchup, 55 to 38 percent…. The poll revealed that Obama would eke out a victory against Romney, 46 to 43 percent….”
And the GOP establishment thinks Romney is electable?
(Also see my previously stated concerns about Mitt v. Hillary.)
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