From The Razor (h/t SoccerDad), a brutal takedown of Mitt Romney followed by a “he’s electable” endorsement, The Case for Mitt Romney:
I don’t like Mitt Romney. I think he’s almost a walking cliche of the smooth talking, Country Club Republican. I think he’s about as authentic as a Coach bag bought on a New York City street corner kiosk, and as sincere as the voice one hears when calling a bank saying “Your call is important to us. Please hold.” I’ll even admit to being so shallow I don’t like his first name. Mitt. Newt. Reince. Why do people with weird first names gravitate to the GOP anyway?I vehemently disagree with his signature health care reform and his position on anthropogenic global warming. I think governing the state of Massachusetts for one term doesn’t provide one with enough experience to govern the entire country for the same amount of time. While he may not be a RINO, he’s in a species that is a close relative. I have spoken to conservatives who will not vote for Romney no matter what. They hate the Republican establishment almost as much as they do the Democrats, and view Romney as the establishment candidate just as McCain was in 2008 and Bush in 2000. I know that as soon as the GOP settles on him as its standard bearer, the Democrats are going to go absolutely nuts on Romney, attacking everything from his “fat cat” background at Bain Capital to his cultish Mormon faith (how many Mormons are in the Democratic party besides Harry Reid?) I expect that we will soon see the nastiest presidential campaign that we have ever witnessed, and President Obama is going to turn Mitt Romney into a pinata.
Okay, you convinced me, Romney’s not our guy. Now convince me why he should be:
But as much as I dislike Mitt Romney, I know that he will survive the onslaught and land just as many attacks on Obama as he takes. I have watched him carefully this election cycle and so far he has withstood the blows from his competitors far better than the other Republican candidates have….. And that is the first reason why I will support Mitt Romney if he is selected by the GOP.
Electability. It’s Romney’s main argument:
“The only Republican who is currently showing a tie or occasionally a victory relative to the president is me,” Romney said during a town hall-style conference call with a few thousand Iowa Republicans on Wednesday.“I’ve been able to attract a larger degree of support from independent voters than have my other Republican colleagues,” Romney said, adding: “This may sound a little overconfident, but I honestly believe I’m the only guy on the stage who has a real good chance of defeating President Obama.”
Okay, but what if he’s not really more electable? What if even some early nudging (it’s not been hammering yet) drives down his numbers? Like this poll shows:
President Obama has opened up a six-point lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. This is the widest gap between the two men since mid-August.The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Obama earning 44 percent support from Likely Voters, while Romney receives 38 percent of the vote. Ten percent (10 percent) prefers some other candidate, and another eight percent (8 percent) are not sure.Romney and the president have been neck-and-neck for nearly two months, separated by two points or less in a series of surveys
If the best argument you can make for a candidate you do not like is electability, maybe you haven’t made much of an argument at all. Particularly for a candidate who has not survived the onslaught before.
Update: More thoughts on Romney’s electability by a diarist at Redstate who sees Romney’s Bain & Co. background (and infamous money shot) as an insurmountable problem in a general election.
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