We’ll watch with interest how the Michigan and Arizona primary race shapes up tonight and we’ll post a thread later on the election results to follow and share.
In the interim however, taking a pause to reflect on the race so far I am still leaning heavily toward Newt Gingrich being the best candidate for the principled move toward representative government and getting things headed in the right direction. Here’s why:
Newt has proposed and presented the most sensible case of reform and platform positions. While I do not agree with every single aspect of his platform, I do find myself more in agreement with his stances.
Regarding immigration reform Gingrich has presented the most realistic approach to solving the illegal alien issue(s). First with securing the border, including a collaborative approach with the five border governors to coordinate border security and building a border fence by January 2013; then the registration and implementation of a process to legalize people under specific conditions.
Second, with education reform and block grants back to the states to eliminate the need of the Federal Dept. of Education. Third, his economic proposals and tax reforms, which include capital gains investment, are the most pragmatic and sensible of any proposal. Fourth, his energy development advancement is again the most effective and immediately implementable, with increased oil exploration, drilling and leasing, while still seeking structural energy reform. Lastly, he is the only candidate who has experience in restructuring the dependent state and tackling necessary entitlement reform.
Rick Santorum has potential but continues to mire himself in policy and procedural road blocks that are systemic in his thought process. Santorum is focusing entirely too much on social issues and while social issues are important it is his inability to change the course of the narrative which shows his weakness. Team Obama will use Santorum’s weak ability to construct a specific non-social dialogue against him. They would consistently keep him defending himself; and unfortunately Santorum has shown a comprehensive inability to construct a rolling offense from the attacks of his opposition. In short I just don’t see him having the competence to deconstruct a narrative that will be drawn of him without him appearing emotional.
Having said that I would still support Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney.
Regarding Mitt Romney, there really is no logical framework to see him defeating President Obama. Romney has spent seven years in 24/7/365 preparation of running for president. He has structured his entire recent life experiences around winning this election and you can see the intense attention and forethought he has put into it. But he just cannot lead a team. Real men don’t get pedicures.
He’s like the high school quarterback who was raised to be a quarterback from the age of two. He is the right height, right weight, right strength and has read every book about being a quarterback ever written. He has attended the finest quarterback schools, he has been coached by the finest quarterback coaches, he has been to every camp possible. He possesses many of the structural skill sets to being an effective or successful quarterback, except one.
Principled leadership.
The team doesn’t like him and will not play for him because he is devoid of real emotional personality. He cannot roll out, or make plays that were not specifically drawn out and rehearsed ad infinitum. When things break down, and inevitably they always do, he cannot think on his feet and create success. And when things go wrong, which they always do, he blames the “other guy” for not being in the right place, not providing the right blocking pattern, or not being within two inches of the meticulously draw up scheme comprised with GPS coordinates, parabolic omnidirectional grass patterns, and a stolen defensive playbook from the competition.
The team is enjoying pizza and ramen noodle night, laughing and waiting for the affectionately nick-named tight end ‘chicken-boy’ to show up with momma chicken’s delicious home-made cookies for dessert while watching a black market copy of jackass-3. The doorbell rings and perfect hair Romney walks in wearing a starched signed Joe Montana commemorative team jersey and a pair of creased chinos to match his penny loafers. In his hands he carries two trays of sushi, escargot and caviar replete with lemon toasted crustless belgium and peppercorn cracker bread. *sigh*
The laughter stops.
On paper Romney “should be” the most electable. Alas, in the real world he is the most hopelessly vulnerable of candidates in the field. He’ll bet you $10,000 or pink slips on his wifes two Cadillacs, while scoffing at the poor, drinking Louis XIII from his matching sets of Lalique crystal goblets, and perusing his offshore bank accounts.
A man who considers “roughing it” as watching NASCAR with the team owners in millionaires row skybox suites without arctic shaved virgin ice to pre-cool his martini glass.
That is the exact disconnected image Team Obama will relentlessly drumbeat.
AND Oh yeah, no-one likes him.
