Current Looks Are Deceiving
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“Americans will flirt with and hear out any voice or opinion but will at last tend toward moderation.
My last post told why Romney, at campaign’s end, will be the Republican nominee, and I stick with that prediction.
Just a little over a month ago, Michelle Bachmann was the flavor of the moment but then slipped a long way even before her vaccination blooper during a debate.
Extremism wears thin with enough exposure and Rick Perry has no innnoculation against that as well. Americans will flirt with and hear out any voice and opinion but at last they tend toward moderation. That is one of the blessings of free speech. Don’t be surprised however when the Rickster tones down his rhetoric depending on where he is. His ego, not his brain, is what wants to be president but the most he would bring to a debate with Obama is a handful of Texas witticisms and cracker-barrel bromides–none of which does a Chief Executive make.
Whatever my issues with Romney, I truly feel that he wants to save the Republican Party from its current self, as a hostage of the present crop of hysterical Tea Partyers for whom compromise is a dirty word.
This has resulted in GOP lawmakers going home during the recent Congressional break and facing angry voters in their districts who blame Congress more than anyone. Make no mistake, they knew the ire was directed more at them than Obama and they came back to Washington in a more sober frame of mind. Too many know that their own seats are at risk.
I’m also upset with too many liberals and other Democrats. What the hell or they drinking or smoking? Are they overlooking all the president’s accomplishments, as they did Jimmy Carter’s in his mere but remarkable four years? Obama’s latest is his superb handling of the Libyan crisis, forging a broad coalition of support so that the U.S. didn’t appear, once again, to be policing the world on its own. We’ll be reminded of this not only during 2012 debates for President, and showcased at the Democratic convention. Seeing it all in context will have a public effect; after all, not everyone in American is a hothead of either left or right.
If the race for Weiner’s seat in New York really was a referendum on Obama, including his posture on Israel, I’ve yet to see the real evidence. Word is that Jews in that district flipped to the GOP for the reasons aforementioned. Are Jews there really so thin-skinned as to go Republican at a crucial time in U.S. history? Can nothing critical be said of Israel, even when well-taken, without them handing over even one district to the poisoned well of a Tea Party-toxic GOP? I’d also like to know exactly Independents and Libertarians stand presently; they seem to be ignored in latest polling though they will figure importantly in a close race for President.
After what I believe will be a series of much more helpful Obama-Romney presidential debates on issues of substance, Republican Tea-baggers will start sucking for air, those nasty town hall meetings will recede into history and there will be a return to more civil and productive communication between pols and their constituents.
This will have an effect as well on Fox News as well, along with the soon-to-be-determined fate of Rupert Murdoch, the Darth Vader of modern so-called “journalism.” And may his tribe decrease ever after. Megyn Kelly will be obliged to abandon her daily “let’s-talk-about-Obama” schtick. Is there no cure for cancer? Is there an increase in cases of Housemaid’s Knee? Megyn will want to discuss how such irrelevancies might effect Obama’s re-election chances, with a panel that will call the president names and make reference to him and “his cronies,” who are “lying to the American people” and turning us into European socialists.
And Fox and Friends (“Fox and Fiends”?) will lose its luster for sobered-up conservatives and we’ll see no more of (from left to right): the Big Dumb Doofus, the Little Beauty Queen, and The Other Guy (like the Other Tenor whom no one can name) all of whom have not even a passing acquaintance with the truth.
Fox News occasionally trots out what vaguely resembles a focus group but in reality are ordinary lock-step right-wingers, who hold up both hands when asked if they prefer Rick Perry–but when asked if they wish New Jersey Gov. Chris Christy would jump in the race, all paws are in the air again. This is further indication that they aren’t really all that happy with Perry.
All of this is to say that present looks are deceiving. Exposure will continue to change the GOP presidential lineup; political moderation will rise again; and extremism will take its deserved Humpty-Dumpty tumble before all our eyes.
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Ichabod's Kin 
I bought most of what you had to say, but one sentence gives me pause: “His ego, not his brain, is what wants to be president but the most he would bring to a debate with Obama is a handful of Texas witticisms and cracker-barrel bromides–none of which does a Chief Executive make.”
Have you forgotten George W. Bush? That’s all HE brought to the table.
Too many voters hunger for someone who has bluster and swagger and tells them what they want to hear.
Hungry dogs want fresh, raw meat. They don’t want to hear their owner say, “Wait a second while I go into the house to get the can opener. But, first, let me check the label to make sure this isn’t one of the cans that has been recalled.”
Rational people might see Romney as the nominee, but I’m not sure we’re dealing with rational people this time around.
One thought that crossed my mind the other night when the cameras panned onto McCain during Obama’s speech: he’s the guy who could have been standing in front of the joint session. Why doesn’t someone ask him what HIS solution would have been to pull us out of this economic hole?
Ken Steinhoff - September 15, 2011 at 5:19 pm |
Good point about W. I recall Adlai Stevenson’s reply to a woman who gushed that he would get the votes of every thinking person in the country: “Madam, I fear I will need also the support of the majority of voters.”
jeburciaga - September 15, 2011 at 7:50 pm |
Yes, Ichabod, I think you’ve got it right. I’d like to hear more of your comments about the Tea Party Crazies. I might be more willing to listen to their rants against taxes when they stop meeting at public venues paid for by taxes. I might even give some attention to Tea Party Representatives when, to decrease the national debt, they refuse all the perks that go with being a member of Congress. My major concern about your notion that moderates win the day is that too often in the past half-truth demagogery has been heard. Boehner, Canter and their ilk are masters of half-truth, which they repeat often. I’m afraid good people will be misled. Thanks for your work.
Jim Grant - September 15, 2011 at 5:39 pm |
[…] John Burciaga has posted – here, and here – some excellent reasons why Mitt Romney should be the Republican party’s nominee for […]
Romney in ’12? « Allogenes - September 17, 2011 at 10:27 pm |
I, like you, find the Republicans limited in imagination and the droning on about “No new taxes even for multi-billionaires” irresponsible. I was delighted to learn in the Times the other day that Denmark had voted out the right-winger Rasmussen in favor of Thorning-Schmidt , a leftie and a woman. The Danes apparently now want more social welfare and higher taxes. Can you imagine that flying here? I believe the average voter still dreams of winning the lottery and wants to be able to spend most of it on multiple cars , houses and, lately, electronic gadgets…….forget the roads, schools and the unemployed.
mori freed - September 18, 2011 at 11:05 pm |