Well, the Iowa caucuses are now behind us. And so is Michelle Bachmann - at least as a Presidential hopeful. I was a mite surprised at Mr. Perry's decision to stay in the race; he says he's now pinning his hopes on South Carolina. The pundits have offered a number of theories to explain the Texas Governor's decision - some plausible - some not so much.
One suggestion is that he is in cahoots with Mr. Romney to keep the right wing of the party divided. Another is that he is convinced he will cadge the double-dipped Baptist vote big time in South Carolina where both Mr. Santorum and Mr. Gingrich will be shunned for their presumed allegiance to the Bishop of Rome and the LDS Church is regarded as a cult. A third theory posits that his Texas-sized ego simply refuses to accept the evidence that not even the most crazed of the right wing of his party believes he is competent to serve as President.
I confess I did not watch much of the live coverage of the caucuses on Tuesday. I did catch Mr. Romney's "Victory Speech" which was truly shocking for its banality - even by current Republican Standards. The lyrics of "America the Beautiful" will never be the same for me...
The question on the mind of all pundits now is whether or not the right wing of the party will be able to unite behind Mr. Santorum in an "anybody but Mitt" alliance. I do not plan to fatigue myself by spending a lot of time contemplating this possibility for the simple reason I strongly suspect it does not matter. Mr. Romney simply has too much money and his national organization too deep for any other candidate to seriously challenge him over the long-haul. He is the prohibitive favorite to win New Hampshire. And while South Carolina may cause him some discomfort the pace of the primary season thereafter will inevitably favor the moneyed candidate over those more adept at retail politics.
The right wing of the party may have the passion; but Mitt's got the deep pockets. This time around I'm betting on the cash.
Still, one can only hope that Rick, Newt, Ron, and the other Rick stick to their guns (only figuratively, of course). Money and organization notwithstanding, Mr. Romney is a deeply flawed candidate and I, for one, have no objection to his fellow Republicans softening him up a bit before the main event.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment