John Hinderaker of Powerline recently endorsed Mitt Romney for President in time for the Iowa caucuses. Here are my thoughts on the subject.
It is time for Republicans to get serious. After flirting with ideas to solve just about every conceivable problematic issue of our time: a $15 trillion national debt that is growing at an accelerating pace, a sky-high unemployment rates of 9% or 16% if you include discouraged workers, anemic economic growth rates well below 2% and a world where unstable anti-American regimes are actively developing nuclear weapons, it is time to come home to the one candidate who has the demonstrated ability talk around these issues without getting himself into trouble. It is time to eschew the bold and settle on the stable and unimaginative in order to win back the White House. It is time for Mitt Romney.
The “anybody but Romney” mentality has led some to embrace Rick Perry, whose conservative leadership allowed Texas to create more net jobs than the rest of the United States combined; Newt Gingrich, whose record includes actually balancing the Federal budget for the only period in the last 50 years; Ron Paul, whose distrust of Wall Street bailouts make him unfit to be president; and Michele Bachmann, whom I like very much, but whose articulate indictment of President Obama‘s foolish policies might anger squishy centrist voters.
The knock on Romney is that he is “not a real conservative.” But he has a solid record of conservative talk as a presidential candidate. Plus, as governor of Massachusetts, he was able to advance an agenda that could appeal to the most liberal voters. The “Romney isn’t conservative” meme is, frankly, a blessing. While the Bachmanns, Perrys, and Pauls of the world will be demonized by the liberal media for their willingness to embrace radical change to solve America’s problems, Romney won’t upset the apple cart. His appeal extends beyond the Republican base, to welfare queens on Medicaid as well as in executive suites. Romney offers something for everyone by literally offering something for everyone.
In electing a president, our team is going up against President Obama. It’s more important to win than to actually execute a preferred game plan. Romney has shown that he won’t let ideological purity stand in the way of Republican victory. He didn’t in Massachusetts, where he claimed to run “to the left of Ted Kennedy” as he worked with Democrats to achieve liberal goals including socialized Medicine. Some Republicans may dislike what he accomplished, but they still got to throw a swell victory party.
Romney was not my first choice in this election cycle, nor my second, third or fourth. But more conservative campaigns failed to catch fire, mostly because of what pollsters have said; after all, no votes have actually been cast yet. Other, more conservative Republicans like Paul Ryan, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio didn’t get into the race for the simple reason that they understand the American people want the benefits of government spending without the burden of higher taxes. Mitt Romney understands this and will give the American people what they want, at least until the bond vigilantes have their say. And once the bond vigilantes act and bring down the American economy, Romney is uniquely qualified with his Wall Street connections to attempt to pick up the pieces.
Romney might even beat Barack Obama. Do you think Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry can do that? The purpose of a political party is to win elections, not to implement their agenda.
