This Yglesias Award nominee from The Dish caught my eye:
It mostly caught my eye because it's an honest assessment from a conservative. They could use more of that self-reflection and truth-telling. But I also think this kind of thinking is a product of the primaries.
Republicans aren't as excited about their candidates as Democrats were about Clinton and Obama. You can't always have great candidates. But while that might affect the enthusiasm of casual voters, I don't think it will matter much to the base the party elites. John McCain wasn't exactly labeled as the next Ronald Reagan in 08. Many conservatives didn't like him and thought he was a RINO. But once the general election started they rallied around him.
I think this will happen for the most part again with Romney. When it comes down to it, even with the flip flops Romeny is still going to be more conservative than Obama. And sitting out because you don't like Romney enough only serves to help Obama. Turnout does seem to be down in the primaries thus far. And that could very well be because people are dissatisfied with Romney and the other candidates. But once the general starts and the choice is boiled down to Romney and Obama I think conservatives satisfaction with Romney will rise.
"When you have a candidate few people really like, whose support is a mile wide and an inch deep, whose raison d’etre (a 4am fancy word) is fixing an economy that is fixing itself without him, and who only wins his actual, factual home state by three percentage points against a guy no one took seriously only two months ago, there really is little reason for independent voters in the general election to choose him if the economy keeps improving.
Seriously, putting it bluntly, conservatives may not like Barack Obama, but most other people do. And when faced with a guy you like and a guy you don’t like who says he can fix an economy that no longer needs fixing, you’re going to go with the guy you like," - Erick Erickson, RedState.
It mostly caught my eye because it's an honest assessment from a conservative. They could use more of that self-reflection and truth-telling. But I also think this kind of thinking is a product of the primaries.
Republicans aren't as excited about their candidates as Democrats were about Clinton and Obama. You can't always have great candidates. But while that might affect the enthusiasm of casual voters, I don't think it will matter much to the base the party elites. John McCain wasn't exactly labeled as the next Ronald Reagan in 08. Many conservatives didn't like him and thought he was a RINO. But once the general election started they rallied around him.
I think this will happen for the most part again with Romney. When it comes down to it, even with the flip flops Romeny is still going to be more conservative than Obama. And sitting out because you don't like Romney enough only serves to help Obama. Turnout does seem to be down in the primaries thus far. And that could very well be because people are dissatisfied with Romney and the other candidates. But once the general starts and the choice is boiled down to Romney and Obama I think conservatives satisfaction with Romney will rise.
Comments
Post a Comment