WHITEFISH POINT, Michigan — I have just cleared
the “Soo” locks of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, passing from the
lower Great Lakes to Lake Superior. In fact, I am now anchored just
off a beautiful lighthouse on Lake Superior. Yes, you have guessed
correctly. I am in a boat, a cruise ship in fact known as the
“Yorktown,” possibly in honor of the famed battle that ended our
War for Independence, though possibly for some other achievement. I
shall not hazard the question to our extremely busy captain. He has
enough on his mind, and I am told these waters are treacherous. My
life jacket is never far away.
This is the first American Spectator cruise undertaken
with National Review. The editors and writers at the
National Review are old hands at conducting cruises, and
so I am watching them closely for instruction and wise counsel. How
is a landlubber like me to conduct myself on a cruise? When do I
put on my life jacket? Do I wear it at meals? When do we abandon
ship? When do I speak? John Miller, the national correspondent for
NR, and Jay Nordlinger, a senior editor for NR,
are sage mentors and very knowledgeable speakers. Along with them
are AmSpec writers Grover Norquist, John Wohlstetter, and
John Fund, who AmSpec shares with NR. Giving even
more heft to our discussions of politics is George Gilder, an
expert on practically everything.
Then there is the audience. They are erudite readers of both
magazines, joined by a leavening of bystanders along for the
lectures and the sun. It is cool here on Lake Superior, the largest
of the Great Lakes and the deepest by far. Deep water makes for
cool temperatures. The rest of the country may be sweltering, but
here we are cool and relaxed. Great transport ships ply these
waters with iron ore and other commodities as we hold forth,
basically on politics. If our bystanders have learned anything they
have learned that we conservative readers of AmSpec and
NR believe that the election this autumn is a mere
formality. President Barack Obama is destined for one term.
President Mitt Romney is destined for two. Another way of putting
it is that Liberalism is Dead.
I got the proceedings off to a brisk start by delivering a
lecture on the topic of my recent book, The Death of
Liberalism. In policy terms the Stealth Socialist in the White
House has gone well beyond Liberalism and spent money like a Greek
prime minister. He has governed like a particularly extravagant
European socialist, nationalized a sixth of the economy
(healthcare), and threatened the financial system (Dodd-Frank). He
thinks America is just another failed colonial state. He is headed
for defeat.
I wondered how this would play with the audience and with our
speakers. As it turned out, it played out just fine. Except for my
admiration for Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision two weeks ago
on Obamacare, the assembled celebrated my optimism. I expected as
much from Grover. He has for years struck an optimistic chord, even
in grim moments, and I think his optimism will be borne out. But
even a “confirmed pessimist” like Nordlinger was sunny. On a panel
whose rubric ran “Can Romney Win,” Jay said Romney would win “big.”
He said that a majority of voters would ask themselves the
question, “Would you like to rehire Obama.” The answer was
thumpingly no. This President would be retired on his job
performance alone. Romney strikes people as a “Turnaround Artist”
who is “likeable.” Obama will “turn bitter, caustic, and
dislikable.”
John Fund said Romney could only lose if he “read too many
biographies of Governor Tom Dewey,” the New Yorker who went down in
defeat to President Harry Truman in 1948 after running as a
moderate Republican race. John called for Romney to “outline his
own vision,” a conservative vision. Yet he cautioned that Romney
must go out from his tight circle of advisors and reach out to the
conservatives. Fund said that he knew no one on Romney’s
inner-circle, and that he was concerned about the guy (Eric
Fehrnstrom) from the Romney inner-circle who kept repeating
blunders: his etch-a-sketch blunder and his initial claim that the
healthcare mandate was to be paid for by a penalty rather than a
tax, as the Congressional Republicans insisted.
Grover said we need to implement a vast program of reform and we
need to do it soon upon Romney’s election. Luckily we have that
program, “the Ryan Plan.” He was referring to Congressman Paul
Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future.” That sounds good to me. And
upon hearing it I wandered off to look for my life jacket. One
never knows when a squall might come up and the result could be
catastrophe.
