The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

While Rudy waits for his turn to speak to the FRC until tomorrow, his campaign is sending around a column (subscription required) by Charlie Cook. The Rudy people highlight the conclusion that " I'm now very much questioning the wisdom of declaring in February that 'I am more likely to win the Tour de France next year than Giuliani is to win the GOP presidential nomination.' I could still be right about that, but there's a more than fair chance I'm wrong. " Even more interesting is Cook's take on the rest of the field. On Thompson he concludes that he "got in too late and too tentatively. He is lackadaisically playing a poor game of catch-up." On Romney: he finds him the "most perplexing" explaining: " That Republican core value of competence should have been Romney's strength. A world-class, proven manager with a keen, analytical mind who promised to make important decisions based on data and listening to the best possible advice, Romney should have been the candidate of competence.Instead, he has projected the image of an ideologue, and a pandering one at that -- parroting the bottom-feeders in the primary field in a way that raises questions about his authenticity. Some observers question whether even he knows who he is anymore." Cook concludes that Romney now appears to be "the pandering pol." It makes one wonder if Romney would have done better to leave one or two issues off the "ok I'll switch" list (e.g. guns, McCain Feingold, marriage, cloning).