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The Spectacle Blog
In yesterday’s New York Times, Ross Douthat argued that Romney’s victory in the GOP primary is inevitable, despite the periodic surges of candidates like Bachmann, Perry, and Cain.
And he blames both the establishment and the Tea Party for the lack of plausible alternatives:
What’s more, Republicans have only themselves to blame for his inevitability. Romney owes his current position to two failures: the Bush era’s serial disasters, which left the Republican establishment without a strong bench of viable national politicians, and the Tea Party’s mix of zeal and naïveté, which has elevated cranks and frauds and future television personalities to the party’s presidential stage.
To date, neither the establishment nor the populists have come to terms with the failures of the last age of Republican dominance. And despite occasional flashes of creativity, neither has groped its way to a credible vision of what the next conservative era should look like.
What they have to offer instead is a largely opportunistic critique of a flailing liberal president. So it’s fitting that America’s most opportunistic politician is destined to be the standard-bearer for their cause.
View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/10/24/douthat-romneys-inevitable
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Paul Windels| 10.24.11 @ 9:39AM
"Inevitable" is not a good word to use with respect to politics in the US. My late father used to recall a campaign slogan "It's Inevitable, Why Not Now?" -- either FDR Jr. or Jimmy Roosevelt for Governor of NY.
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 9:43AM
Follow Wall Street & The Ruling Elites' Frontman, Mittens Romney's Campaign Donor Trail.
Goldman Sachs $354,700
Credit Suisse Group $195,250
Morgan Stanley $185,800
HIG Capital $176,500
Barclays $155,250
Kirkland & Ellis $129,100
Bank of America $121,500
PricewaterhouseCoopers $118,250
EMC Corp $117,300
JPMorgan Chase & Co $109,750
The Villages $92,500
Vivint Inc $88,250
Sullivan & Cromwell $78,750
Marriott International $75,837
Bain Capital $69,500
UBS AG $64,250
Wells Fargo $63,000
Blackstone Group $57,300
Citigroup Inc $56,550
KKR & Co $53,900
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Teflon93| 10.24.11 @ 11:20AM
What's fascinating is how little he got from Bain, the company (and people) which knows him best.
Jack in Wi.| 10.24.11 @ 9:44AM
More nonsense from the neoconservatives. The country knows who to blame for the failures of the last 12 years. Their names are the neoconservatives and the the Wall Street banksters. There is one candidate that has been right about these issues for decades. His name is Ron Paul. Romney is jusr more of the same.
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 12:21PM
"Wall Street banksters"?
The Occupy American Spectator Movement Is Here!
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 1:12PM
We Tea Party Patriots Oppose Wall Street TARP Recipients , Stimulus, The FED's QE's, FHLMC, FNMA.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Dai Alanye | 10.24.11 @ 1:22PM
In '92 an acquaintance, the chief engineer of a small company, insisted Ross Perot would take the Presidency. He knew this because all the regulars at his barber shop, a mixed crew, were wild about twitchy little Ross and his pie charts. The Ron Paul supporters who flock to the Spectator are similar, insisting their twitchy little 5% candidate and his anti-Fed Reserve rants will forge into pole position.
It's all delusion, friends, although if everyone else drops out and the only primary choice is between Obamney and Doctor Who, I might vote for the latter.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.24.11 @ 10:06AM
Jack,
You Paul disciples scare me. If Paul had the leadership capability of a wet noodle, you guys would have us all hiding in fallout shelters.
Fortunately, Paul will always be a fringe nut with fringe nut followers.
For 70 some odd years, we have had a pretty decent ability to have wars OFF our shores by projecting force around the world with our best and brightest in uniform.
Sometimes, you and the Clints of the country keep a very slim skin on your Jew hatred. That's OK. We got it, alright?
I personally am not a Israel Firster, but you know what? I'm damned sure an Israel "Seconder".
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 11:28AM
Uh Oh !
Kenny The The Neo-Chickenhawk Squirrel Attempts To Play The Anti-Jew Card On Tea Party Clint & Dr.Ron Paul's Tea Party Supporters.
Why Don't Ya Read:
" RON PAUL'S “PLAN TO RESTORE AMERICA”
CUTTING GOVERNMENT WASTE:
Makes a 10% reduction in the federal workforce,
slashes Congressional pay and perks, and curbs
excessive federal travel. To stand with the American
People, President Paul will take a salary of $39,336,
approximately equal to the median personal income of
the American worker.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....caPlan.pdf
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 11:34AM
If Ron Paul wasn't such a freakshow about foreign policy, and stuck to the sensible portions of his economic ideas, he'd be a shoe-in for the nomination compared to the rest of the current field.
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 11:53AM
Apparently, RINO-CINO'S Don't Know What Real Conservative Foreign Policy Is.
Read George Washington's Farewell Address & Thomas Jefferson's Firste Inaugural Address & The Old Right And Get Back To Us.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 12:19PM
Call it what you want, it's the reason Ron Paul is losing. If he'd dump the freakshow ideas from his campaign (and thereby get rid of the semi-literate supporters who are attracted by those freakshow ideas) he'd be a strong competitor instead of one who has to stuff the ballot boxes of straw polls and rarely makes it out of the single digits in real polls.
Solo| 10.24.11 @ 1:12PM
The ultimate irony about Ron Paul is that, were it not for his idiotic supporters, and his asinine foreign policy, he'd almost be worth supporting.
LOL!
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 1:31PM
Get rid of the fruitcake foreign policy, and the semi-literate supporters would be gone as well.
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 1:18PM
Call It: " RON PAUL'S “PLAN TO RESTORE AMERICA”
SPENDING:
Cuts $1 trillion in spending during the first year of Ron Paul’s presidency, eliminating five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education), abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and returning responsibility for security to private property owners, abolishing corporate subsidies, stopping foreign aid, ending foreign wars, and returning most other spending to 2006 levels."
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the.....e-america/
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Solo| 10.24.11 @ 1:22PM
"Conservatism" is about the preservation of the Constitution and traditional principles.
Washington had his opinion about foreign policy...others among the Founders disagreed. Specifically...I think it proper and appropriate to suggest that Washington's opinions regarding our proper role in foreign policy was colored by our abilities at the time.
During his time, we had no more capacity to project power in our own interests than we had the capacity to launch a mission to the moon.
Context is everything!
And.....Foreign policy is no where to be found in the Constitution.
Live with it.
Dai Alanye | 10.24.11 @ 1:30PM
The isolationist references to Washington and Jefferson are far off base.
Washington didn't want to involve us in returning any favors to France by involving the US in Europe's wars. Sensible, since we had the Indians and Spanish on this continent to keep us busy.
As for Jefferson, though timid in some ways he sent naval forces to deal with the Barbary states, and went all un-Constitutional by dealing with Napoleon in the Louisiana Purchase. With Ron Paul we'd still be stuck on this side of the Mississippi.
Solo| 10.24.11 @ 5:00PM
Good point, Dai.
Not to mention Jefferson's oft admitted desire to invade and annex Canada, Florida and Cuba to add into his "Empire For Liberty", as he called it.
He also advocated for instilling democracy into the Indian tribes--a follow-on to his father's goals and initiatives. In contemplating a failure to do so he once offered:
"We shall be forced to take up the hatchet and drive them, with all the beasts of the forest, across the Stony Mountains".
Quite the "NeoCon", huh?
LOL!
Solo| 10.24.11 @ 5:23PM
Oh...and another oft ignored position of Jefferson:
Not once, but twice (once as Secretary Of State and again as President) Jefferson petitioned Congress to enter into participation with an International Security Force to supply U.S. war ships under the command of a foreign
Commander to patrol the shipping lanes in search of Pirates (the 'terrorists' of their day).
It would have been the NATO of that era.
Of course..our Navy consisted of only 6 war ships in that day; A frigate and 5 Sloops, so...Congress was in no itching hurry to sign on to that.
But...it clearly demonstrates the seriousness and urgency Jefferson attached to forming foreign alliances for mutual protection of interests.
Nope! Jefferson was no Ron Paul. Thank God!
Hoads| 10.24.11 @ 10:24AM
Douthat dismisses the effect of an insurgent, rabid Left and corresponding Pravda media in the ruination of Bush as well as the fact that Bush was not a conservative. The Tea Party message of government accountability resonated with millions. In fact, much more than with the OWS' message (???), but then again, with our Pravda media-- Douthat's blame is misplaced.
The Tea Party can only succeed with boots on the ground connecting with our own communities behind the scenes, in spite of a hopelessly biased media. We will see grassroots like none other in the history of our country. We have taken our sticks and stones, are unfazed, unrepentant and confident in the integrity and honor of our mission. Truth is on our side and we intend to bank on it to turn the tide in 2012.
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 12:47PM
The Tea Party message of government accountability did resonate with millions. But Douthat isn't blaming the Tea Party for having good ideas. The problem is with its naïveté. The problem is with the attitude that all you need is ideological correctness and everything else will fall into place. That's how you end up with a bunch of deeply flawed candidates and Romney circling like a vulture.
CalMark| 10.24.11 @ 1:07PM
What you so patronizingly condemn as naivete (spelled with correct fancy letters and all--wow, a real scholar-person we should--MUST--all listen to!) is simplicity, and is what makes the Tea Party so powerful.
If the Tea Party were naive, it would have dissipated after an initial surge. It shows no signs of doing so.
As for "flawed candidates," there's no such thing as perfection. Romney and the Establishment have been grooming him for years. The others don't have that luxury.
And whose ideas and plans are being debated? Certainly not Romney's. Love it or hate it, Cain's 9-9-9. The only thing people are saying about Romney is how vulnerable Romneycare makes him.
The problem is the Establishment, which definitely includes the emasculated Republican bosses in D.C.
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 1:27PM
Romney's weakness on Romneycare just underlines what an awful slate of candidates the Tea Party served up. Romneycare alone should kill Romney's chances, but on top of that he's got a long history of obvious flip-flopping. And the Mormon thing isn't as much of an issue as it once was but it's not helping him. And even so, he may still get the nomination because the rest of the field is so terrible.
What makes you think that the Tea Party's naivete (I plainified the word just for you) should have made it dissipate quickly? What sustains a movement is enthusiasm. You can have oodles of enthusiasm wrapped in thick layers of naivete.
Douthat mentioned the TP's naivete *and* zeal. The zeal keeps it going. The naivete channels that zeal to give us weak candidates, from O'Donnell and Angle last time to Bachmann and Santorum this time. It's the kind of zeal that would rather lose with an ideologically correct candidate than win with a competent candidate.
Clint| 10.24.11 @ 1:22PM
While We Tea Party Patriots Are Recruiting New Tea Party Patriots, Placing Committee People & Delegates & Vetting Candidates at The Local, State & Federal Level, The Bloviator Critics Bloviate.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Teflon93| 10.24.11 @ 11:17AM
What was inevitable was that a RINO like Douthat would try to sell us on Romney's inevitability.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.24.11 @ 3:41PM
Well, one thing for sure; we will always get the politicians we deserve.
We only have one candidate that has a proven record of responsible governance.
Sometime or other, I hope you folks will squirt some visine in your eyes and blink.
You put him on a stage in a "one on one" debate with a communist, and he will kick ass.
So far, he has been very kind to his Republican wannabees. Some people here are a little too dim to recognize him pulling his punches in the circular firing squad debates thus far.
I do wish he would do a little "Newt" and tell the moderators..."DUMB QUESTION..."
Cam O. Milety| 10.24.11 @ 4:03PM
The "pulling his punches" theory doesn't hold much water when you look at his faltering answers that had nothing to do with attacking another candidate.
There's another explanation for his poor performance, and it also explains why he refused to have any debates in one race and only to a single debate in a highly restricted format in another race.
Dan| 10.24.11 @ 6:24PM
The Tea Party can't force someone to run for the nomination.
And conversely, the Tea Party can't preclude someone like Romney trying to force himself on the base of the GOP.
All the Tea Party can do is very much what it already has attempted, and that is primary vulnerable Washington stalwarts, such as the not much lamented Senator Robert Bennett from Utah. So deriding the Tea Party because it hasn't itself nominated someone, or put someone forward, is a bit much.
What we have here is another establishment type trying to marginalize the Tea Party.
Was it the Tea Party that blew up Perry's campaign, with dim answers to rather straight-forward questions. Was it the Tea Party that forced Bachmann to go all kamikaze like on Perry's use of Gardasil? Was it the Tea Party that has exposed Cain as a not very bright opportunist, who when queried beyond his 999 plan, reveals himself to be hopelessly beyond his depth?
Moreover, were it the Tea Party asking the candidates questions, who here believes that Romney would be able to skate through the debates without getting his hair mussed?
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