Posted by
Glen Albrethsen on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:38:39 PM
There's been a lot made about the fact that the other Republican presidential candidates don't like Mitt Romney. Ron Paul might actually sympathize, since he doesn't see to get a lot of affection, either.
When I refer to the candidates, I'm talking mainly about John McCain and Mike Huckabee, and to a lesser degree, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson.
I believe there is something to the fact that he has ran "negative" ads against them. I think there is something there between Huckabee and Romney over the latter's money, and to a lesser extent, his assertions of being a Christian when he's LDS.
Between Romney and McCain, it's more Romney stands in his way to the presidency. Giuliani and Thompson are considered his friends, and Huckabee is more of a foil, a conservative vote stealer than he is a threat.
I think there might be something to do with jealously, a feeling that maybe Romney is the odd man out, that he hasn't paid his dues because he hasn't been in government long enough.
However, what I think is the main factor here is, he's not playing by the conventional rules of politics.
Can you imagine anyone of them being Romney's vice president? I can see Fred possibly, because he's the most conservative of the group, and because he would help solidify the conservative base. With the possible exception of Paul, their campaigns have also been the least contentious towards one another.
Romney, everywhere he has gone, has surrounded himself with the most competent people possible. Might not mean there are others who could do the job well, but the ones he has access to that will also buy into a vision and goal.
McCain might make a great Secretary of Defense, but does he truly want to be so demoted?
Giuliani might make a great Attorney General, but with all the baggage he's had, would that actually be wise?
And where, or where, would you actually put Huckabee?
As the outsider, as the guy who's not a part of the establishment, Romney isn't playing the game. He isn't making the deals. So, the others don't like him.
If he were only a smart businessman without scruples, it wouldn't be going like this, I don't think. Some of them might still get mad, based on the deals.
I think Romney has been in a particularly precarious situation all along. He can still try to cut deals, but with Giuliani quitting and supporting McCain now, and Thompson long rumored to do the same, Romney's only recourse, were he to continue in the race, would be to appeal directly to the voters. A preponderance of the voters would have to be for him, as opposed to being dazzled with the endorsements.
I don't know that we're at the point in our history yet. I don't think we've learned our lesson. I had hoped we were, but apparently we haven't learned the lesson of George W. Bush. Apparently, we've moved to the center and we think that squishiness on principles is better. Don't want to run the risk of offending anyone, after all.
We don't need to broaden the party by allowing things that go against principles. We need others to come in because they share our ideals, not the other way around.
Super Tuesday will tell us if conservatives decide to give up and back McCain, or decide to rally around the last viable most conservative candidate now left in the race.