The Republican candidates’ circular firing squad now seems to be using machine guns. Whoever the eventual “last man standing” turns out to be, he may not be standing very tall or very steadily on his feet — and he may be a pushover for Barack Obama in the general election, thanks to fellow Republicans.
Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, this is a very serious and historically crucial time for the United States of America. What Mitt Romney did or did not do when he was with Bain Capital, or what Newt Gingrich did or did not say to his ex-wife, are things that should be left for the tabloids.
With the economy still faltering and Iran on its way to getting nuclear bombs, surely we can get serious about the issues facing this nation. Or can we?
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Mitt Romney’s boasts about what he did at Bain Capital are as irrelevant as Newt Gingrich’s demagogic attacks on Romney’s role there. Romney is not running to become head of Bain Capital.
While Gingrich backed away from his demagoguery about Bain Capital, Romney is continuing to press ahead with his charges that Gingrich was a lobbyist for Freddie Mac. As someone who has been a consultant, but never a lobbyist, I know the difference.
As a consultant, I have offered advice to people in government and in private organizations, both businesses and non-profit organizations. But I have never gone to a government official to urge that official to make a decision favorable to those who were paying me, or to those for whom I did free consulting.
It takes two to tango, and lobbying requires not only a lobbyist but also someone who is being lobbied. With more than 500 people in Congress alone who could have been lobbied, and additional officials in the bureaucracies, if Romney cannot find even a single person to say that Gingrich lobbied him or her, then it is long past time for him to either put up or shut up.
On the other hand, if Romney just wants to sling a lot of mud in Newt’s direction and hope that some of it sticks, then that should tell the voters a lot about Romney’s character.
So much of what has been said by various Republican candidates, as well as by the media, has been in the nature of unsubstantiated, peripheral, or irrelevant talking points for or against particular candidates, rather than serious statements about serious issues confronting the nation.
So common has this approach become that even some conservative writers have come to the defense of John King, the CNN reporter who opened the South Carolina debate with a question about Newt Gingrich’s former wife. These writers have declared that question “legitimate,” in some undefined sense.
Mr. Sowell, somebody is serious; serious about preventing any true conservative from getting in the way of self-described [2002] Independent Progressive, Mitt Romney's being shoved down conservative American voters' throats.
This GOP primary is exposing a deep-seated animosity of establishment, entrenched Washington elitist Republicans against the very base of their own party. Mitt Romney -- a man who has, over the course of the past decade, done all he could to distance himself from the Republican party and conservative values -- is being pushed out before the Republican conservative base as the "Champion of Conservative American Values." In fact, the Republican Party had expected that he would have had the GOP nomination sewed up before Iowa.
This is establishment, institutionalized RINO Republicanism gone berserk, bringing out all the guns, in an attempt to promote, even a Romney who never supported the Republican Party and who was totally absent when Newt Gingrich was leading the Conservative 104th Congress and who NEVER shared the values of Ronald Reagan, in a mad attempt to prevent the momentum of the Tea party movement ...and to cheat us out of the 2nd wave of the tsunami we were responsible for in the 2010 Midterm Elections to change the status quo in D.C.
They're not just opening up both barrels on Newt Gingrich...they're opening up both barrels on the Conservative movement and trying to cheat us out of choosing a true conservative candidate to replace Barack Obama. This is the disenfranchisement of the Conservative movement by the Republican Establishment. Even if it means their nominating someone who disavows everything the Republican base they expect to vote for him, stands for....and against.
All fair points Dr. Sowell but I would just offer that come November 2012, no one is going to remember these bitter moments. Better for all to sling the mud out of their system now, in the doing making it much less sticky when the cool autumn winds approach.
The "October Surprise" will have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever idiotic accusations candidates from the "Dumb Party" lob at each other. Rather, like the 2008 Financial Crisis, an "October Surprise," for sure - though it started in September; the "Surprise of 2012" will be engineered by the "Evil Party."
By the way, if you think the 2008 crisis wasn't engineered by the donks; why was donk rent-seeker extraordinaire, Warren Buffett 100% in T-bills when the collapse hit?
We'll have to wait and see if this year's Republican candidate is as dumb as John McCain was, leading with his chin and "suspending his campaign" to address the crisis; then standing mute before the world.
Nevertheless, expect something nasty from the Democrats and, I mean something much nastier than the "flash mobs" and "occupiers" who will show up a the polls to intimidate anti-Obama voters (There will be few "pro-Republican" voters, thanks to the idiocy, so ably pointed out by Dr.Sowell - but, there will be "a whole buncha folks" - as Obama himself is wont to say voting against Obama) - perhaps an attack on Iran or a confrontation with China as Obama sends "triggers" to numerous locales surrounding the Mainland.
I watched in shock and awe as Clinton/Carville/Liberal/Media shoved the politics of personal destruction down our throats first, but the "creeping acceptance of such practices is itself part of the degeneration of our times."
I ask a wise man here and now - what do we do about it Dr. Sowell?
This column is beneath the intelligence of NRO readers.
"Neither the audience in that room nor the millions watching on television were there to find out about Newt Gingrich’s marital problems." Oh yeah? Well, not even Romney has a PowerPoint slide for every problem a president's going to face after he's inaugurated, so we voters have to spend at least a little time getting to know our candidates so as to get a sense of how we think they'll react to the unpredictable. That means evaluating their character. And that means evaluating answers to personal questions, especially questions involving a candidate's honesty, decency, and sincerity.
"And that means evaluating answers to personal questions, especially questions involving a candidate's honesty, decency, and sincerity."
I don't need to know a candidate outside of what their voting record is and where he stands on issues. It's a smokescreen to say that you want to vote for person based on honesty, decency and sincerity; after all, when one politician was being honest, decent and sincere, he was accused of wanting to throw grandma off the cliff. Were such man to be running for President, no doubt you would have found something to fault him with, as would the rest of the media. After all, the point of this election is not to find the most competent man to replace the incompetence that is in the White House; it is to make all Republicans look like a worse human being than the person in the White House. So far, the media is succeeding.
Absolutely right, Mike. Since when did it become off limits to evaluate a candidates charachter? When the odious Gingrich arrived with all his baggage? Cordially, Bill
Unfortunately for every sane and calm voice like Dr. Sowell, there are ten trying to destroy the conservative candidates. And that is just on NRO. I'm so disgusted with the Republican establishment. With friends like these, who needs enemies. They are as bad as what the Leftists called them during the Bush days.
