Bring me a leader; an e-mail:
Except there is one important missing element in the discussion. If McCain isn’t going to be the standard bearer for conservatism, and he clearly won’t be the leader of our movement, who is going to be? Who is going to be the Reagan to pick up the pieces after Ford fails? Is it Jeb? A resurrected Allen? Gingrich? Romney?
Ideas are great, but without someone to articulate them to the voters, all we are left with is a lot of intellectual hand wringing in The Corner while we complain about the passage of Great Society II.
This is part of the reason I think what Romney does today and the forthcoming few days will matter, regardless of whether he manages some miracle win at this point: He could position himself to fight for some ideas, competently lead a party of ideas, and help it comeback and embrace folks who, like him, have come to some of those ideas in his later-days.