Rick Bayan is a fellow who runs a blog called The New Moderate, with which I agree on some points and disagree on others. His concept of “moderation” has some ideas that look close to those I hold myself and others I look at aghast. And Thursday I saw a post which is one of those I cannot accept. It was entitled, “Romney Bags the Nomination While a Better Man Drops Out.”
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I've been, in this election cycle, a strong supporter of Mitt Romney. So clearly, you can see why Bayan's title alone distressed me. But I wondered who the “better man” was that Bayan was praising, so I read it and found that he was talking about Charles Elson “Buddy” Roemer III, a former governor of Louisiana who had first sought the Republican nomination, and later, when it was clear that nobody considered his candidacy as a serious one, tried for the nomination of Americans Elect, a quixotic “moderate” group that wouldn't even call itself a party, and foundered when it found that its nomination process didn't work. The timing of Roemer's withdrawal is clear. While he refused to support Mitt Romney, the fact that he gave up his candidacy only two days after the day that Mitt Romney clinched the GOP nomination is clearly a confession that for Roemer to continue can only help President Barack Obama, by siphoning off votes from Romney. (I wish that Gary Johnson, another erstwhile Republican nomination seeker who got about the same amount of attention as Roemer, had come to the same conclusion.)
But Bayan's title for his post says it all: Rick Bayan just can't accept Romney as a voice of moderation. [Among other things he says in the post is “...was Romney the best candidate the GOP could have produced? No again. He wasn’t even the best Mormon candidate. (That honor belongs to Jon Huntsman, who apparently was too sensible and articulate to make a dent among Republican voters.)” Also, “Romney is the kind of moderate who gives moderates a bad name.”] He would have preferred — he actually says this in the post — Roemer.
While Bayan might think that Huntsman or Roemer would have been a better GOP candidate than Romney, it is important to recognize that no politician can accomplish a thing unless he can get elected. Neither Buddy Roemer nor John Huntsman, estimable though they might be in Bayan's eyes, was able to convince any number of Republicans that he had a serious chance of getting the White House back from Barack Obama in 2012. Mitt Romney did. Obviously, though Bayan didn't see in Mitt Romney a credible voice for the American political center, millions of others did.
Certainly, while I like much of what Rick Bayan says, this post of his is not included. And I will continue to support Mitt Romney enthusiastically in the hope of showing Barack Obama the exit from the White House.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I've been, in this election cycle, a strong supporter of Mitt Romney. So clearly, you can see why Bayan's title alone distressed me. But I wondered who the “better man” was that Bayan was praising, so I read it and found that he was talking about Charles Elson “Buddy” Roemer III, a former governor of Louisiana who had first sought the Republican nomination, and later, when it was clear that nobody considered his candidacy as a serious one, tried for the nomination of Americans Elect, a quixotic “moderate” group that wouldn't even call itself a party, and foundered when it found that its nomination process didn't work. The timing of Roemer's withdrawal is clear. While he refused to support Mitt Romney, the fact that he gave up his candidacy only two days after the day that Mitt Romney clinched the GOP nomination is clearly a confession that for Roemer to continue can only help President Barack Obama, by siphoning off votes from Romney. (I wish that Gary Johnson, another erstwhile Republican nomination seeker who got about the same amount of attention as Roemer, had come to the same conclusion.)
But Bayan's title for his post says it all: Rick Bayan just can't accept Romney as a voice of moderation. [Among other things he says in the post is “...was Romney the best candidate the GOP could have produced? No again. He wasn’t even the best Mormon candidate. (That honor belongs to Jon Huntsman, who apparently was too sensible and articulate to make a dent among Republican voters.)” Also, “Romney is the kind of moderate who gives moderates a bad name.”] He would have preferred — he actually says this in the post — Roemer.
While Bayan might think that Huntsman or Roemer would have been a better GOP candidate than Romney, it is important to recognize that no politician can accomplish a thing unless he can get elected. Neither Buddy Roemer nor John Huntsman, estimable though they might be in Bayan's eyes, was able to convince any number of Republicans that he had a serious chance of getting the White House back from Barack Obama in 2012. Mitt Romney did. Obviously, though Bayan didn't see in Mitt Romney a credible voice for the American political center, millions of others did.
Certainly, while I like much of what Rick Bayan says, this post of his is not included. And I will continue to support Mitt Romney enthusiastically in the hope of showing Barack Obama the exit from the White House.
No comments:
Post a Comment