They Have Chosen

Mitt Romney will be the GOP nominee. I think we all assumed this would be the case, but there were moment when it was unclear and it was possible that someone as crazy as Santorum, Perry, or Gingirch might have won (Bachmann and Cain even had their moments).

So what does this mean? I like this quote from Peggy Nonnan, a moderate conservative columnist for the Wall Street Journal, describing Romney:

We learned Mitt Romney is not a greatly improved candidate from four years ago. He has endurance and discipline: He wants this thing. The reason why is still not fully clear. His political instincts and sense of subject matter are not much better than they were in 2008. The awkwardness continues.

I think this is all true. More than other politicians, his views seem to move to whatever will get him elected. The question is if he wins, will we get the current far-right Romney, or the Massachusetts moderate Romney. My guess is that we'll get the far-right version; the base will always be watching him and so he will always have to show if loyalty.

As for the campaign though, I have to say I am not worried about him as a candidate. That he couldn't dispose of such a weak field is meaningful, despite his huge advantages in money, endorsements, and staff support. This doesn't mean he cannot win, it just means that it would take very favorable circumstances to do so (like a stalled or double-dip recession).

I will say though he has a very interesting strategy as a candidate to deal with one of his weaknesses - low favorability ratings.  He has a kind of jiu-jitsu strategy where he accuses his opponents of the things they are accusing him of. And it does seem to throw them off-stride.

He managed in a debate to accuse Santorum of not being sufficiently conservative - attacking him for his vote on No Child Left Behind. That Santorum fell for it and made some lame excuse showed that it worked. He is doing the same thing to Obama - accusing him of being a Harvard elite, despite that Romney has two degrees from the university. And in light of anti-woman legislation like the transvaginal ultrasound, Romney is trotting out disingenuous numbers about job losses for women in the Obama presidency to accuse him of being anti-woman.

The fact is that this probably works. It brings the candidates down to his level. He is basically saying, "if you think I am ________, my opponent is just as bad." It worked well enough in the primary. We'll see if the voters get tired or if Obama is a better candidate and able to avoid it.

The final thing I will say, is that I just really don't like Romney. I can't find a moment when he is being genuine, in his attacks or in talking about his vision. His attacks on Obama are false - especially on foreign policy (where Obama is pretty conservative) and the economy. And when he talks about his vision, it is vague or noncommittal.

I know that most politicians are like this to some extent. Obama has said and will say some ridiculous things - and his surrogates will be even worse. And maybe I am not objective, though I do try to be. I just can't help but feel though that Romney is worse in this respect than anyone else.

Romney is not principled, like McCain tried to be. And he will try to bring everyone down with him.  After all, if people don't like him, the only thing to do is make the people not like his opponent as well. 

I have a feeling that I am going to find this campaign to be painful to watch. Maybe Obama can take more of the high ground, but I doubt it. I will probably long for the days of the somewhat reasonable McCain v. Obama. I can handle painful though, so long as Obama still wins.