Give Me Some of That Old-Time Division

I just read Josh's first post on this blog. He knows of my intense dislike for Mitt Romney. Yet Josh was excited about Romney winning the Republican nomination because he would easily be the weakest candidate to face Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. You know what, Josh? I think you may be on to something. And would I enjoy having Mitt to kick around for another ten months? Hell ya!

Much is made of Mitt Romney being a viable candidate because he can self-fund his candidacy. The man is worth $250,000,000. Or he was when the race was started. If Josh gets what he wants, Romney will get the Republican nomination but lose big in November and perhaps be $100,000,000 poorer. Those would be results I could live with too.

Being a bit of a contrarian by nature, I think the fact that Romney is spending his own money proves just how weak a candidate he is. He is spending his own money out of necessity, not by choice because nobody likes him. (I am betting that Mitt's wife Ann wishes he would just quit already.) If there was a wave of "Mitt-o-mania" sweeping the land, Mitt wouldn't have to rely on his own "bling-bling." But no one is donating to his campaign except a few of his rich buddies. His campaign is not built on support from people in the heartland or from the South, the supposed Republican base. You know what these people are seeing? A flip-flopper from Massachusetts, that is what.

There are bigger problems for the Republican Party out there in the ether as well. Mike Huckabee is running a quixotic and endearing campaign for president. He is representing himself as a "Christian leader." I personally like the guy. But Huckabee is hated by the Republican establishment because he talks about the government's role in making the lives better for the average person and not for the average corporation. If you listen to Rush Limbaugh talk about Mike Huckabee, you would think that Huckabee was Bill Clinton's long-lost cousin from Arkansas. I wonder what social conservatives will think when they reflect on the drubbing a true social conservative candidate (the dude is a Baptist preacher) received from the supposed party of "family values."

On election night 2004, I watched the results with my friend Leona and her husband Ian. They were both very distressed. I was distressed too but only about 75% or so. 25% of me was happy because I didn't think President Bush wouldn't be any great shakes in his second term. Turns out he hasn't even been any mediocre shakes. If John Kerry had won the presidency, everything in Iraq would have been blamed on him. President Bush would have become a martyr. The Republican Party would be able to label themselves victims of liberal elites again.

But today, we are able to call a spade a spade.