We should be rejoicing that Mitt and newt are damaging each other with their fiercely negative campaigning, shouldn't we? It will only get worse, because newt "will get by on nothing more than roaring ego and implacable rage" (Jason Linkins), and Mitt has the money to drown him in TV ads, as in Florida, which only prompts newt to roar even louder and make ever more outrageous claims -- all designed to keep himself in the news cycle and viral on the internet.
So we may have the "angry little muffin" (Peggy Noonan) around for some time to come. We need no better picture of narcissism than watching newt in all his grandiosity, then imploding into implacable rage when he is thwarted and especially when he is humiliated.
Now is one of those times: Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the White Whale that took off his leg. Howard Fineman even speculates that newt might mount a third party campaign, if he fails to get the GOP nomination. [Note of caution to newt: Ahab dies in the end; the whale wins.]
So shouldn't we be rejoicing at the Republicans' self-immolation? Won't whichever one survives be so damaged as to be easy pickings for Obama? Not so much. There is danger.
If newt and Mitt so damage each other and so divide the party that neither of them can beat Obama, concerned party leaders may convince Jeb Bush or Chris Christie to accept the nomination at a brokered convention. And then Obama would have a much more difficult opponent to defeat.
Ralph
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Exit polls show that women abandoned newt in droves, voting for Romney 52% to 28% for newt. Romney also bested newt with men, but by a slim margin.
ReplyDeleteRomney's biggest support came from those who consider themselves "somewhat conservative" rather than "very conservative."
He also took the Hispanic vote by 54% to 29%. Don't over-estimate this success translating to the southwest, however. A large portion of Florida Hispanics are anti-Castro Cubans who tend to vote for Republicans (who have pandered to them as did these candidates. Those in TX, CO, NV, NM and AZ are mostly Mexicans whose big issue is immigration.
PS: The cover cartoon on the current New Yorker made me laugh:
ReplyDeleteObama is watching football on TV, looking relaxed and cool as can be with beer in one hand, a football in the other -- and grinning his biggest grin as he watches the game on TV -- a determined Mitt tackling a pudgy, angry-looking Newt as they both scramble for the fumbled ball bouncing down the field.
More fun than the SuperBowl.