I can't quite recall where I saw this in the last few days, but it had Newt noting that conservatives should be happy with his 90% ACU career rating. [Update 9:30AM-It was in the Corner.]
Not quite, Newt. At least in this campaign season where the deer hunters want a side of RINO. During last year's campaign season, Utah Republicans dumped a 90-ACU senator and Indiana would have done the same to Dan Coats had they coalesced around a single conservative. Conservatives seem to pick on the 10% you were with the center-left camp rather than the 90% you were with them.
Rick Pery gets written off for not perp-walking undocumented teens back to Mexico and Newt gets both barrels for wanting to normalize illegals of long-standing. Herman Cain gets trashed for saying some libertarian things on abortion. And, of course, we have Willard M Romney, who was portrayed in yesterday's Midland paper as a rhino with strapped-on elephant tusks. The only thing missing was the John Kerry sandal collection ("a fashionable flip-flop for every occasion").
Cain seems to be the most down-the-line conservative, but his command of policy details is lacking; he's also a chick magnet of the sort, with an purported mistress coming forward over the weekend along with the harassment charges from his Washington days. He's not out of the race, but he needs to find some way other than saying it didn't happen to clear the air.
Perry has a track record as a solid conservative government; his non-hawkish views on immigration soften the don't-mess-with-Texas vibe (for me, that's a feature rather than a bug, but I'm for both a fence and normalizing those who have been here for a while; one of my centrist stands). He's not a Heritage-Cato kind of wonk, but he'll surround himself with those folks once he's there. He's fallen off the pace, but with Mitt stuck in the low 20s, there is room for recovery.
Newt is a wonk, sometimes hopelessly so. He might not be a tea-sipping intellectual, as he's a historian and generalist rather than knowing everything about nothing. No, he's not a fire-breathing reactionary; he actually thinks he can improve government's function. That might actually sell well in a general election as an elder statesman who had his Tea Party phase two decades ago.
Romney has the downside of being a clear one-percenter, the Chamber of Commerce president. However, that's not always good for the economy or the country, as K-Street works for Big Business and Big Labor rather than small business and the average worker. He'll be better than Obama, but about 75% of the phone book would be an improvement.
One of these guys will likely get the nomination, unless we get a dead heat primary and a "brokered convention" with no brokers.
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