Wednesday, November 07, 2012
The Massachusetts jinx continues and … Scott Brown for governor?
Michael Dukakis. Check! John Kerry. Check! Mitt Romney. Check! … Three Massachusetts party nominees bite the dust in recent presidential elections. Do you think the rest of the country is trying to tell us something? Rejecting Massachusetts pols in three of the last seven general elections? … Hmmm. Who’s on deck in Massachusetts? There’s no shortage of national dreamers here. Deval? In his mind, yes. In the real world, no. … I wouldn’t rule out an Elizabeth Warren presidential run one day, knowing her ego and ambitions, but it’d probably be more of a quixotic Paul Tsongas type of candidacy, if it ever happened. … Btw: Pay no attention to that prognosticator blogger behind the curtain! (Hey, at least I put the prediction out there. I was just off by a little bit.) ... Btw II: Check out Mitt's concession speech. It was very classy. He really did do everything he could to win, leaving 'nothing on the field,' as he put it. Mitt's biggest obstacle in this race wasn't him or his views. It was memories of the prior Republican administration that he couldn't overcome. That was the Republicans' main challenge in 2012, no matter who they nominated.
On other matters: Has anyone seen a Scott Brown For Governor sign yet? It’s just a matter of time. … Then again, there’s an outside possibility of him recycling the old Scott Brown for Senate signs for another senate race. …
Michael Dukakis. Check! John Kerry. Check! Mitt Romney. Check! … Three Massachusetts party nominees bite the dust in recent presidential elections. Do you think the rest of the country is trying to tell us something? Rejecting Massachusetts pols in three of the last seven general elections? … Hmmm. Who’s on deck in Massachusetts? There’s no shortage of national dreamers here. Deval? In his mind, yes. In the real world, no. … I wouldn’t rule out an Elizabeth Warren presidential run one day, knowing her ego and ambitions, but it’d probably be more of a quixotic Paul Tsongas type of candidacy, if it ever happened. … Btw: Pay no attention to that prognosticator blogger behind the curtain! (Hey, at least I put the prediction out there. I was just off by a little bit.) ... Btw II: Check out Mitt's concession speech. It was very classy. He really did do everything he could to win, leaving 'nothing on the field,' as he put it. Mitt's biggest obstacle in this race wasn't him or his views. It was memories of the prior Republican administration that he couldn't overcome. That was the Republicans' main challenge in 2012, no matter who they nominated.
On other matters: Has anyone seen a Scott Brown For Governor sign yet? It’s just a matter of time. … Then again, there’s an outside possibility of him recycling the old Scott Brown for Senate signs for another senate race. …
You
knew this was coming: “Go Galt!” Sigh. … Forget it: The “conservative movement”
isn’t going anywhere. They have a firm hold on the GOP and there’s going to be no
true introspection within the party. Last night’s defeat wasn’t resounding enough
to cause deep reflection and second thoughts. …. Still, it’s somewhat curious:
For an allegedly conservative party, the GOP has now nominated seven moderate
Republicans in a row: Bush I (’88 and ’92), Bob Dole (’96); Bush II * (2000 and
2004); McCain (2008); Romney (2012). Theoretically, conservative-movement types
could argue: But we haven’t been
nominating true believers! That’s the problem! Of course, when they’ve had
the chance to nominate true conservatives – say, oh, Pat Buchanan, Michelle
Bachmann, etc., etc. – they’ve flinched because they knew full well they’d be
disasters in a general election, so they’ve settled instead on running moderate
Republicans through ritualistic nomination gauntlets that churn out candidates
with schizoid rhetorical records, like the moderate-conservative Mitt who had to mouth
non-moderate platitudes to win a GOP nomination and then had to switch back to
being moderate Mitt in the general election.
*Despite what some might say, Bush II was a moderate. He may has slashed taxes like a true supply sider, but his domestic spending was more LBJ-ish than Reagan-ish.
*Despite what some might say, Bush II was a moderate. He may has slashed taxes like a true supply sider, but his domestic spending was more LBJ-ish than Reagan-ish.
