So Giuliani dubbed the GOP the “party of Bush” on the night that McCain won out over Romney 36-31 and the day before Giuliani endorses McCain. That is unfortunately fitting, as it is only the “party of Bush” that could have ever briefly vaulted someone like Giuliani into major contention or propelled McCain to his frontrunner position (for a second time), since the presence of these two in national roles is almost unthinkable without Mr. Bush, the Iraq war and the ruinous transformation Mr. Bush has wrought in the party. Why the most plausible anti-McCain candidates have fared poorly is part of my next column, so I will hold off on that point, but I can make this observation: two-thirds of Florida primary voters opted for the candidates deemed unacceptable to one or more factions of the party, while the alleged “full-spectrum conservative” could scarcely cobble together 30% of the vote. Once again, in a real contest Romney fell short and has shown his limitations as a campaigner. The party of Bush has discovered its true heir, who represents clear continuity with Mr. Bush on the major policies (and major blunders) of his administration. Whether he did so consciously or not, Thompson delivered the killing blow to the efforts to stop McCain. His last-ditch anti-Huckabee salvo cleared the way for McCain, and the way is now clear for him all the way to Minneapolis. The disastrous “new fusionism” has taken hold of the party and will in all likelihood drag it down to defeat.
P.S. It is true that the exit polls show that McCain’s strongest support comes from anti-Bush voters. Once again, he did best among those who were dissatisfied and angry with the administration. This represents a deep confusion and sickness in the Republican Party, when even most of the people who are alienated by Mr. Bush seem to have no idea that they have just rallied around someone who give them a more intensified, less sane version of Bushism.
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January 29th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
OldNewEngland
Look, what other viable candidate is any better? And, as a Thompson supporter from day one, let’s take Fred off the table. His potential was never ever ever manifested, so count him out.
Giuliani. Romney. Huckabee. McCain.
Would you really have preferred Mitt to McCain? The only issue on which they’d have real differences is immigration, and even then, I wouldn’t trust the governor to crack down. And McCain will secure the border, even if he does try to trade that for some sort of amnesty for long term residents without criminal records. I don’t love that option, but if we truly seal it off, then the immigrants will be assimilated in less than a generation.
On any other issue — domestic or foreign — I don’t think McCain will be considerably worse than any other major candidate. I’m holding my nose for him.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Daniel Larison
That is partly my point. The party has been remade so completely by Bush that the alternatives are all pretty undesirable, and the early contests have resulted in making McCain appear to be the most viable. On paper, Romney appears preferable, but the problem is that the actual Romney is really not. If McCain somehow wins and tries to push an immigration bill through, it will not pass and he will cause the party to implode. McCain will be worse on foreign policy, and specifically on Iraq, than his opposition in November, and this is why I think he will still lose. Identifying the GOP so completely with this war, as a McCain nomination does, is politically crazy. The problem with Romney is he never showed any significant daylight between himself and the administration on any foreign policy question, and so provided no real alternative there.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
kranza
A lot of chatter about how the “conservative” anti-McCain factions such as National Review and Limbaugh have been routed and a lot of chatter about how they will now unload on McCain thus still giving Romney a chance.
All I can offer them is a suggestion for the theme music for the Twin Cities convention and with it this quote from those great Minnesotan poets, Husker Du:
“You’ve got your own bed now, I suggest that’s the one you sleep in.”
They’ve spent (at least) seven years creating a party that is so demented and aimless, its anti-Bush faction actually supports McCain. McCain supports their war and differs from them on other issues only in the sense that he is leftist on them and they are indifferent at best.
I guess a little boy can always learn to make his bed more conscientiously the next day. But I don’t think they’re that boy.