All the Words Float in Sequence
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: CNN, Debates Leave a comment »Last night’s frolic in the desert might be the first Republican debate I want to watch all over again, though with one important provision: the TV sound would need to be turned down and replaced by Another Green World (or, in a pinch, Kid A). Never mind the content, this was an event characterized by weird body language, loopy camera angles, and loony sound bites. There was Romney with his utterly sarcastic clapping routine directed at Santorum (regarding what exactly, I don’t recall — part of the irrelevant earmarks discussion, I think). There was Paul’s unflinching “because he’s a fake!” remark, surely a first in Presidential debates (just try to imagine the contortions Romney would’ve put himself through over a similar defend-your-attack-ad sort of question). Romney got a good shot in at Santorum as well with his quizzical, “I didn’t follow most of that” line, following a bizarrely incoherent spiel about something-or-other. Santorum himself, with a wink aimed squarely at Matt Drudge, managed to invoke his sweet Satan, creating YouTube mashup possibilities almost too terrifying to comprehend. And of course there was Newt, fresh out of yoga class, in constant near-recline in his seat, looking less like a participant than like someone observing the event from afar (personifying, to quote Christgau, “oneness with nature under conditions of artificial gravity” — don’t worry, I’m confused too). Even in his saucier moments — like when he admonished the elite media for not asking Obama why he eats little babies for breakfast — Gingrich seemed fairly mild-mannered, like he really wasn’t too fussed about anything at this point.
One embarrassing CNN moment: John King asking the candidates to describe themselves in one word — then giving them three minutes of commercial break time to prepare!
It’s hard for me to see how any of this stuff really matters too much in the end. No one was badly injured, no one ran away with a gold medal. I suppose Santorum took a half-step back (he was effectively reigned in on the insider-politics stuff) and Romney took a half-step forward (by failing to produce any notable gaffes), but it doesn’t feel, to me anyway, that this race is in an altogether different place today than it was yesterday. But for visual and soundbite election year ambience — good stuff.
Know Hope
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: Media, Newt Newt 2 Comments »
Um, a real update at some point, promise. (Too busy lately to try and make sense of the Santorum surge, Romney’s L’Trimm remix, everything else.)
Change of Plans
Posted: February 18, 2012 Filed under: Media Leave a comment »“Something tells me that if the upcoming election could be decided on social issues, the Republicans could win that in a landslide, because we are on the right side of the culture war,” Limbaugh told listeners on Thursday. “The problem is, we’re scared to death of it. The Republican establishment wants no part of it.”
One and the Same
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Mitt Romney Leave a comment »I’ll hold off a day or two on trying to figure out where this baffling Santorum derailment is headed, and instead pay tribute to an inspired creation someone posted on the message board today. It was prompted by the news that everyone except Gingrich had dropped out of the Georgia debate, which in turn segued into something I proposed a few weeks ago here, that Romney’s ideal debate opponent would be himself. Someone requested a suitable Photoshop of such a showdown, and “Z S,” a guy who’s very good with gifs and photo manipulation, came up with the image below—which immediately reminded me of a TV detective who once famously had to confront his other self in circumstances more or less as strange and disturbing as those in which Romney presently finds himself mired. It’s the red backdrop that really brings the allusion home.
Hail the Conquering Hero
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments »I don’t know if you’re around a computer today, Scott—I’ve got a film to go to this afternoon—but at 4:30 Palin gives the keynote at CPAC, and you can watch it here. (I had to register first; Holden Caulfield has just been added to Mitt Romney’s mailing list.) It’s her birthday, too, so the Bacardi will be flowing freely.
I’m Spartacus!
Posted: February 9, 2012 Filed under: Herman Cain, Mitt Romney 3 Comments »CPAC is underway, and on day one there’s already big news. Somewhere, Mitt Romney is making that “My God, what have I done?” face he would make at the debates every time Rick Perry spoke. It all brings to mind my favourite McCain moment of the 2008 campaign:
Nothing to See Here
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: Mitt Romney, Santorum Leave a comment »I really didn’t have any intention of watching last night. I figured that a) Santorum would win Missouri, because everything I heard about Missouri said that Santorum would win (and also that there were no delegates at stake); b) Minnesota could go either way, and might even go to Paul; and c) none of it would matter because Romney was going to win Colorado easily. So I continued on with the fourth episode of The Bronx Is Burning, and fell asleep in my chair halfway through. When I woke up sometime after 11:00, Santorum had won two and was leading in Colorado.
I’m probably more baffled today than I’ve been at any point along the way—Cain and Gingrich jumping out front pale by comparison. Like most everyone, I still think Romney will be the nominee. Trying to conjure up a mental image of President Santorum is impossible, and Santorum and Obama on a debate stage isn’t appreciably easier. (Conceding that Santorum has more experience today than Obama had in 2008.) But wow, is he ever getting battered along the way. I keep hearing comparisons to 2008, and how Obama would regularly take a step back for every two steps forward against Hillary. Two major differences that I can see. Part of that had to do with the fierce loyalty that was out there for Hillary. She drove me up the wall, of course, but she did have a base of support that was unshakeable, and that dug in more and more as the campaign dragged on. I don’t think anything like that is at work for Santorum or Gingrich. There was also the reality of—well, I know it’s yesterday’s news, but there was no secret at the time as to why Obama was losing some of the states that he lost. The point is, Obama’s setbacks were of a different nature than what happened last night. Last night was just strange, and I’m quite sure Romney will have to flail around even more than usual for the next little while until he gets himself back on track. Who’d have guessed it: Rick Santorum is now inside Mitt Romney’s head.
Rocky Mountain Rick
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: Mitt Romney, Primaries, Santorum Leave a comment »Santorum’s trifecta does little more than advance two already-in-progress story lines: 1) it solidifies Romney’s chance of winning the nomination by dividing the opposition further down the middle; 2) it intensifies the wishy-washiness of Romney’s support as he heads for the general. I’ve never been able to take Santorum seriously as a viable Presidential candidate, and I still don’t, though I’m fine if he wants to stick around and further muddy up the waters (not investing a lot of hope right now in Newt’s ability to carry that mantle on his own). Last night was about Mitt, not Rick.
It’ll be moderately interesting, of course, to watch the reaction on the right to all this. There was a fascinating moment two days ago on Hannity, when he was interviewing Santorum, and Santorum laced into Romney over health care — quite eloquently, I might add. Hannity’s response? An extremely half-hearted defense of the state-vs-federal argument, followed by an abrupt change of topic (not just away from health care but from the primary itself). Hilarious. I wasn’t listening to Hannity six months ago, but I’d bet money that he was railing against Mitt, day after day, for the exact same reason. Clearly, though, he got the memo.
Me and my vested interest.
Opportunities
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: Newt Newt 2 Comments »The question does come to mind, what exactly does Gingrich hope to achieve in the weeks (and, if he can be believed, months) ahead? Someone on a New Yorker podcast I listened to on the weekend suggested that Newt was in it not to win — according to the pundit, even Newt knows this is an impossibility — but to come out of this race as the intellectual figurehead of the currently figureheadless Tea Party. Given the likelihood that the Republicans will, in the end, hoick up the Taxachussetts moderate, and given the ensuing civil war within the Republican party that all of this portends (moreso, obviously, if Obama wins a second term), it doesn’t seem entirely implausible. What does seem less plausible is another idea I saw bandied about last week — that Newt’s ultimate strategy will be to throw in his hat as a third party independent candidate; to run against Romney in the general as the “true conservative.” Well, less plausible but not impossible. If I took any other prominent Republican and replaced their record of accomplishments and their history of public life with Newt’s, I’d say the idea was preposterous. The man is “establishment,” through and through, and he’s not going to destroy that legacy in one fell swoop. On the other hand, this is Newt and his ego we’re talking about, and if there’s one man out there who truly believes he can spearhead a revolution and change the entire fabric of American life even before his first dance with Calista (“Lady in Red,” I’m guessing), well, it’s Newt. Go Newt!
This thinly veiled attack on the preposterousness of Newt, from an obviously right-leaning publication, is well said enough (“Romney has got into Gingrich’s head, under his skin and very possibly into other parts of his anatomy”), but it’s one of the comments below that floors me, maybe more than I’ve been floored by anything thus far in the entire race:
If would [sic] could combine Newt’s brain with Romney’s looks they would be unstoppable. Both guys have a little something for everyone. Once this contest is over and we have a winner there are a lot of great ideas from everyone on stage to give our nation the shot in the arm it needs. It will have to be a total team effort with everyone pitching in a little bit of greatness.
(I can’t embed YouTubes right now, but you knew this was coming, right? www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuHIRrt5lCI)
The Objective Reality of the Campaign
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Newt Newt 1 Comment »I’d been tuned out enough the last couple of days to not even realize that Nevada was yesterday until I flipped the TV on in the morning, and whenever I had CNN on for the rest of the day, it was just background drone, up to and including the results. (Even Sullivan didn’t post once about Nevada yesterday.) But I made it a point to watch Gingrich’s late-night press conference. Newt + big loss + press conference promised to be a strange kind of fun. And it was.
Victor David Hanson has something up on The Corner making the obvious comparison to Nixon’s ’62 press conference. True enough, with a couple of differences: Gingrich was there to announce he’s ready to be kicked around for a few more months, and whereas Nixon genuinely despised the press, Gingrich only pretend-despises them—he was courting the assembled reporters mightily, and having a great time doing it. Speaking of which, the weirdest moment of all for me came after he finished, when CNN’s David Gergen, with heavy heart, observed that he can’t remember a presidential candidate who was more “driven by hatred” than Gingrich. Huh? A quick check of his own résumé may help Gergen jog his memory.
So Gingrich still has lots of venom left to spew. How much notice anyone takes from here on in, I don’t know, but he’s still the most compelling reason by far to keep watching. Alex Castellanos, who was responsible for that creepy Jesse Helms ad twenty years ago (“Hands”) but is probably the funniest guy on all the panels right now, had a great line on Meet the Press this morning: “Romney won every demographic last night except for divorce lawyers and narcissists.” True up to a point—Canadian election bloggers don’t vote, but we’re for Newt too.
(The headline for this post was something Newt said during his post-Nevada press conference—that won’t make sense anymore, now that YouTube has removed the relevant clips.)
Subscribe Today
Posted: February 1, 2012 Filed under: Media Leave a comment »I guess every campaign gets the magazine cover it deserves. One of these is brilliant. The other is not.
Sully Bait
Posted: February 1, 2012 Filed under: Quotes 3 Comments »When a conservative once decides, as many articulate conservatives seem to have decided in explosive America, that the best of all possible worlds was here yesterday and is gone today, he begins the fateful move toward reaction and ratiocination that turns him from a prudent traditionalist into an angry ideologue.
- Clinton Rossiter, Conservatism in America: The Thankless Persuasion, 1955
Quoted in Carl T. Bogus’s Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism, which I’m currently reading (and through which I’m seeing now all over the place).
(I know, I should be using this space to chime in about Florida, or at least about Newt’s bizarre Florida “concession” speech — which, among other strange delights, included a shout out to Canada — but my eyes are starting to glaze over again. I got nothing.)
Mistah Gingrich, He Mad
Posted: January 29, 2012 Filed under: Mitt Romney, Newt Newt 4 Comments »“Carpet-bombing”—that was Newt’s big word on two of the Sunday morning shows today when describing the scope of Romney’s negative ads in Florida. (I assume that invitations were proffered to Romney as well and he declined, but you never know; if I were the booker on one of these shows, I’d always try to get Newt on before Romney.) I can see where that might cause some trouble for him, in that it’s a term so strongly identified with the Vietnam War. At the very least, I expect the requisite manufactured indignation from Romney: “And now the Speaker is comparing me to a military strategy that killed untold numbers of innocent Vietnamese citizens in a war that tore our country apart—gosh, that’s just reckless.”
The one thing I got out of this morning (beyond the fact that Newt continues to plug this blog, name-checking “managing the decay” no less than three times) is that even if Romney wins by 15-20 points on Tuesday, Gingrich will still be wreaking havoc a month from now. There are a lot of southern states that don’t come up till March, and Gingrich seems convinced that he just has to get Santorum out of the race and everything will turn his way again. There were also polls this week where Gingrich’s lead widened nationally, and even though they’ll again reverse themselves after Tuesday, no one’s going to walk away from a race any time soon where he was still leading national polls in late January. I’ve been resisting all along the idea that any of this will hurt Romney in the general, believing that it’ll all be forgotten down the road when it’s him and Obama and some new development (surprise or otherwise) suddenly becomes the focus of the election. But listening to Laura Ingraham on Meet the Press—not someone I care for, but I take it she ought to know—she framed what’s happening in a way that made me think, “Some of this really may be doing long-term damage to Romney.” Hardly a stunning revelation—you said the same thing a few posts ago, Scott, and people say it all the time on the message board. For me it’s just been an entertaining and mostly meaningless warm-up, but I’m starting to come around some on that. And the chance to lose the battle (the nomination) but win the war (irrevocably damage Romney) is a powerful incentive for Gingrich to stick it out.
I looked into ordering one of these, but they’re $100!
Ballroom Blitzer
Posted: January 27, 2012 Filed under: CNN, Debates, Mitt Romney, Newt Newt, Obits 1 Comment »John Dickerson on the night’s key exchange:
[Gingrich] was even the least effective attacker of the media. He had to follow on after Rick Santorum had interrupted the bickering of the front-runners to call for a return to the issues. Gingrich tried to echo him, arguing that it was OK to attack Romney for his tax returns in a TV interview but “nonsense” to try to get him to talk about it during the debate — a theory that is itself nonsense. Moderator Wolf Blitzer stood his ground. For a man who has profited from the debates and promises to whup Obama in the debates, to shrink from repeating onstage what he says in interviews was confusing and weak.
Yeah, this, for me, was where the Gingrich candidacy effectively shot itself in the face, from the Speaker’s all-too-transparent technique of sidling up to the moderator before delivering a smackdown (“Wolf, you and I have had a good relationship over the years, but…”) to his opponent’s masterful reading of the situation, which enabled him to step right in and deliver said smackdown himself — not on Blitzer or “the media,” but on the Speaker. The Europeans have a phrase for this sort of thing; it’s called getting your ass handed to you on a silver platter.
Au revoir, Newt.
And if Your Head Explodes with Dark Forebodings Too
Posted: January 26, 2012 Filed under: Newt Newt, Photos Leave a comment »
One small step for Newt…
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