…the Bleacherman has just entered the stadium..
Early on in the GOP Presidential Candidate campaign the question for the GOP was this: is Romney conservative enough to be the GOP standard bearer?
At one time Ann Coulter, the queen of the GOP conservatives, proclaimed that if Romney was the GOP nominee, President Obama was sure to be re-elected. Several months later she changed her mind and became a Romney supporter. Why, did Romney convert to conservatism? Nah, she got a call from her God…Karl Rove. Her mind was changed.
There is no question that Romney fits the conservative definition of being a free market capitalist and I don’t find any problem with Romney’s Bain Capital history. He was a venture capitalist, a corporate raider and he did what his job was designed to do. He created wealth for his investors. And there is nothing wrong with that. We all need to grow up and accept what he did was a fundamental part of a capitalist society. It stinks but necessary. Focus should be on his tax returns. My guess is that he pays a very low rate (lower than his administrative assistant) and has hidden millions off shore. But that’s just my guess. PURE GUESS..NO ACCUSATION.
My concern over Romney is whether or not his much touted business experience truly transfers and translates into the role of being President. Funding a new business or even raiding an existing business is far different that building up the American economy. I have never believed that cutting corporate taxes is going to create jobs. I don’t think his plan reflects the paradigm change that has shifted the fundamentals of our economy. Trickle down, supply side ecomonics is a concept that has had its day and now should be enshrined in textbooks. From a business perspective, I think Romney is dangerous.
But something else hit me the other day. I have realized that over the past few weeks it seems that the Tea Party has been played like a violin by the GOP establishment. I believe that one day not long ago the good old boys of the Karl Rove Klan all sat down in their symbolic smoke filled room, took a look at the candidates running for the GOP nomination and realized that Romney was the only candidate that could compete in a national election with President Obama. They realized they he could not only compete but potentially win. That could not be said for any…any… of the other candidates. Not Trump. Not Cain. Not Gingrich. Not Santorum. Not Perry. Not Bachman. Not Paul. Not anyone. And these GOP tribal leaders decided to manipulate the playing field to make sure that Romney, the least conservative of all the candidates, would be the name on the conservative’s party ticket. Who cared if he was a true conservative? Winning is not about ideology. It’s about winning. I know, this rings like a TV movie script but I believe that this is what has happened. Nothing else makes sense.
The tool of this manipulation is Ron Paul.
Please, sit down, take a deep breath and follow my somewhat warped, somewhat conspiracy filled theory. Having been burned with Tea Party enthusiasm in the past – Sharon Engles and Christine O’Donnell – the GOP elite decided that it was necessary to divide into inconsequence the anti-Romney, the anti-moderate vote. Hence, it was in the best interests of the party, in Karl Rove’s brilliant mind, for the plethora of candidates to run around and steal votes from each other since no one conservative candidate would have the standing to challenge Romney. Rove also recognize that he had to throw some digestible meat and the party’s libertarians so he gave running room for the Ron Paul campaign to run around and gain support. Rove of course new that Paul could never take it all the way to Tampa and have any real effect on the convention.
I mean isn’t it odd that Romney’s carpet bombing radar has gone out of its way to avoid attacking Paul. In return, the Paul campaign has often and passionately defended the Massachusetts moderate. Does that make sense? Romney, at least ideologically, is almost the opposite of Paul. So why no real hard core attack? Ah, the plot thickens.
So in my warped mind, I came to the conclusion that Rove and GOP elites decided that Newt and Rick and even Perry would stay in the race so no one could unite the evangelical right. You know, that divide and conquer shit. Ron Paul would be given an unobstructed road to pull his libertarians away from everyone else – the Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, Cain and Bachman cabal – which in fact insures that no one candidate is strong enough to beat Romney. Romney then goes out and makes history and wins Iowa and New Hampshire and will then, according to the grand plan, goes on to win South Carolina and Florida and before Spring Break, Romney is the proclaimed winner of the Party’s nomination. Carl Rove and the GOP High Priests have a viable and electable candidate to throw against President Obama. Everyone wins…let’s party.
Now Howard Fineman, the MSNBC and Hugging Post guru – who knows all – thinks that Paul is going to take his ball and go run on a third party ticket. Nah…Karl Rove won’t let that happen. That would hurt Romney and re-elect Obama.
So it is Romney vs Obama…money vs money…boy is this going to better then watching wrestling. Let the blood begin to flow…where is my popcorn and Diet Pepsi?
…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…
