George Will Not a Fan of Two Things: Blue Jeans, and Mitt Romney

A preview of his Sunday column is getting buzz.

Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might damage GOP chances of capturing the Senate: Republican successes down the ticket will depend on the energies of the tea party and other conservatives, who will be deflated by a nominee whose blurry profile in caution communicates only calculated trimming. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from ‘data’ ... Has conservatism come so far, surmounting so many obstacles, to settle, at a moment of economic crisis, for THIS?

Another worry I have is that Mitt Romney would be the excuse for a third party challenge from the right, and the people who want that don't need too much in the way of excuse anyway.

Not that I would support that -- I would certainly support Romney and bitterly oppose those who have chosen to give the election to Obama, in hopes of teaching us yet another lesson. (We were already taught several lessons on the Senatorial level.)

But I do fear that as a possibility.

Romney is, as everyone is now saying (and I noted myself a few months ago), running a pure General Election campaign in the primaries. There is something a little admirable about that, in that he's not pandering to the primary electorate, but showing them, presumably, what his fall 2012 campaign will look like, only right now.

But the right wants to be pandered to, and he's giving them nothing.

posted by Ace at 03:41 PM

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