My Thoughts On Romney as the GOP Candidate

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Once again the establishment with money, attack ads, and a general media blitz, has gotten the candidate they want. Enough voters in the GOP Primaries were convinced that Romney was the inevitable candidate, and that he was the only one that has a chance to beat Obama. That, combined with conservatism's inability to collectively back a single candidate, has brought us to the point that, barring a strange and unexpected occurrence, Romney will be the Republican candidate that will face Barack Obama in the general election.

This is McCain all over again, and many conservatives are ready to write off the Republican Party. This was the last straw, according to many, and they will not vote for the lesser of two evils anymore. "I will not vote," they are telling me, "against my principles anymore."

Part of the problem is the Republican establishment is convinced that conservatives can't win.  They base this belief partly on the Barry Goldwater loss to Johnson way back in the sixties. Never mind the fact that Lyndon B. Johnson gained an incredible amount of sympathy votes directly related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and Johnson's short presidency since then.  Also, never mind that Reagan won, and in his reelection won in an incredible landslide, and he did it running as a very conservative candidate in his reelection bid.

So, fearful of conservatism, the establishment tries to dish out the most moderate they can find, believing that anything further to the right will scare those independents away.

And where are these independents going to run? Back the socialist in the White House right now?

Okay, I admit that I am not a real big Romney fan. I don't think he is conservative at his core, though I do think he is trying to go in that direction. And his recent NRA speech was incredibly good.

As I like to explain it, I realize that Mitt Romney is not the ideal candidate. But when you consider the raging Marxist in the White House, Romney will do.  Obama is a drag racer heading for a cliff, and Romney is a go-cart. He may not be steering us away from the authoritarian progressive goals of liberalism, but I am pretty sure with the right people in Congress Romney will be a minor problem, if a problem at all.

Truth be said, another term with Obama in the presidency will be so destructive, we may wind up past the point of no return. His style of governance has all of the markings of a totalitarian tyranny.

I realize that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for an evil, but is it not worth it when the worst of the two evils is bent on destroying the very foundations this nation was founded upon?

That said, we must consider a few more things, when it comes to Romney.

While understanding how those that are frustrated with the GOP establishment feels, I am not about to give up at the ballot box, nor am I going to assume the worst of Romney. Before lambasting Romney, we have to remember that Reagan was first a democrat before he became a republican, as the governor of California he was considered quite a moderate, if not slightly liberal, because of the California agencies he put into place, and yet he was one of the best, and most conservative, Presidents we have had in recent history.

I have to go all the way back to Calvin Coolidge in the twenties to find a better president.

As for Reagan's mistakes, such as trusting the democrats to cut spending 3-1 against a tax hike they proposed in 1982, Reagan publicly voiced his regrets. . .

Unfortunately, Romney has not brought himself to that, such as the way he should in regards to Romneycare in Massachusetts.

I am planning for the worst, and hoping for the best


I get it, the GOP keeps screwing us, and perhaps folks calling for third parties, and the like, have a point.  But we have to take, as much as I hate to admit it, a defensive posture and go ahead and take Romney for now.

Let me rephrase that. We are not taking Romney - we are getting rid of Obama!

Stopping a Marxist drag racer for a moderate go-cart is not selling out my principles, because my principles say that the raging socialist in the White House has got to go.

Vote in a good Congress, work on getting the right people in locally, and get Obama out of office in 2012. That is our goal. Anything less is destructive to this country.

Okay, fine, Romney is an establishment guy. . . but he's not Obama.

Obama is death to this nation if he gets another term. His policies are that destructive.

A vote for anyone other than Romney in the general election will be a vote for Obama. . . simple as that.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary