By Tim Montgomerie
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Yesterday we reported the end of the boost to Obama's ratings that the President received after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Another new poll today - in the Wall Street Journal - gives a big boost to Mitt Romney's candidacy. The former Governor is supported by 29% of GOP voters. That's a long way ahead of second-placed Sarah Palin, on just 14%.
The Economist now reckons that Romney can win the race. It welcomes what it describes as a shocking turn in the GOP's journey: Republicans have "become reasonable'! On the Democracy in America blog "MS" writes:
"It certainly looks as though Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, a pair of intelligent and qualified pragmatists, are the likeliest candidates to win the Republican primaries... My bet is that Mitt Romney wins the nomination, and at the moment, barring a substantial economic recovery, I'd give him better than even odds of winning the election as well. I suspect that Mr Romney is an empty shell without a soul, but he's a pretty smart empty shell without a soul, and I don't really subscribe to the idea that a candidate needs a deep core of authenticity in order to be a successful political official. Within the category "Republican politicians", the fact that Mr Romney apparently lacks any firm ideological convictions seems to me a blessing rather than a curse. A Romney presidency would be unlikely to feature the spectacle of Congress threatening to destroy America's AAA credit rating in order to score political points, and my guess is that it would make Barack Obama's health-care reforms permanent, with some sort of fig-leaf adjustments that would allow Mr Romney to claim he had undone the hated ObamaCare and replaced it with a Republican alternative that is substantially the same."
Romney's problem has always been a lack of enthusiasm from the Tea Party and socially conservative wings of the Republican Party. James Taranto at the WSJ thinks he may have the solution:
"A Romney-Bachmann ticket would be balanced in terms of ideology (he's moderate, she's conservative), governing style (he's technocratic, she's idealistic), religion (he's Mormon, she's evangelical) and, of course, sex. This column has no brief for Romney, but strictly as political analysis, we'd say a Romney-Bachmann ticket looks more formidable than the McCain-Palin ticket that lost in 2008. Romney, unlike McCain, has executive and private-sector experience. He's in his mid-60s, old enough that his maturity makes for an attractive contrast with Barack Obama, but not so old that anyone will wonder if he's up to the job."
If Bachmann does feature on the ticket she could be as controversial as Sarah Palin was in 2008. There are already attacks on her alleged "anti-gay" views. The Daily Beast accused her of "unrivalled extremism". At the very least "unrivalled" seems very harsh!
Romney? Kick his liberal establishment bum out of the race. President Michele Bachmann has a nice ring to it.
Posted by: dg | June 16, 2011 at 05:42 AM
A pair of christian loons, joy. Compared to that turd sandwich I think I'd rather Obama won.
Posted by: EalingTory | June 16, 2011 at 08:37 AM
Michele Bachmann as the VP pick? Good grief. Why not pick the real Sarah Palin if that's who you want?
Personally I think the GOP could do a lot worse than Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.
Posted by: Ricardo's Ghost | June 16, 2011 at 08:50 PM