Romney Wins Register Endorsement
Romney Wins Des Moines Register Endorsement
Mark Sappenfield analyzes the powerful endorsement from Iowa's largest newspaper:
In another sign that the GOP world has gone completely haywire (as if that was needed), the Des Moines Register has endorsed Mitt Romney for president.
This, in itself, is not terribly surprising. Former Massachusetts Governor Romney has long been seen as the safest, most-electable GOP pick among the mainstream media and establishment Republican circles.
Yet the endorsement also encourages a healthy shrug of the shoulders.
Iowa, after all, is supposed to be the American epicenter of retail politics. Perhaps more than any other state, Iowa likes to be wooed with bus tours and town halls and appearances at state fairs. This is because Iowa does not hold a primary, but caucuses – involved affairs that encourage only the most committed voters. It makes politics a personal affair in Iowa, and because the caucuses are first nominating process in the nation, candidates are often happy to oblige.
But Romney has spent comparatively little time there. Having been burned in Iowa in 2008, he's apparently been willing to concede it to rivals in order to focus on other states. And the Des Moines Register is endorsing that campaign?
It gets weirder ....
Meanwhile, Sappenfield's
Christian Science Monitor colleague
Linda Feldmann offers up a list of Romney's most notorious recent gaffes:
• The $10,000 bet.
• That he can't employ illegal immigrants because he's running for office.
• "Corporations are people, my friend!"
• "I'm also unemployed."
• Seeming to endorse a brutal Indonesian dictatorship.
• "We're going to hang [President Obama] ...."
• Blasting Obama for "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history" while the U.S. was engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.
• "Small varmints, if you will." (Prior campaign, in 2007.)
As the primary season draws close, it could be that Mitt Romney is poised to finally emerge as the bona fide, statistical frontrunner in the GOP contest, as opposed to the nominal and expected frontrunner that Republican voters seem to want to avoid.
One might suggest that Sappenfield's analysis is too simple for sifting through the complexities. There is not much nuance about the proposition that there are only two potentially viable candidates in the GOP field, and the other one isn't getting any respectable attention. Thus, it comes down to Mitt Romney.
The
Des Moines Register for its part, says the following about its endorsement of Mitt Romney:
Sobriety, wisdom and judgment.
Those are qualities Mitt Romney said he looks for in a leader. Those are qualities Romney himself has demonstrated in his career in business, public service and government. Those qualities help the former Massachusetts governor stand out as the most qualified Republican candidate competing in the Iowa caucuses ....
.... He stands out in the current field of Republican candidates. He has solid credentials in a career that includes running and starting successful businesses, turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics and working with both political parties as Massachusetts governor to pass important initiatives. He stands out especially among candidates now in the top tier: Newt Gingrich is an undisciplined partisan who would alienate, not unite, if he reverts to mean-spirited attacks on display as House speaker. Ron Paul's libertarian ideology would lead to economic chaos and isolationism, neither of which this nation can afford.
The traditionally conservative-leaning newspaper appreciates Romney's "well-reasoned alternatives" to Democratic policies he disagrees with, praises his infamous waffling for having "evolved from one-time independent to moderate Republican in liberal Massachusetts to proud conservative today", seeks merit in his repudiation of Romneycare on a national scale, reinforces his waffling as "carefully nuanced", and lauds his economic plans for "calling for reforms that would benefit middle-income Americans and not just those at the top of the economic pyramid":
This ability to see the merits of tough issues from something other than a knee-jerk, ideological perspective suggests that Mitt Romney would be willing to bridge the political divide in Washington. Americans are desperate for the Republicans and Democrats to work together. His record of ignoring partisan labels to pass important legislation when he was governor of Massachusetts suggests he is capable to making that happen.
For those reasons, Mitt Romney deserves the support of his party in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. If he is the GOP nominee, the nation would have a clear choice in November 2012.
So, yes, to the one, Sappenfield is not amiss to find the endorsement strange within a certain context, but perhaps other contexts apply. The editors might be looking toward the best chances for a GOP victory, or they might well be looking more at the country at large; after all, they acknowledge that some Republicans would not do well for the country.
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Notes:
Sappenfield, Mark. "Iowa newspaper backs Mitt Romney? Weird GOP race gets a little weirder." The Christian Science Monitor. December 18, 2011. CSMonitor.com. December 18, 2011. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politi...t-Romney-Weird-GOP-race-gets-a-little-weirder
Feldman, Linda. "Mitt Romney gaffes: 8 times the button-down candidate should have buttoned up". The Christian Science Monitor. (n.d.) CSMonitor.com. December 18, 2011. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Electi...utton-down-candidate-should-have-buttoned-up/
Register Editorial Board. "The Des Moines Register's GOP caucus endorsement: Mitt Romney is best to lead". The Des Moines Register. December 17, 2011. Caucuses.DesMoinesRegister.com. December 18, 2011. http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/12/17/23902/