An edge for Romney?

Yuck. As much as I hate to say this, Mitt Romney is now a viable candidate for the presidency. Why? The economy. Romney has a good managerial record, and the American people are stupid enough to let the economy dominate the political discussion currently — over the war.

If the economy was thrummin‘ and hummin‘ perfectly, Romney would be further back. But he’s seen as a guy who has governed in a fiscally wise manner. I mean, let’s face it, folks, money is in Mitt Romney’s blood. You cut him, the guy is gonna bleed greenbacks.

Of course, this is idiotic on the part of the voters, because a president simply doesn’t have that much power over the economy. Yes, there are a few things a president can do. But not much. There’s not much politicians can do, period, or we wouldn’t have recessions.

It’s a tremendous mistake to nominate Romney because you somehow think ol‘ Mitt is going to pull us out of fiscal problems with the same ease he handled the mess at the Olympics. A tremendous mistake.

One of the greatest powers a president has — which we’ve seen — is the ability to declare and wage war (and no, he doesn’t need Congressional approval to do it, although many times a president will seek the stamp of approval before any military action). That — now that, I think Romney is not the best candidate for, nor even ready for — coming up with a comprehensive global policy to maintain some sort of stability in the highly volatile regions of the world.

It’s not that Romney couldn’t handle it; maybe he could. But the guy who’s proven himself in desperate situations is Rudy Giuliani.

Maybe with the economy off the table, Giuliani would be doing better. Right now, he’s at about 16% in Florida while McCain and Romney are tied for first at around 31%.

That’s disturbing news for the Giuliani campaign and for anyone who supports Rudy. If you haven’t been following things on the Republican side that closely — Rudy made a calculated gamble. He was sure he couldn’t win in New Hampshire and Iowa (which I believe is true) and spent most of his time campaigning in Florida. The idea was to win Florida and go on and win on Super Tuesday (February 5th) and pick up the nomination that way — Giuliani simply didn’t have the money to waste on the early primaries, when it was pretty clear he didn’t stand a chance, anyway.

Still, though, Rudy screwed up. He let himself drop out of the limelight. Once the almost-crowned forerunner, he’s dropped way back, and I haven’t heard much from him in general. Now, mind you, I’m not in Florida, where he’s doing his campaigning, but still — he should have tried to keep himself on the radar screen somehow. People have short memories when it comes to elections, and Rudy has been out of the spotlight just long enough to let McCain and Romney move to the forefront.

I never thought I’d say anything like this, but if Romney gets that damn nomination, I may vote Obama. Well, probably not, as likable as Obama is, he’s still a super-lib. Maybe I’d go back to Libertarian. I’m not sure. I am sure that if I see Romney’s name on the ballot during the general election and I do vote for him, I will be doing so with my teeth grinding and with only the thought, “Well, he’ll be a hair better than a Democrat.”

And for the love of God, would the Republicans please stop going on and on about the next Reagan? We don’t have anybody resembling Reagan in the race. Besides, Reagan was a great president for the time he governed. He was perhaps the greatest Cold War president we had.

There are no Reagans in the GOP primary, just as there are no Kennedys (although I know a lot of you think Obama is JFK reincarnated) in the Democrat primaries.

Frankly, we have a terrible selection of candidates. The best, I still firmly believe, is Rudy Giuliani, and I’m not backing down from that.

As for McCain — I suppose I could live with him, but his campaign finance reform (read: suppression of political free speech) work, and his refusal to support the early Bush tax cuts — well, that doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence in him. Then again, I’m voting on one issue — international terrorism — and if you have to make me choose between Romney and McCain on that issue, McCain is clearly the superior candidate, and that’s where my vote will go.

But let’s not give up on Rudy just yet…yes, he looks like he may be down for the count, but those states on Super Tuesday…he could still win the nomination.

The most interesting scenario, and one the nation hasn’t seen in a long time, is if the Republicans go into the convention without a clear leader. In other words, we enter the convention without anyone having enough delegates to get elected. Then the candidates have to fight it out on the floor all night, wheeling and dealing, trying to get as many delegates as they can.

Could be interesting. 🙂

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