A political update

[drwex]

Huntsman is out. I agree with Scalzi that he decided to cut his losses early and is probably angling for a Secretary of State position in a Romney administration. IMO he has the experience, the balls, and the brains to be a good one.

Romney took several solid hits in the debate but sadly they were delivered by Gingrich. The evangelicals decided they were backing Santorum, which means the votes of the not-Romney bloc are going to remain divided. Gingrich's good showing in the debate comes at Santorum's expense and is a gift to the Republican power-brokers who can (and should) see a Romney->Gingrich->Santorum finish order as a clear sign of the weakness of the evangelical contingent in the party. Unless Romney continues sleepwalking (and maybe even if he does) I don't see Gingrich beating him in SC. A G-R-S finish is just barely possible if the debate goes very badly for Romney, very well for Gingrich, and the Tea Party throws its weight behind Gingrich. Much more likely is R-G-S in which case the question remains how much above 25% can Romney get.

On the longer view, Gingrich's biggest haymaker against Romney is still the financial/tax returns issue, which is a very poor strategic bet for him to make. He can't beat Romney this way.

Comments

[marius23.livejournal.com]

Okay, there's one thing that's really bugging me in this discussion and that's the application of the pejorative "batshit insane" to Dr. Paul. Either it doesn't mean to you what it means to me, or I'm missing something about Dr. Paul, or, most likely, we're working from very different premises. So, if you will, please enlighten me. What do you mean by "batshit insane" and why do you believe it applies to Ron Paul?

For a point of contextual reference, when I think of "batshit insane" I think of someone like Dick Cheney or Glenn Beck....

TIA

[drwex]

By "batshit insane" I mean "proposing something clearly impossible or not even vaguely thought out." Getting rid of the Federal Reserve is one such item. Pretending we can recreate Festung America is another.

Historically I don't think Cheney is/was insane. Just monumentally evil. Beck, if he believes what he says, would qualify. I can't tell if he really believes that shit or just says it because it causes people to froth and money to rain into his bank account.

[marius23.livejournal.com]

Well ending the Fed is clearly not "not even vaguely thought out" since he's written a book on the topic, so it must be in the "clearly impossible" category. Guess I must be "batshit insane" too.

"Festung America" is just a strawman on your part.

Meh, I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree here. Feel free to have the last word.