The shape of the race to come

In Stanley Kurtz’s analysis of the GOP race, he argues at length my own view: as a possible GOP nominee, McCain, as much as Giuliani, is an absurdity. It won’t happen; or, if it does happen, it can only happen at the cost of tearing the party apart. Second, in a race of many candidates representing different wings of the party, the candidate who is most acceptable to all wings will ultimately prevail, and that is Romney. (Actually, while Kurtz says that Romney can gain from staying in the race, even if he loses Michigan, he is vague on who he thinks will finally win in the long multi-candidate race he is predicting.)

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Mark Jaws writes:

As usual, your description of Romney’s being the most viable and least alienating of the current field of GOP is aligned with my own thoughts.

But ponder the reaction of the hard core nucleus of the GOP if by some act of misfortune one of the Terrible Trio (Gigolo Giuliani, Morose McCain, or Horrible Huckabee) were to ascend to the GOP presidential nominee? While I know that third party movements have traditonally gone nowhere in America, this might actually be the time, with the GOP in an ideological and moral Bush-induced tailspin and the country undergoing a cataclysmic and destructive demographic change, to build a party adhering to the Constitution as prescribed by Ron Paul.

LA replies:

I’m all in favor of a party adhering to the Constitution; but when you bring Paul into it, with his Rockwellite baggage, I think you damage your case.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 09, 2008 12:50 PM | Send