The Perry primary
by digby
Michael Tomasky makes a convincing case that far from being road kill, Rick Perry is actually the likely winner of the Republican nomination.
Redstate.com, the house organ of Wingnutistan, where the headline says it all: “Perry Loses the Debate; Romney Wins but Remains Unacceptable for Conservatives.” That still strikes me as the bottom line here. Perry will study his briefing books and refrain from accusing, however accurately, his core constituents of heartlessness. But Romney can’t undo his evil socialistic Massachusetts history. The Redstate blogger wrote: “I don’t care if Perry is soft on immigration and tried to mandate a vaccination through executive order. Romney is the father of socialized medicine in America!”
The conventional counterargument, of course, is that the establishment will circle the wagons around Romney. This might happen. Even Washington conventional wisdom ends up being correct every once in a while. But I can mount a highly plausible counter-counterargument for why it may not. Nothing has happened in these past two and a half years to suggest that this Republican establishment will buck or stand up to the hard right in any way. All we’ve seen these past two years is establishment Republicans accepting one extreme demand after another.
Read the whole thing. His reasoning is sound.
I also think that Romney is a major problem among the faithful, not because of he's the "father of socialized medicine" in America (a tribute that should actually go to Lyndon Johnson who signed Medicare into law)but because he is a Mormon and evangelicals don't care for them. The polling, in fact, shows that Tea Partiers (who are also the Christian Right --- duh) are particularly hostile to Mormons. If you add in the Romney east coast elite "Kerry factor" I think Perry can slide through, even though my personal feeling is that it's the fact that he sounds like George W. Bush that has people freaked out. (Better Bush than Kerry?)
Either way, I'm kind of hoping for a knock down drag out primary season because it's kind of fun watching the Republicans tear each other to pieces for a change. I only hope Palin jumps in to turn it into a real circus.
Update: Also read this piece that explains why the Republicans are going to continue to go batshit insane for a while.
This is why it's very bad for them to win. In this state, they really are at their zenith of lunacy and when that happens in a time of crisis, very bad things can result. Yes, even worse things than those that are happening now.
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