It’s been each man for himself for months. But early this morning, the fat lady sang. Do the math. Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee. Get used to it.
By continuing as long as it has, the process has become a grotesque public spectacle of internecine warfare, while the Democrats, alas, have their sole, unchallenged candidate ready to roll, each day collecting increasingly astonishing sums from the politically ignorant who fail to grasp what an unconstitutional political system they’re supporting by trying to prolong the Era of Obama.
To continue as the remaining candidates are doing — with each man out for himself — is now just plain stupid. Republicans are shooting themselves in the collective foot.
It takes no great powers of imagination to understand the joy in the West Wing as each Republican candidate slings as much mud as humanly possible at his rivals, making Obama’s task in September and October so much easier.
By appearing in hostile venues with “gotcha” interlocutors of the mainstream media, the Republican candidates — other than Romney — have made pre-school children in day care centers appear calm, mature, and self-controlled by comparison.
The MSM has turned them into a sitcom. The time to hesitate is through.
IT’S TIME TO CALL IN THE GROWN-UPS
There was once a time when both Republicans and Democrats had party elders. These were called, because of their actual gender, the Wise Men. Some had served in elective office, many were Wall Street and Washington lawyers who’d been Supreme Court clerks in their youth, others were captains of industry. A few were respected professors (an oxymoron today). All had a basic sense of how the world works. And how it doesn’t.
The Republican Party has a precious few: former Senator Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, who did yeoman service as co-chairman the Simpson-Bowles commission only to have the president who appointed him say, “Who cares? I don’t.” There’s also former United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader; George P. Schulz, the 91-year-old former secretary of state; Henry A. Kissinger, the 88-year-old former secretary of state; former Utah Senator Bob Bennett; former President George Herbert Walker Bush; former Senator Bob Dole; and a handful of others.
The Republican Party has splintered and scattered itself to the point that Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Dwight David Eisenhower, declared herself for Obama in 2008.
The time has come to summon the Republican Wise Men to meet with the four remaining candidates and give them a stern lecture about the damage and egotistical foolishness in which three of them continue to engage.
As Jonathan Horn, Republican strategist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, wrote at Forbes.com today,
In his address last night – delivered too early to be the victory speech his campaign must have wanted – Romney showed the right instincts. “We won’t settle for this president’s new normal,” he said. “I’m offering a real choice and a new beginning. I have a plan that’ll deliver more jobs, less debt, and smaller government.”
EARTH TO GINGRICH, PAUL & SANTORUM: IT’S OVER
The fat lady has sung. Do the math. It’s all over but your childish tantrums. As Jonathan Horn observed, not one concession speech last night — except Romney’s — congratulated the winner. The other three guys are sore losers and they’re mad as hell.
Well, let them be mad. Let them have a good cry on their wives’ shoulders. But do it in private, for heaven’s sake. Retire from the field with grace and dignity.
WE CAN SUCCEED IN EIGHT MONTHS BUT NOT IN EIGHT WEEKS
The time has come, with only eight short months to go, for all Republicans — and the many independents who cannot accept another four disastrous years of the “leadership” of Barack Obama — to come together.
No one has to be in love with Willard Mitt Romney except Ann Romney.
But if we don’t stop the madness now, we’ll have the extended Obama family living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue until January 2017.
If that doesn’t bring a glimmer of comprehension, not to mention patriotic terror to Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum, then maybe the Wise Men can.
If they can’t, then we’re doomed. Doomed as in doom. Fated to vanish as a dependable, credible entity, as did ancient Athens and Rome, as did Great Britain, and as we’re right on course to do.
Am I excited about Romney? No. Excitement is not what any American citizen needs. You want excitement? Go to a rock concert.
We need competence. I’m excited by the prospect of competence. I will support Romney’s candidacy wholeheartedly as the only one capable of ridding the executive branch of Obama, Holder, Kathleen Sebelius, Steven Chu, Mrs. Clinton, and the rest of the feckless, negligent crew with which Obama has surrounded himself.
I want my country back and I want it back on November 7, 2012, at the very latest.
We must start now — not in Tampa on August 30, the last day of the Republican Convention. By then, it will be too damn late.
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