A sign of a healthy organism is its ability to fight off germs. Similarly, a sign of a healthy organization is its ability to fight off people, blocs, and ideas that are harmful to its thriving. From this point of view, it is telling (and personally, as a moderate Republican, discouraging) that the GOP did not ward off Sarah Palin in 2008 and that it did ward off Jon Huntsman in 2012. I have more to say but that is all for this morning. PS This is not my analogy, nor is it new - I got this from
David Frum over a year ago - but I thought it worth stating.
Comments
Romney was a bit tone deaf but a far more decent chap than was given credit in my circles (a lot of my fellow Philadelphians out and out demonized him, and I'm thinking, really? - golly gosh uber-Mormon Mitt Romney?) I generally lined up with Romney's policy angles. Obama ran circles around him in terms of tactical campaign management - organization, field ops, social media, etc. (Btw, Huntsman would have been even worse on this front, at least based on what little we saw.)
Everyone made fun of Romney for flip-flopping, and sure there were some egregious examples; but it was one of those things where the label stuck and then everything was made to reinforce it, despite the fact that (1) everyone tacks extreme for the primaries and then tacks to the middle for the generals, and (2) Obama had his own evolutions of opinions (but because it didn't fit our narrative for him, it was either forgotten or even seen as a positive).
I'm totally fine with four more years of Obama, so long as (1) he doesn't die ("good God, is that Joe Biden's theme song I hear?"), (2) he continues to be muscular abroad, (3) the Republicans decide that actually fixing the structural deficit is more important than ideological purity and accede, however kicking and screaming, to some balanced way of balancing the budget. Stay tuned.