The Beltway Republicans Need to be Belted

Way back when Mitt Romney was slugging it out with Rick Santorum for the Evangelical vote and with Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry for the Tea Party vote Washington elites of both parties fretted that Mitt Romney, while a superior candidate, would head a divided party. Wrong! With the selection of Paul Ryan to be his running mate Romney, showing considerable political acumen, brought the Tea Party home. The evangelical vote soon followed preferring a stable Mormon to the whatever faith Obama is currently following. Last week Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition announced a massive get out the vote drive that will hit 17.1 million voters in 13 states with three phone calls each urging them to vote for Romney.

With the Teavangelical community revved up to warp speed and knowing full well it will win if only it doesn't lose its nerve the same Republican elites who said the Teavangelicals were unreliable have proven themselves to be unreliable. Rush Limbaugh who chided Romney over an early remark on global warming now sings his praises 20 hours each week. Michele Malkin who backed Santorum and is generally regarded as the hardest of the hardliners on the right would walk through hell for Romney. Kevin Dujan at Hillbuzz who used to mock the Romney people and their cucumber sandwich's has written a scathing post denouncing the “Tokyo Roses” in the Republicans’ ranks who demoralize and depress Republican voters.

The David Brooks, the Peggy Noonans, the David Frums and almost the entire WSJ editorial staff now constantly carp about every imagined Romney faux pas. He didn't mention Afghanistan in his acceptance speech, he shot from the hip on his Benghazi comments (actually he spoke about the Egyptian demonstration not the slaying of Ambassador Stevens while Obama was maintaining radio silence before beginning his public deception on the subject.) If these "elites" were not so inconsequential they would be dangerous. One suspects that much of this caterwauling is the result of their not having access to Romney. Many of Romney's confidants come from the business community not Washington. He is not George Bush and for better or worse he will not do as Bush did on many policy points both foreign and domestic. This is not the same country George Bush governed yet to the elites whose only point of reference is Bush, Romney is a clumsy, gaff prone and ineffective candidate. With friends like these....

Turning from the talkers to the doers, this blog identified two senators, two governors and seven congressmen, all Democrats who were afraid to attend their party's convention lest they be damaged by the association with Obama and the national Democratic Party. We don't see this on the Republican side. No Republican office seeker has run from an association with Mitt Romney be they RINO, Tea Party, Catholic, Mormon, Evangelical, Jew, black, white, or Hispanic. The inept and gaff prone Romney has put together a very solid party while the wunderkind Obama presides over an amalgam of jealous and contentious coalitions many of whom are afraid to be seen with him. In spite of the Beltway bunch Romney will prevail.