Ringside Politics With A Punch

With one caucus and one primary completed, there is a stampede of media analysts and Republican operatives rushing to proclaim Mitt Romney as the de-facto Republican nominee. Despite the fact that only a fraction of the delegates have been chosen and voters in 48 states have yet to cast a vote, there is a definite push to call this political ballgame early. Why the rush to coronate a nominee? A prolonged primary battle with not harm Romney or whoever wins the nomination, it will only make the GOP nominee stronger. A hard fought Democratic Party campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008 certainly helped Barack Obama become a better candidate. In contrast, Republicans have not seen a vigorous nomination contest since the epic 1976 race between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, the GOP favors establishment candidates who have previously lost and are running for the second or third time. Republicans like to clear the field for the candidate that insiders believe has ear...

As we enter a new year and another presidential race, Republicans face a very old problem, how to wrest control of their party from the country club establishment which has dominated the process for generations. While the grassroots of the Republican Party are solidly conservative, the power brokers are mostly moderates, who could not care less about principle and are only concerned about power. These influential insiders long ago picked their candidate for this year’s presidential race, moderate chameleon “multiple choice” Mitt Romney. While this may be the right choice for the special interest groups, it is not the right choice for a majority of Republicans, as the Iowa caucus results clearly showed. Romney “won” by eight votes, despite outspending his opponents. He even finished below his total from four years ago. The GOP power brokers are not concerned about the closeness of the vote in Iowa; they believe that Romney has the money and organization to win a lengthy an...