Apparently George Will has written an article, not yet published but being talked about on various fronts, that contends that the GOP no longer has any tenable presidential candidates [not news to me - I've been predicting this for six months] and that republicans should therefore just concentrate on a battle that actually is winnable: taking congress in order to make sure Obama is constrained in his second term. Not an entirely bad notion - except that he doesn't then it appears draw the logical conclusion, ie the GOP must nominate Romney because as a moderate, pragmatic conservative he will not scare away independents the way Santorum and Gingrich will - Santorum can only do harm when it comes to winning close congressional races - but it's not only that: if Santorum or Gingrich is the nominee, not only do they have no chance of beating Obama, but the extreme social conservatism on the one hand and the megalomaniacal nuttiness on the other will tarnish conservatism as a whole - this is already happening - this is why Romney's favorables are in decline and why he'll have trouble beating Obama should he win the nomination. Why doesn't Will concede the logic of this? He's on record as not liking Romney - but if your whole point is that the presidency is no longer an option and we should just focus on the house and senate, why should his dislike of Romney keep him from drawing logical conclusions? My guess is because Will is manifesting the pathology that is undoing conservatives and conservatism: intellectual disunity, confusion, chaos and contradictions, distemper in the grassroots, emotion trumping common sense, a delusional moralistic irredentism seeking to recapture some perfect American past, ideological obsolescence, senescence and general dysfunction [how on earth have they allowed themselves to be drawn into debating contraception for christ sake? How have they allowed Limbaugh's imbecilic calling of a college student a slut because she uses contraception become the sound bite middle America will now associate with the right wing on this issue?]. Will seems to be making a very pragmatic argument and then undermines it by abjuring the logical pragmatism that must follow - nominate Romney.
One almost has to admire Obama here - the ruinous ineptitude of his liberalism has so driven the right wing batty that even the brightest acolytes of the conservative ethos no longer seem capable of making sense.
