The search for the perfect opponent to make President Obama a one-termer is futile. Republicans are notably lukewarm at best about their choices this winter and spring as the party attempts once more to capture lightning in a bottle and find the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan.
The truth is, primary voters in 1980 had problems of their own with Reagan. Iowa caucus-goers awarded him a silver to his eventual running mate, George H.W. Bush, and conservatives were weary about several of his actions as California, including signing on to tax increases, liberalizing the state's abortion laws, and speaking out in favor of gay rights. He trounced his opposition in New Hampshire by 27 points, and the rest is of course history.
While we don't anticipate Mitt Romney to win by quite as wide of a margin in the Granite State, it should be comfortable nonetheless, allowing political junkies everywhere to get a good night's sleep in comparison to last Tuesday's late evening and early morning. I expect him to use this momentum to build on his lead in South Carolina, and essentially clear the field after prevailing in Florida at the end of the month.
Romney's coronation inevitable, and conservative's caveats about him well-documented, I'd like to use last weekend's debates and my independent examinations of each of the individual candidates to build a party platform and policy prescriptions for the former Massachusetts governor's first 100 days as president. Flawed as the prohibitive frontrunner and his rivals may be, I would retain elements of each of their respective issue positions as we pivot toward the general election battle.
Romney: Economic technocrat with 52 point plan to get America working again.
Santorum: Populist who work strengthen the social capital of our communities (see Saturday's post) and would use the tax code to incentivize manufacturing, with its significant value-added and potential to rebuild the middle class, over retail and other sectors of the service economy.
Gingrich: The professor is never short on innovative, mostly conservative, policy ideas, and his humane approach towards undocumented immigrants who are in this country, working hard, and raising families needs a home in the Party of Lincoln.
Huntsman: The ambassador's call for a more humble foreign policy, which includes reduced defense spending, is a nod to fiscal realities and the "new red menace" staring us in the face. Huntsman is also right to court gay voters by embracing civil unions.
Paul: Eccentric Ob-Gyn goes to far when he claims that "we're all Austrians" and calls for the abolition of the Fed, but a tighter monetary policy is an essential prescription as inflation rears its ugly head once more. Paul also has the most serious plan to cut spending and balance the budget in a city that celebrates cuts to projected increases.
Perry: George W. Bush on steroids has waged one of the most disappointing campaigns in recent history, but his call for the devolution of social programs to the state via bloc grants bears consideration, as does the business-friendly environment he helped create in Texas which has fueled a large percentage of job creation since the Great Recession. Perry also deserves credit for extending in-state tuition rates for undocumented students who graduate from high school.
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