Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Burning Up Ants

For me, the analogy that best fits the Republican presidential-primary race is one of a small child burning up ants on the sidewalk with a magnifying glass.  The child is the national media who seem to be taking a sadistic puerile pleasure in incinerating the candidates one by one with opposition research, innuendo, gotcha debate questions, and sneering asides.  And it has worked beautifully.  Tim Pawlenty, pffft!  Michelle Bachmann, pffft!  Herman Cain, pffft!  Rick Perry, pffft!  Jon Huntsman, pffft!

Who's next? 

Mitt Romney barely escaped the searing magnifying-glass flash when George Stephanopoulos, as a debate moderator, asked him in early January if a state could ban contraception (see: Contraception Question).  This out-of-left-field question was so bizarre that Romney deftly batted it away.  But it clearly presaged the current White House tactic to eliminate a GOP candidate or two by swinging the focus away from the economy and onto social issues.  Does Stephanopoulos's then-silly question seem staged to you now?

Unfortunately, poor Rick Santorum has taken this media bait on the White House's "social issue strategy" and is slowly frying under the ensuing media magnification.  And the Democratic machine is now taking the unusual tactic of spending part of its huge war chest to run opposition ads against Romney in the Michigan primary ... since the convenient media narrative is that he must win there to have a chance at the nomination.  And I think the Democrat strategy with Newt Gingrich seems to be that his ego is so big that he will seek out the seering sunlight focused beam all by himself ... thinking it is the spotlight.

And, looking back on things, I can see that the decisions that were made by Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and Sarah Palin to stay out of this nomination melee were quite perceptive.  I think that they must have seen that big magnifying glass in the sky ...

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:53 AM

    They did us a favor with Cain, Perry and Bachman.

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  2. 1)The intensified scrutiny of candidates who enter the political limelight is a good thing. If your previous posts characterizing the American citizenry as moronic, un-informed, lazy sheeple then the analogy falls short and blame for the burnt ants must be laid elsewhere. Are you claiming that Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Bachman, were ready for prime time? Did Huntsman's support ever amount to an anthill of hope?
    2) And aren't social issues a valid topic for a presidential candidate debate? All the talk about jobs is getting boring. You might not have noticed that the economy is improving, and the Dems might not be trying to avoid that topic as we head toward a general election.
    3) The very fact that any American would include Sarah Palin in a list of "quite perceptive" GOP wannabees is scary -- it makes me want to move to France.

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  3. An improving economy and a President that can sing like Al Green seems to insure that we will re-elect the man who provides morning-after pills to our children while mortgaging our future. Hazzahs!!

    You're right ... perhaps Sarah Palin didn't run for President because she thought that she would have to give up her assault weapons?

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