Getting the Vapors, Right-Wing Style.

Oh doom! Oh gloom! The Republican field of Presidential hopefules is woefully inadequate! None are fit to carry on the glorious tradition of St. Ronaldus Magnus!

“They all suck”, says Redstate. More than that, they’re all simply horrible, horrible people.

Every one of the thus far announced Republican candidates for President sucks. From the lecherous adulterer to the egomaniacal nut job to the flip-flopping opportunist with the perfect hair to the guy who hates brown people to the guy we’ve never heard of to the guy who has a better chance of getting hit by a meteor while being consumed by a blue whale being struck by lightening.

They all suck. (Well, okay, Brownback doesn’t suck at all, but I perceive no viability for his candidacy.)

Yeah, well, with all due blogger deference to the poster whose site gets a squidillion more hits a day than this place, unwrap your lips from the tailpipe of your car and get a grip.

Putting aside Mr. Erickson’s histrionics, there’s one thing I can readily admit. It’s true that through the Vaselined soft-focus lens of history, none of the current crop of candidates measures up to Ronald Reagan. Then again, who could measure up to an icon?

Let’s remember our history, we conservatives who so proudly claim that history guides our choices. Ronald Reagan, whose First Lady was his second wife, was not exactly a beacon of morality in his younger days. He, like every other politician, shifted positions on important issues at points in their political life. He was accused for decades of hating gay people (though it’s a horrible slur for anyone to say that Tom Tancredo hates “brown people”). He presided over a huge blowup of the federal budget. He got suckered on a craptastic amnesty deal that’s led directly to where we are today. His arms deal with Iran was far from a good move. His family life was hardly idyllic.

He was, in short, a human being.

One thing he had, that we tend to forget, was a variation of the 80/20 rule that said that the person you agreed with 80 percent of the time is not your enemy. I think if Mr. Erickson sat down and took a few deep breaths, he’d find that most of the candidates right now on the right are well within that 80 percent. He needs to remember that the perfect can never be the enemy of the very good.

He says that Newt Gingrich is the conservative ideal right now and he may well be right. But we all know that Newt carries so much baggage, personal and political, that the White House would be an incredible uphill fight as every MSM outlet started slinging the mud with show shovels. And let’s not forget that Newt has spent many of the last few years working with everyone he can to get his initiatives moving, including the Republican Bogeywoman, Hillary Clinton. Newt’s no more Reaganesque than anyone else in this race.

He is a very effective spokesman for conservativism. He has plans that are, far and away, more ambitious and detailed than anyone else in the race right now. He’s good, but let’s not get carried away.

I suggest that Erickson just relax and let the race get started. Let’s see who seizes what issues and go from there. Let’s show a little bit of patience and let the candidates start to hit their strides before we start chunking hurdles in front of them.

But above all, let’s remember what we’re conservatives. We’re the ones who think. Leave the hysterics for the left. That’s what they do best.

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Category: The 2008 Horse Race