Article VI Blog

WaPo says the Republican party is divided . . . and oxymoronically united.   Meanwhile, CNN says Palin best represents Republicans.  Wednesday, we pointed out that the conservative coalition, which is how Republicans get elected, did fracture in ’08.  We defined the fault line as between the ideologues and the pragmatists.  So, I was quite please to read this from a young Evangelical interested in politics.

If you have an opinion, there’s probably a brand of conservatism just for you.  If you care most about faith and values, for example, you might consider yourself a social conservative.  Those who worry about preserving the culture are paleo-conservatives, and neo-conservatives consider national security the most pressing issue of our time.

But what if you’re just a conservative?  Unfortunately, thanks to the widening gap between the thinkers and the doers of the movement, this isn’t always easy to define.  The intellectually robust “shared texts” that used to unite conservatives are no longer commonly read. Instead, they have been replaced by books that reinforce natural divisions by carefully marketing to splintered conservative demographics.

I think there is some wisdom there.  Marketing is moving more and more towards a niche model.  This leaves political consultants, whose job it is to create broad appeal, with no place to turn to figure out how to do that.  Their traditional allies in marketing are actually fighting against them.  The religious lines we have seen are part of the same phenomena.

Wgile we are on the subject, here is a late addition.  Our old friend John Mark Reynolds penned this about a comment Palin made in an interview Thursday:

…for a Christian two wrongs not only don’t make a right, but actually are just more wrong. There is the whole issue of, well, the Golden Rule as well.

Third, asking whether Obama is born in the United States is not a “fair question,” because there is no credible evidence he was not born in the United States. You cannot ask a fair question when your questions is based only on a desire to do damage equal to that done to you by another.

The conservative movement must reject a populism that amounts to mob rule. Our founding fathers believed in reason and hated demagoguery. The notion that it there is any fair way to questions the President’s place of birth is beyond the pale.

And now, back to the original post.

This is gonna get interesting.

Turning To The Candidates – Huckabee

OK, we all knew the commutation thing was going to hurt him, but there is some strong language out there.

Mike Huckabee will waste a lot of money and other people’s votes if he thinks he is somehow still viable in presidential politics. He is done. He is a nice man, and kind of cute playing his guitar on his television show. But he should not ever hold a public office where he might make executive-branch decisions because he has shown he is weirdly or naïvely soft on criminals. Good people have been hurt by Huckabee’s actions. He has shown us this week that just giving the impression of being sorry is difficult. He was doing full-out damage control for himself when he should have just shut up until the funerals were over. I perceive a creepy, intimidating undercurrent that refusing Mike Huckabee “forgiveness” is somehow not “Christian.”

That last sentence is a standard play when pastors go bad.  I’ve heard it more times than I want to in church scandal situation.  All I can say is, I hope Huckabee does not go that far.

And yet Dick Morris still thinks Huck’s the presumptive leader.  But then Morris was a consultant to Huckabee.  Morris also had some unkind remarks for Romney is the same interview which brings us to . . .

Turning To The Candidates – Romney

The very left leaning Salon got pretty funny about Morris’ slam on Romney.

Fortunately for Romney, the good news is very good: Given Morris’ recent history of prognostication, it’s probably best to now consider Romney the front-runner for the nomination, if not a lock to win in the general.

Most people have probably forgotten by now — or, at least, that’s probably what Morris is hoping — but the former strategist for Bill Clinton turned professional Clinton-hater was the author of a book, published in 2005, titled “Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race.”

Come on, you have to laugh at that a little.

But what was really interesting was CBN’s (Pat Robertson’s news organization) political reporter David Brody  has suddenly lavished a bit of well deserved praise on Governor Romney.

Mitt Romney could end up being President Obama’s worst nightmare.

IF Romney wins the 2012 Republican nomination for President and IF unemployment is hovering at 10 percent or higher in 2011/2012 Romney is going to have a major advantage in a possible General election battle vs. President Obama. After all, it is Mitt Romney who has a PROVEN track record on creating jobs and his reputation for taking corporate ventures from worst to first is well documented. Obama would have his hands full.

I wonder if it is a coincidence, Brody doing this so soon after Huckabee finds himself in this much trouble?  Oh, I know Romney published that USAToday op-ed and all, but Brody has left a lot of what Romney does uncommented upon.

Speaking of the Huck/Romney juxtaposition, there was an interesting interchange between Marc Ambinder and Ramesh Ponnuru on what the Huckster’s fortunes say about Romney and Iowa.  I’m with Ramesh on this one.

Turning To The Candidates . . .

…some guy in Detroit thinks Thune’s the man.  Maybe in a couple of cycles, but not this one.

Religion and Issues

What ho?  Orthodox Jewish Rabbis are joining the fight against same-sex marriage in New Jersey?  Even though they did not sign the Manhattan Declaration?  Gee, maybe that document is not the telltale some people think it is.

Neither of us is Catholic, so we have steered clear of the story because we have nothing intelligent to say about it, but there is a bit of a throw down between one of the next-generation Kennedys and a catholic Bishop.  This is as good a place to start as any, if you want to follow the story.

Have a good weekend.

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