There May Never Be Another Reagan, But Romney Is The Conservative Choice This Time Around

This an article written by a guest Contributor, Joshua Lawson, who is a fellow Canadian supporting Mitt. He is from Toronto and is an Evangelical Protestant.

"The Second Death of Ronald Reagan- Part 1"

Jeffery: You fool! As if it matters how a man falls down.

Richard: When the fall is all that is left, it matters a great deal.

-- The Lion in Winter


Mitt Romney is no Ronald Wilson Reagan.

In fact, I think that conservatives will probably never see the likes of such a sublime, warm, and inspiring politician ever again.

Reagan's electoral history is the stuff of magic. In the 1980 and 1984 campaigns he had Democrats cutting ads for him! Ted Kennedy was up there supporting Reagan for goodness sake. He literally painted the entire map red.



His 1984 victory is the most impressive electoral feat in U.S. history, with Reagan winning 49 out of 50 states and the popular vote by more then 18%. He came 3,000 votes from sweeping the entire country, but Mondale squeaked out a victory in Minnesota (his home state nonetheless).


Man I could just stare at this map all day...*sigh*

Mitt Romney would have had a much tougher time against Hillary. Right now, polls show him losing by about 10%.

These polls are early, and don't mean TOO much, but still...quite the uphill battle.

McCain obviously does better then Romney. Polls show him beating Obama and Hillary. The most up-to-date polling has McCain beating Hilary 48%-40%. He beats Obama 47%-41%! They have McCain ahead in Maryland (?!?!). His crossover appeal and moderate stances can woo independents left, right and centre.

But he is one nomination away from killing the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan.

I still can't get around the fact that the party of Reagan is apparently coalescing around John McCain. A candidate who is liberal on so many issues its painful. His worst sins being his sponsering of the FAILED Amnesty Bill and support for campaign finance reform...among other things.

And Florida voters right now have a LOT of explaining to do.

For instance, exit polls show Mitt won among conservatives, and pleasantly and surprisingly: evangelicals. But McCain won among voters who rated the economy their cheif concern. He won them by 6%.

This is not sour grapes. This is absurd.

Mitt Romney
- 25+ years experience in private sector
- rated North America's best businessman multiple times
- staged the greatest Olympic Games turnaround in history
- successfull Governor of Massachusetts

John McCain
- POW for 6 years in Asia
- U.S. Senator for 20 years
- stated multiple times on the record that he doesn't know much about the economy

ummm...

It doesn't take a brain surgeon who you'd rather have run an economy in crisis.

Choosing McCain over Romney on the economy is like choosing former Yankee Joe Torre to coach your hockey team over Scotty Bowman because Joe Torre looks tougher.

What is it with Flordia voters? Is there a way we somehow make it simpler for them other then "check the box next to the candidate you prefer"?

Perhaps the Republican Party of Reagan is actually dead. Perhaps we're witnessing the return of the Rockefeller, Ford, Nixon GOP.

I certainly hope not.

But here's the big question of the day:

Is it better to support McCain and keep the White House, and in the process move the Republican Party to the left?

...or to lose, and wonder in the wilderness for 8 years, waiting for the new heir to Reagan?

It worked before. Barry Goldwater was one of the best conservative candidates in the last 50 years. Then he got trounced by LBJ. [Apparently, people didn't like his "somewhat hawkish" stance on the Soviets and lines like: "Let's lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin."]

Oh that Barry.

But what happened? The GOP picked up its socks...wandered around for a bit, and got The Gipper. Since 1980, the GOP has been in the White House for 20 of the last 28 years.

Ironically by the way, the man who succeeded Goldwater in his senate seat in Arizona? You guessed it: John F*ing McCain.

Hopefully true conservatives and Big R Republicans will stand up against McCain, and realize Romney is the last, best hope to keep social conservatives, economic conservatives and national security conservatives intact. You can see here that the revolt has already begun. Hopefully McCain's lack of funds will hurt him on Feb. 5th and Romney endless money will actually help him for once (it hasn't so far...hear that Huckabust?).

It's not all over. But the coffin is already lined up. A resounding McCain victory on Super Tuesday will simply be the final nails...slowly hammered into the coffin of a party that once stood for something.