Will Romney’s convention be Palin and Paul’s insurrection? (It's Reuters)

Reuters ^ | August 6, 2012 | Nicholas Wapshott

[2ndDivisionVet]

Barely three weeks before the Republican convention opens in Tampa, Florida, the party is deep in the throes of a barely disguised civil war. This is nothing new. The struggle for the soul of the GOP between conservative traditionalists and libertarian radicals has been going on now for more than 40 years, since Barry Goldwater briefly (and disastrously) wrested the presidential nomination from the corporatist Northeastern fat cats who ran the party for their own benefit. Ronald Reagan’s presidency was a breakthrough for the Goldwater stalwart, though now even Reaganites are finding it uncomfortable as they fend off the Tea Party’s nihilistic insurgency.

The shock defeat in Texas of Rick Perry sidekick David Dewhurst at the hands of Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz was chilling for the Republican establishment. And there in the background, celebrating Cruz’s Senate primary victory with hockey mom gusto, was Sarah Palin, queen by acclamation of the Tea Party. If even ultraconservative Perry’s pick is now considered too traditional, too establishment, too safe, too left-wing for the Tea Party acolytes purging old-guard and dead-wood incumbents, which old-school Republicans can consider themselves safe? Cruz’s surprise success has proved to the GOP establishment that its days are numbered. Denial is futile. The Tea Party mob is coming for them.

Despite a lackluster economy, 23 million unemployed, unpopular healthcare legislation and a president portrayed as an elitist Kenyan Muslim socialist, Romney is still only neck and neck with Obama....

[napscoordinator]

Despite a lackluster economy, 23 million unemployed, unpopular healthcare legislation and a president portrayed as an elitist Kenyan Muslim socialist, Romney is still only neck and neck with Obama....

I have been saying that for months. Dumb ass liberal Romney is so weak, he may lose to Obama. Any conservative would have been better. Santorum-Bachmann 2016 or kick Romney to the curb at the convention.

[PapaNew]

her life and her family were threatened if she were to run this cycle

By God's grace, I'd take her place if I could. It's time for us once again, "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence...[to] mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

[PapaNew]

As I recall, George Washington’s life and family were threatened... In fact all of us and our families are threatened. She should have said as much. Sorry to be so harsh but our family has a long tradition of “stepping up”. Two of us were at Ticonderoga and one is buried at Gettysburg. “I was threatened” don’t wash at our house. Do the right thing.

Yes. If this is not the home of the brave, how can it continue to be the the land of the free?

[CedarDave]

Palin is a powerful speaker when preaching to the choir. It is not a question of whether Romney should invite her to speak, but how to get her to stay on message. For once, Lyndon Johnson’s gloriously vulgar aphorism about J. Edgar Hoover pissing in or out of the tent doesn’t apply. Palin will either be outside the tent pissing in, or inside the tent, pissing. Her big-bucks backers, SarahPac, have already acquired a perch close to the convention hall from which they can cause trouble whether or not their heroine is invited to speak.

Groan... Very crude metaphor. As the title says, "It's Reuters."

[zeugma]

Tea Party’s nihilistic insurgency

Biased much? nihilistic? Not a word I'd use.

ultraconservative Perry

Ultraconservative? Wow. The only reason the establishment didn't get behind Perry is because they already had their mindless liberal robot in Mitt.

[samtheman]

Reaganites are finding it uncomfortable as they fend off the Tea Party’s nihilistic insurgency

I think it's safe to say that there are NO Reaganites who are uncomfortable with the Tea Party, just as it's safe to say that the Tea Parties (not just one) are not engaged in "nihilistic insurgency".

The writer is a typical leftist hack who wouldn't know journalism from cleaning Obama's toilet... which is what he spends his days doing.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Ronald Reagan’s presidency was a breakthrough for the Goldwater stalwart, though now even Reaganites are finding it uncomfortable as they fend off the Tea Party’s nihilistic insurgency.

clueless

[Graewoulf]

I think that Romney should SEAL his Federal and State Tax Records when he announces who his Veep will be.

That would give The Media a double surprise.