I didn't say you differed. I said you didn't read what he wrote carefully enough. You have allowed your emotionalism in this discussion to cloud your perspective.
That is what this discussion is about.
Actually the title of the article and thread is "Mitt & Newt: A Plan to Win This Year." This is a strategic discussion, not an emotional discussion.
My plan is strategic and it is a formula for moving conservatism forward, even while using what are in many cases imperfect tools to get these tasks accomplished.
Politics is often times a series of "forced plays." A ground swell of conservatism from the grass roots passing straight up and through to actual proposed personalities for high office is not merely a "dream." It is in part a "forced play." If he makes the appointments I have proposed, he has made a very committed step that affirms conservatism's larger interests, and he'd be hard pressed to turn his back on these appointments. He'd have a coup on his hands if he did. See how the game is played? It's a "forced play" in a conservative direction.
I don't have to like him, I don't have to like where he came from, all I need to know and be made assured of is that the conservative outcome I want gets fulfilled. The whole of the US does not resemble Massachusetts. Romney is running now in a way that would never get him elected in Massachusetts. I don't think he much cares whether he even wins the state in the general.
Politicians are tools and they play to the crowd that is electing them. I am not a champion of Romney, but you and I have to face the fact that he's the one on stage, and barring any miracles he will be the nominee.
Think "Nugent-ly," as in Ted Nugent: if he's the guitar soloist and he's going to keep us in the listening audience, he'll have to play our tune. Without us, he'll have no audience and the show will close after opening night. Just ask Ted: a band can make or break the soloist's performance. I have just proposed the members of the "back-up band" to make Romney's performance of our tune, and that one he's playing for us right now, one that causes us to applaud enthusiastically at the end of the show. It also attracts a larger audience to our show, and in the "battle of the bands," we win, as we attract more listeners. More listeners translates to more voters.
Ted has expressed a figurative idea recently for taking out the opposition this election season. It is somewhat Nixonian in tactic and Clintonian in execution. We can learn from each of them as much as we can learn from the likes of Sun Tsu -- in fact, we don't have to admire any of these battle hardened tacticians personally, but we can learn from them. I believe Ted's phrase went something like, "we cut their heads off."
If the primaries have shown us anything it is that Romney's team has the "kneecappers" and the funding to get that part of the task accomplished. I don't have to like Romney, I don't have to like his team, but I can recognize their capabilities in this election cycle. Given our opposition, we'll need every hard-ball strategist we can find to take them down. That's all part of the ground game. The cabinet selection idea is the "vision" part of the game.
Romney needs a motivated conservative base to the White House. He hasn't closed the deal with those from whom he must draw support to be successful. I proposed the plan to close the deal and give voice to the "vision".
If he truly is a strategic thinker, he will do what it takes to coalesce his team. Romney needs us. We don't necessarily need him. He doesn't make it to the Presidency without us, but he has to run more convincingly and have some current evidence of his intent to match his current words. The more he tacks to our line the easier it will be for him to survive politically, because we have his political future in our hands.
Instead of just digging your heels in and insisting on the "never happen" line, why don't you instead train your efforts on trying to make what I have proposed actually happen. Recognize that Romney, the politician, will have to do what it takes to survive and win convincingly. I have just proposed a way to make that happen, not because I like Romney (I don't). I'd be casting my vote for his VP (Allen West, if I had my way) and his proposed cabinet.
Politicians are political animals. They are our tools to facilitating conservatism's continuing ascendancy. It is up to us to force Romney's plays in our direction. Do this in part by keeping Newt in the race to the convention, but not relying just on Newt exclusively to get this part of the task done. He's a politician. He's a tool just like Romney. He's part of the plan for conservative advancement.
In the end (if not sometime before) stand on the stage at the RNC Convention with your VP running mate, and your proposed cabinet standing up there right behind you. If it's who I proposed, the victory for our side will be resounding this November.
FReegards!
