Among conservatives, the leading GOP presidential choices have become a lesser-of-the-evils option at a more significant level than anytime I can previously remember, not the least of which is due to a competitive Super Tuesday, but also because both McCain and Romney have — to die hards — "questionable philosophical credentials."
Perhaps only fodder in the final day, but check out the missives from some stalwart conservatives to ensure indictments of their "non-choice" of a candidate. The first from former Assemblyman and current ED of the Council for National Policy Steve Baldwin…on Romney:
Well, we tried, but the news is out. We beltway conservatives, radio talk show hosts, conservative columnists, and other assorted "Movement" leaders have tried hard to keep this info from the grassroots but I guess we failed on this one count. We’ve known for years that Romney unilaterally instituted gay marriage in Massachusetts — which, yes, we do acknowledge is probably the single worse action by an elected official in 100 years in terms of undermining America’s Judeo Christian culture.
But, gee, what can we say? For two years now Romney has contributed millions of dollars from his PAC and foundation to all of our groups so, well, I guess we just decided to keep this our little secret. But at least we’ve been fairly successful in keeping other information from the grass roots. Romney told a CNN commentator two days ago that he favors "gay rights" and even came out in favor of ENDA laws, but thank God all of our conservative columnists decided not to write about it. Romney even reiterated his opposition to the Boy Scout policy of excluding homosexual scout leaders and once again we got lucky — Limbaugh, Levin, Hannity and Human Events obediently spiked that story. That was a close one! Then there was the revelations about Romney’s Iranian investments that we were sure would destroy his candidacy but, miracle of miracles, the Beltway crowd looked the other way. Several government reports have been issued recently, showing the economic performance under Huckabee to be far stronger than the economy under Gov. Romney, but our friends at the Club for Growth decided to ignore this.
Meanwhile, we Beltway leaders have been able to successfully exaggerate Huckabee’s flaws while ignoring his dozens of tax cuts while governor. In fact, we demonized him to the point where the race is now coming down to McCain and Romney. We know most conservatives won’t vote for McCain so we’ve successfully bamboozled the grassroots into a situation where they will end up having to vote for Romney. Aren’t we brilliant? So, yes, despite this little slip below, Romney may be the next president, and yes, his presidency will probably lead to the destruction of the conservative movement as we know it. But who care, we leaders have been promised positions in the Romney administration and we will have influence in the halls of power. Suckers!