FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:

Michael Gerson
         Opinion Writer

Mitt Romney: Campaigner without a cause

 By Michael Gerson, Published: February 16

The central narrative of the Republican nomination contest is  easy to summarize: Any candidate who is perceived as the main opponent  to Mitt Romney immediately ties or leads Mitt Romney.

Rick Santorum’s surge tracks with recent precedent. His support is about the same as Rick Perry’s at his peak. A little higher than  Herman Cain’s crest. A little lower than Newt Gingrich’s pinnacle.

But Santorum is not only Romney’s latest challenger, he is the most serious

THE LINK:

Romney without a cause

 Michael Gerson

Santorum is his most serious challenger yet.

LET DETROIT GO BANKRUPT

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go  overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

 Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will “stay the course”, the suicidal course of  declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens,  technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses.  Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

CLICK HERE to go to the full Op-Ed piece by Romney and to readers comments from 2008

Romney has now changed his tune, just a bit. Here’s what he told USA TODAY:

While he doesn't agree with the process of the federal bailout, Romney  acknowledged the outcome is "wonderful. The companies now more competitive, profitable and they're adding jobs."

That statement doesn’t square, of course, with his prediction that the helping hand of Uncle Sam would ruin the car companies.  Democrats seem heavily biased in favor of government intervention, while Republicans are biased in the opposite direction: never intervene, well, except for the banks and Wall Street under G.W. Bush. When those very large chips were down, ideology had nothing to do with the decision to pump 800 billion into private markets.

We should remember historical lessons. The America of the 20th and 21 centuries was built by a lot of government help, both direct and indirect through government policies. Homesteaders were given land to settle the western states, railroads were given huge land grants in exchange for building the national railroad system. People in states like Texas, where screaming the “free market system” has replaced hog calling, joined the American union mainly to get protection from American Indians. In other words, without Federal protection, Texas would have had a hard time existing at all.

Many states rely on billions of dollars in federal subsidies, especially the farm stated of the upper mid-west and western states, those that regularly vote Republican, while their candidates denounce government and government programs. It seems they want to stop that which benefits others, but not themselves.

This might be difficult to believe, but Rick Santorum has a good chance of becoming the Republican nominee this year. Amazing. The reason is simple: the “enthusiasm gap” so far as Romney is concerned. A lot of people like Romney, a smaller group really wants him to be president, but a great many more, it seems, would rather see anyone else get the nomination than him.

Romney needed to have this thing wrapped up by now. He doesn’t and there’s the problem. If he loses in Michigan, he exposes a perhaps fatal problem. What candidate, previously the leading candidate, is not expected to win in the state of his  birth? True, Romney has minimal ties to the state, but many elections around the country have shown that voters will support the sons, daughters and even grandkids of those who previously served in their state. Romney father, George, was governor, the head of American Motors and a candidate for president himself in 1968. Its a long time ago and Romney has not maintained his ties to the state.

Romney must not have been thinking about running for president when he wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Times a couple of years back saying that the American car companies should be allowed to go bankrupt. His opinion then that the rough justice of the marketplace would work better than a government handout doesn’t sit well with many Michigan voters. At the time, the nation’s newspapers and editorial pages were filled with fear stories that if GM and Chrysler were allowed to go bankrupt, they probably would go out of business, along with thousands of other companies that supply parts to these giant corporations. Even when he takes a position that would otherwise be favored by the right, Romney finds a way to be on the losing end.

Santorum is about as unlikely a presidential nominee as could be imagined. After all, he lost his last election in Pennsylvania, a swing state that toggles between the two parties, by 17 percentage points. He was soundly rejected by the voters who he had represented in the Senate for three terms.

His appeal lies, in part, in being not merely a social conservative, but one who veers toward the extreme with ease and does so frequently. He most likely would scare off millions of voters in November, but that’s not the race being run right now. Today, 2.16.12, the news is filled with stories of how he got to be rich after leaving the Senate, dancing along the same line of “consultant” and media regular (with pay) that, in part, is the story Newt Gingrich’s wealth. In contrast to Romney, Gingrich and Santorum can claim to have built nothing but their “brand” and their bank accounts. How do you run against “the system”, and for basic change, when you have gotten rich from it? This is a question, pure and simple, for Santorum in the coming days and weeks.

A big movement toward Santorum could be building. If it continues, Romney could be facing the possibility of a series of loses which could cripple him and even drive him from the race early. More likely, it will be Romney and Santorum heading into the convention, each claiming enough support to be the nominee. Another possibility is the Gingrich could withdraw and, playing coy, hold his delegates to the last minute before supporting Santorum. Perhaps we will get a real, old fashion convention that actually decides who wins. Wouldn’t that be something?

Doug Terry, 2.16.12