Most Amusing Endorsement Editorial Ever

You have to love a Presidential endorsement editorial that starts with, essentially, "Nobody knows who the hell to vote for." So starts the Mitt Romney endorsement from the National Review, which Attaturk brilliantly calls a Mastubatorial.

Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative...

Well, yes, he's been liberal, moderate, conservative, pretty much everything.

While he has not talked much about the importance of resisting ethnic balkanization — none of the major candidates has — he supports enforcing the immigration laws and opposes amnesty.

Maybe because he's not allowed to talk about resisting ethnic balkanization if he wants to win the Republican primary - none of the major candidates are.

Uniting the conservative coalition is not enough to win a presidential election...

Because it's about 20% at this point...

Rudolph Giuliani did extraordinary work as mayor of New York and was inspirational on 9/11. But he and Mike Huckabee would pull apart the coalition from opposite ends: Giuliani alienating the social conservatives, and Huckabee the economic (and foreign-policy) conservatives. A Republican party that abandoned either limited government or moral standards would be much diminished in the service it could give the country.

This is actually good analysis, but pragmatism has long left the GOP, and social conservatives, as well as foreign policy conservatives, aren't likely to take kindly to being told to STFU.

Romney is an intelligent, articulate, and accomplished former businessman and governor. At a time when voters yearn for competence and have soured on Washington because too often the Bush administration has not demonstrated it, Romney offers proven executive skill.

Wow. National Review is endorsing the guy for running the Dukakis '88 campaign. From the same state, too. Inspiring!

Like any Republican, he would have an uphill climb next fall.

A rare moment of clarity...

His conservative accomplishments as governor showed that he can work with, and resist, a Democratic legislature.

Work with apparently equals resist now. It's the new math.

Some conservatives question his sincerity.

Some people question the dryness of water.

Romney has been plagued by the sense that his is a passionless, paint-by-the-numbers conservatism. If he is to win the nomination, he will have to show more of the kind of emotion and resolve he demonstrated in his College Station “Faith in America” speech.

You know, the resolve to insult large sections of the country by saying there's no place in the country for anyone without faith.

More than the other primary candidates, Romney has President Bush’s virtues and avoids his flaws.

i.e., all the unitary executivin' and Guantanamo doublin' without the bad elocution (yes, they literally list "better able to defend conservative positions in debate" as one of the virtues)!

It's kind of amusing that it's come to this for the conservative movement, pinning their hopes on the guy they think will keep intact the fragile conservative coalition, the same guy that hasn't had the same position on literally any issue since 2002.

And the best part is the howler of a cover picture:



Apparently, a sketch in an biology textbook (Fig 1.1 - average homo sapien) is running for President.