America sails towards Scylla and Charybdis
Published in: Daily Mail
The Republican nomination has taken on the character of a somnambulists’ boat trip into raging seas.
After coasting to victory in New Hampshire and his narrow win in Iowa, Mitt Romney is being regarded as having his party’s nomination in the bag. At the same time, however, the attacks on him by Newt Gingrich have drawn such blood that folk are wondering whether, in securing the nomination, Romney will have lost the presidency.
To repeat what I have been saying from the start, there is only one question that matters: can the Republican candidate beat Obama? And if the attacks by Gingrich – reprehensible and disloyal as they may be – are doing Romney such damage at this stage, just imagine what the Democrats will do to him once they get going!
As everyone can see, Romney is heading for the nomination purely because he’s the last man standing. That is not a formula for winning hearts and minds. If he does become the Republican presidential candidate, America will be forced to steer this November between the Scylla of national immolation and the Charybdis of vacuousness.
But between now and then, of course, anything may happen. Iran, where the undeclared war against the regime is hotting up, may this year become a political game-changer one way or another for global and thus American politics. Anyone like to bet that Obama has not factored this into his campaign strategy? Anyone like to bet that the Republican Party has?
