"This is not a time to shrink from CONSERVATIVE principles" - Mitt Romney
John McCain has been wrong on many of the most important issues of our time. I am reaching out to Huckabee and Paul supporters... get behind the person who will stand up for CONSERVATIVE principles. While you may not agree how Romney applies those in all cases... he will not shrink from his conservative principles. He stands the best chance of taking down McCain. America is asking for your vote.
“Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
– Winston Churchill, 29 October 1941
(thanks to bethtopaz for supplying me with this beautiful quote)
Courtesy of Paul Mirengoff's endorsement of Mitt Romney.
The decision thus comes down to policy and effectiveness. I give Romney the edge on both counts.Rick Santorum says that when he was in the Senate, there were three parties -- the Democratic party, the Republican party, and the McCain party. This is an exaggeration, but it contains some truth. Think of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, "McCain-Byrd" (the gang of 14 deal), and now McCain-Lieberman. On some of the most important issues of our time -- political speech, immigration, judicial nominations, taxation, and now climate change -- McCain has been more comfortable with liberal or centrist positions than with conservative Republican ones. Let’s not deceive ourselves into believing that this will change if McCain gains the highest office in the land. It’s far more likely that we’ll actually have a McCain party instead of just a McCain faction.
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Finally, we get to the question of effectiveness and administrative ability. Romney has demonstrated these qualities throughout his career; McCain not so much. Yet, McCain is correct when he asserts his superiority over Romney in terms of foreign policy and national security experience, and when he takes credit for his role in denouncing the administration's approach in Iraq and leading the charge in favor of the surge. Though McCain misrepresents the facts about what Romney said on the subject, there’s no doubt that, where McCain led, Romney followed – and cautiously at that.
In the end, the choice boils down to two very different decisionmaking styles. Romney decides by immersion in "the data." McCain decides based on “instinct” – some combination of a few old-fashioned conservative values (keep government spending down and our defense strong); generalizations from his experience (e.g., torture didn't work on me, so waterboarding should be outlawed); and whatever he happens to pick up from people of various persuasions whom he happens to respect.
Instinct can trump data mining at times, especially with respect to decisions that fall within the decisionmaker's area of expertise. It did so with respect to the surge. However, as I put it a few days ago, "a president who consistently relies on instinct and pooh-poohs data is likely to make major mistakes. Unless one thinks McCain is a genius (and I don't), we'd probably be better off with Romney's approach to making decisions.”
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