National Review Rebuked

Much to my disappointment, the "conservative" outlet all but endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president in their "Winnowing the Field" article from the editors.  This article was written on
December 14th, a little over 2 weeks prior to the Iowa Caucus and had only this to say about Rick Santorum:

"Senator Santorum was an effective legislator. He deserves credit for highlighting, more than any other candidate, the need for public policies that topple barriers to middle-class aspirations. Weighing against him is a lack of executive experience."

So, in winnowing the field NRO says 2 nice things about the guy, say's he lacks executive experience, and writes him off.  Nothing about him being a "big government conservative".

Then Senior Editor Ramesh Ponnuru, gives an outright endorsement of Romney in his "Romeny's the One" article on December 19th.  He mentions most of the other GOP candidates multiple times throughout this 4 page epilogue, but only Santorum once:

"Democrats will try to make him into a scary figure, but they will have less to work with than if Republicans nominated Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Perry, or Rick Santorum."

Hey, at least he tagged him with his first name over the other candidates, so I shouldn't complain too much.  And isn't "the one" title reserved for Barack Obama?

Fast forward to the Iowa Caucus on January 3rd and the surprising virtual tie by Santorum with Romney.  There was the NRO with a story they must of had sitting in their holsters to fire at the perfect moment in time - 12:00am on January 4th.  Rick Santorum didn't even have time to lay his head on the pillow to take a deep breath before this leading story:  "Santorum's Big-Government Conservatism".  And a nice picture of him shaking hands with George Bush for good measure.

Which leads me to the whole point of this mini-rant.  When NRO asked its audience to choose who they supported, over 18,000 votes poured in.  No statistical tie this time - Santorum wins by a decent margin.

Instead of trying so hard to convince us that the only true moderate in the GOP field is a conservative, maybe you should figure out why through months of anti-Romney flavors of the week, and a man who has more money than all the other candidates combined, can only muster 25% of the Republican base?  Moreover, maybe you could ask your own customers...

Posted in: GOP 2012