The Clinch Redux
Thus far in the Republican primary race, Mitt Romney appears strangely subdued and “moderate.” Has he really forgotten his red meat speeches from the last go round? Perhaps. Could it be he is taking a leaf from Obama’s book? Remember that after Obama jumped to a surprise lead over Hillary in ’08 he avoided accentuating differences with her. The Democrat campaign became his historic race vs. her old news gender. While Hillary won most of the later primaries she was denied a knockout because those contests were not winner take all. Obama held his delegate lead and ran out the clock with a boxing clinch on substantive issues.
Romney may be making a similar calculation. Obama has governed so far left that any normal attempt to steer to the middle likely falls short. Romney can move left and try to shoulder Obama out of the vote rich middle. If in doing so the candidates begin to sound alike, well, Romney may think that the result favors him. And in the final sprint he has the edge in hair.
The Left, in this scenario, will grudgingly accept Romney as a common sense means of removing their now burdensome historic choice.
The Right in Romney’s view will have no choice but to follow him, happy to at least end the Barackian nightmare.
However, the Tea Party will likely reject as obsolete any “move to the middle” strategy. 2008 is a bygone age! They’ll demand a true conservative. So, can Romney shoulder first the Right then the Left on his run up the middle?
