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Talk About Chutzpah

But I do think that those who claim the gentleman from Kansas is such a conservative rock star (see our previous posts on the silliness of the Conservative Messiah Watch) ought to be a little more careful given that his views on the most pressing issue of our time–the war against jihadists who want to […]

But I do think that those who claim the gentleman from Kansas is such a conservative rock star (see our previous posts on the silliness of the Conservative Messiah Watch) ought to be a little more careful given that his views on the most pressing issue of our time–the war against jihadists who want to kill us–more closely resemble those of a Democratic also-ran than anyone else’s. ~Charles Mitchell

I know it is some sort of job requirement for Romneyites to say things that embarrass the cause of their champion, but I have been fascinated to watch as they keep trying to find something about Sam Brownback that is actually supposed to offend conservatives who are inclined to support Mitt Romney.  It is possible for conservatives to take aim at Brownback’s many weaknesses on immigration, foreign policy and the like, but it is only possible to do this when your conservative policy alternatives are actually better and more conservative than those being offered by Brownback.  In almost every case, Romneyites cannot do this, because their man proposes policies that are at least as foolish or wrongheaded as anything Brownback has; since he is not a conservative, he cannot really credibly propose policies that are demonstrably more conservative.  If Sam Brownback happens to agree with Joe Biden that partition of Iraq is the right solution to the present mess, he may well be wrong, but he is not obviously wrong simply because Joe Biden takes the same view.  Partition is a bad idea, but I wouldn’t expect Romney to be able to explain why.  Romney, for his part, has no plan for Iraq, and only mentions Iraq obliquely and rarely in a speech that focuses overwhelmingly on Iran.  Romney replaces his impressive lack of any attention on Iraq with a lot of alarmism and deception:

Whether it’s Hamas or Hezbollah; Al Qaeda or Shia and Sunni extremists, there is an overarching goal among the violent Jihadists – and it transcends borders and boundaries.  That goal is to replace all modern Islamic states with a religious caliphate, to destroy Israel, to cause the collapse of the West and the United States, and to conquer the entire world.

This is what we in the business like to call “crazy,” or more simply stunningly wrong.  Shi’ites by definition don’t want a caliphate–the whole caliphal project didn’t work out well for them the first time, now, did it?  Not that Mitt “Patria O Muerte” Romney, master of the ignorant soundbite, would know this.  Hizbullah wants power in Lebanon.  It actually doesn’t care about the United States, except insofar as we are involved with Israel and actively opposing them inside Lebanon; the rest of the West is entirely irrelevant to Hizbullah’s goals.  Only in the broadest sense that all of these people are Muslims is it true to say that they want to conquer the world at some point, in that it is imperative to seek the reduction of all lands to the rule of Islam.  However, that requirement would extend to all Muslims and not simply the ones that happen to fall in certain countries that some folks have decided must be our enemies.  Romney’s vision is Santorumesque in its zany breadth and ideological fervour.  If I were a Romneyite, I would be doing all I could to make sure that no one read this speech, lest they think my candidate was nothing more than a clueless regurgitator of the bad slogans of others.  His continued inability or unwillingness to articulate any plan on what to do in Iraq makes him a candidate who refuses to speak about the preeminent and immediate policy question of the day.  He can talk about jihad all he likes, but if he has virtually nothing to say about Iraq one way or the other at this point in the campaign he is not fit to be President.

Romney gave his speech at Yeshiva University and uses the word chutzpah within the first two paragraphs.  At least he didn’t say that la ilaha ill’allah is an inspiring phrase that should belong to Judaism.

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