BUT (you knew it was coming) her counsel in her most recent NRO post is fundamentally a counsel of fear. It's useful, however, because as such, it serves to highlight that which is wrong with the GOP as well. The Republican Party not only lacks the courage of the convictions that describe it, it also lacks courage, plain and simple. It is afraid and it operates almost invariably from a posture of fear.
Charen's piece is titled "Don't Pick Rick" and while she lists many quite sound reasons why Rick Santorum would make a poor candidate against Barack Obama this fall, the problem with her reasoning is that it springs in the first instance from this consideration:
Because he has phrased his socially conservative views in vivid terms, he is precisely the sort of candidate who will evoke a Pavlovian response from the press. Just as they were driven mad by Sarah Palin, they will be outraged by Rick Santorum.To my mind, this very point serves more, much more in fact, to recommend rather than disqualify Santorum.
When, oh when, will the too many conservative pundits to count and virtually every professional Republican ever learn? The "press" has not been for some very long time, is not now, and will not be in any foreseeable future, an ally of conservatism. Nor, so long, that is, as any conservative remnant continues to reside chiefly in the GOP, will it ever be an ally of the party either.
Appeasing the press is a fool's errand and would be even if it were attempted from a position of confidence. But coming as it does from a posture of fear, it not only fails to inspire undecided voters, it disgusts the party's conservative base as well.
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