by
Patrick
J. Buchanan

Recently
by Patrick J. Buchanan: Four
More Years – of This?

There still
exists a possibility that, come Jan. 20, 2013, we could have a Republican
Senate and House, and a Republican president.

But there is
also a possibility that a Goldwater-Rockefeller-type family bloodletting
could sunder the party and kick it all away.

America is
bored with Barack Obama. The young and the minorities are still
with him but exhibit none of the excitement or enthusiasm of 2008.

Moreover, we
have been through three years of 23-25 million unemployed or underemployed.
Our national debt is now larger than the national economy, approaching
Italian proportions. The class warfare rhetoric is beginning to
grate. A huge majority believes the nation is on the wrong course.

Who wants four
more years of this?

Democratic
hopes for 2012 hence hinge on that party’s ability to portray the
Republican alternative as unacceptable if not intolerable. And the
Republicans have begun to play into that script.

The GOP field
of candidates suddenly seems headed to a finale that will call to
mind the last scene of Hamlet, the dead and dying everywhere, but
no Fortinbras to restore order in the house.

In the Sunday
debate, Jon Huntsman accused Mitt Romney of virtually questioning
his patriotism, when Mitt asked how he could serve as Obama’s man
in Beijing and be a credible opponent of Obama.

“This nation
is divided … because of attitudes like that,” said Huntsman.

Newt Gingrich,
who promised in Iowa not to go negative, now calls Mitt a liar.
A super-PAC supporting Newt is about to paint Mitt as a Bain Capital
corporate predator, a Gordon Gecko whose modus operandi was to swoop
down on troubled companies, loot them, fire workers, leave a skeleton
crew and move on.

Newt’s bitterness
is understandable.

A month ago,
he was surging. He had opened up a lead in national polls, moved
ahead in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida, and, with the backing
of the Manchester Union-Leader, was closing in on Mitt in New Hampshire.

From his crisp
debate performances, Newt had steadily risen from his disastrous
debut, while one after another of his rivals – Michele Bachmann,
Rick Perry, Herman Cain – had taken the lead and lost it.

Newt had engineered
a spectacular comeback, seemingly peaking at exactly the right moment,
only weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

Came then the
Iowa blitz, round-the-clock air strikes from a Romney super-PAC.
Millions were dumped into attack ads portraying Newt as a Beltway
bandit who had exploited his speaker’s ties to enrich himself, pocketing
$1.6 million from Freddie Mac and millions more from Big Pharma
to promote the Bush prescription drug benefit for seniors, the largest
unfunded entitlement program of the century.

After weeks
of unreturned fire, Newt’s poll numbers had been cut in half. He
finished a distant fourth in Iowa. Having come back from the dead
once in this primary season, it is hard to see how he resurrects
himself a second time, given the depth of his fall, his seemingly
uncontrollable anger and the little time he has left.

Five weeks
ago, Newt looked like the GOP nominee. Now, his political career
seems about over. Hence the desire for revenge. And with his friend
Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson dumping $5 million into a
super-PAC for Newt, his allies have the resources to exact retribution
on Mitt for what Mitt’s friends did to Newt.

Nor is this
the only bad blood.

In Iowa, Ron
Paul’s ads charged Newt with “serial hypocrisy” for claiming to
be a conservative but leaving Congress to make millions working
the system. In New Hampshire, Paul escalated, calling Newt a “chicken
hawk” who clamors for war on Iran but ducked service when he could
have gone and fought during Vietnam.

Newt has said
that, should Paul become the nominee, he, Newt, could neither endorse
nor vote for him. Paul’s supporters would reciprocate, were Newt
to become the nominee.

Paul’s ads
also charge Rick Santorum with being a “corrupt” politician who
exploited his 12 years of Senate service to make millions on K Street.

Santorum’s
reply: “Ron Paul is disgusting.”

The Republican
candidates have gone beyond challenging each other’s records and
positions to impugning their character.

Sunday, New
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Romney surrogate, directly questioned
Huntsman’s “integrity,” implying he had plotted his presidential
campaign against Obama while serving as Obama’s man in Beijing.

He had taken
the king’s shilling and then sought to dethrone the king.

Such wounds
take time to heal. Some never do, and some will not be closed before
the Republican convention opens in Tampa, Fla.

Then
there are the policy divides. Paul may well run second to Romney
in delegates and demand that his ideas – shutting U.S. military
bases overseas, downsizing the American empire, getting a declaration
of war from Congress before any attack on Iran – be written into
the platform.

How will a
hawkish Republican majority finesse that one?

To bring this
crowd together at Tampa, the GOP nominee may need the diplomatic
skills of a Talleyrand or Metternich.

January
11, 2012

Patrick
J. Buchanan [send
him mail] is co-founder and editor of The
American Conservative. He is also the author of seven books,
including Where
the Right Went Wrong, and Churchill,
Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. His latest book is Suicide
of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? See his
website.

Copyright
© 2012 Creators Syndicate

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