COMMENTARY | After his first-place win in New Hampshire, following a narrow Iowa victory, Mitt Romney was defined as the front-runner. Enter Rick Santorum, who just found out he actually won Iowa; even though Romney wants to call it a tie, first is first.
Now there is South Carolina, which was won by Newt Gingrich. There is only one thing that can be said about the Republican field right now: It is still volatile and a real front-runner is not available yet. In fact, only three states have voted, so it isn’t really all that necessary to jump out and start declaring someone the most likely to become the nominee. It’s sort of like a 50-lap race — the announcers call the shots only three laps in.
Despite the volatility, common belief is that beating President Barack Obama is what really matters to the GOP. Here is personal evidence: When I went to Iowa to help with the caucus on the third, one person spoke on behalf of Mitt Romney, and his main argument was how he is the only person in the race capable of beating President Obama, and this person also threw out the term “electable.”
That had me thinking, “and … just what exactly makes him so capable? He’s less firm on his issues than anyone else.” Needless to say, Romney won in the township I helped with, and the same happened with the other townships meeting in the same building. And based on national polls, this is the reason why average Republicans would vote for him.
At least, that’s what the media has them believing. When news broadcasts invite political analysts on to the show to discuss the race, they tend to say that common belief. So naturally, if Romney really is the one, then wouldn’t President Obama be firing up his strategies and rhetoric to take him on? And if the election isn’t until November, then Obama’s got months to prepare full-blown attacks against Romney, thus making him a weak opponent. But does the GOP know who would really get Obama? Somebody that Obama would have a difficult time trying to out-smart? They do, but they don’t like it. The only one who can beat President Obama is Ron Paul.
For starters, the obvious first reason is because of what Mitt isn’t. Ron Paul isn’t the one that these analysts say will win (at least not most of the time). As the media continues to shadow Paul’s momentum, the more they will craft the illusion that he cannot win. But here’s where things get interesting. Paul’s strategy isn’t winning the primaries and caucuses, it’s collecting delegates.
If Paul suddenly won the GOP nomination, then President Obama would not only be surprised, but he would have a harder time trying to find the flaws in Paul’s consistency, his likable ideas and his strong fan base — ideals Romney tends to lack.
Then there is the whole “electability” thing. The truth is, electability is just a theory. The media can’t really determine who is electable and who isn’t. Only the voters can. The only problem is that votes don’t know that, and that is how the media takes the wheel when it comes to that idea.
Paul has been elected 12 times to his seat in Congress, and he has only run for president on three occasions. If this was Paul’s fifth time running for the same position of president, then one could argue electability, but really the argument would be something on the lines of, “Can Ron Paul win a presidential election?” not “Is Ron Paul electable?”
Mitt Romney, however, has lost an election for the Senate (and he ran as a Democrat, too) and he lost the 2008 presidential election. He was Massachusetts governor, so he has won an election. To be fair, Paul and Romney can win elections, and thus neither are unelectable. And when it comes to being one-on-one with the president, Paul and Romney are tied with Obama. The only difference: Paul is never mentioned as much as Romney.
And when it comes to the “not-Romney candidate,” as people put it, no one really comes out and say it’s Paul. No one on TV seems to want to admit it. It is the truth — Paul and Romney are the only two in the race who are on every states’ ballot.
Romney is one of the only candidates running that wouldn’t audit the Federal Reserve, supports big government and has a platform that many Americans will see is in favor of corporations and Wall Street (like his statement, “Corporations are people”). When the media is controlled by corporations, as Paul put it during the debate CNN debate on Jan. 19, the truth gets heavily distorted and the real issues are put aside.
If Romney favors corporations, then it is common sense as to why he is so favored by the media. But the American people aren’t the same as the media. The American people should be allowed to decide for themselves.