Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Mitt Romney Ducks GOP Civil War
New York's 23rd Congressional District's three-way race has become a national proxy war for the future of the Republican Party, but Mitt Romney, one of the leading likely contenders for the 2012, has decided not to fight. Sarah Palin and Gov. Tim Pawlenty have both endorsed third-party candidate Doug Hoffman over moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava, which could hand the election over to Democrat Bill Owens if the right-leaning candidates split the vote. Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich has earned the enmity of the Republican base in recent days for aggressively defending Scozzafava from their attacks. "I have chosen not to endorse the Republican in the 23," Romney said on Wednesday, ABC News reports. While the move may be a tacit criticism of Scozzafava, it's nonetheless a much less overt entry into the race than either Palin or Pawlenty.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--squareyellowpaperHDway1
Romney's approach is correct regarding the 23rd in NY. Newt said, leave it to the Republican's in NY after he made his endorsement error. The observation is the Conservatives and Republicans in NY could not work together on this and this competition resulted. Now it is up to the people of NY 23rd to elect the candidate who will more faithfully represent them and uphold their oath of office making Newt's opinion a footnote.
diamondgirl
Romney is a wimp, I love Tim Pawlenty he is my pick for the White House in 2012!
tumbleweed
I love all the infighting in the Republican Party! Maybe a few more moderate Republican's will see just how extremist their party has become in the hands of the neo-con Republican's. The way it stands no moderate Republican can get the nomination for President without the same thing happening to them that happened to McCain. They insisted on a Christian extremist as Vice President who appealed to religious right. It sank his whole campaign. Moderates ran as hard as they could for the other candidate. I don't think Mitt Romney will ever get the nomination. He is a Mormon and the fundamentalist's don't trust him. That is there voting base these days the Christian fruitcakes. All the rest of us left.
diamondgirl
Excuse me they picked McCain, he isnt religious. Huckabee is the religious one, he wont get it either. As for the 23rd in NY, I think we dont know enough about Huffman either...He wouldnt debate the other two, I wonder why?
Check out Tim Pawlenty...
Honchos
That's the point DG. Because McCain was more of a moderate who doesn't resonate with the far right Evangelicals he was forced to pick Palin to appeal to that crowd. She might have energized the fringe but she turned off a lot of the moderates who are necessary to win elections.
The biggest threat to the Republican party right now is this Palin-led fringe who are making a big time power grab and seem to not care that it's tearing their own party apart. Then again, that's what the Bush administration did to the country for 8 years so I guess that's par for the course.
tblunt
Could Romney be even more typical and predictable?...I'd love to see a video of him coloring his hair.
rowland
This is the stock photo TDB uses for Romney? Editorialize much?
PUPITO
Is'nt it Great to NOT be a politician?
Spengler47
It would be nice to see the moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats coalesce into a party of the center, form a governing majority, and leave the radical right (Palin) and the radical left (Obama, Pelosi) out in the cold.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.