Before every big game, the talk is incessant. No detail gets overlooked as sport pundits audit every strength and every weakness, as they dissect tactical schemes and as they predict individual performance. The political game is no different. Forgive the shopworn analogy, but the GOP contest is still in the first quarter and the armchair quarterbacks are slinging opinions like a campfire chef slings hash. Some listeners and readers gobble it up. Most don’t care. The pundits don’t care either. They get paid anyway, some handsomely. Pundits like Carl Rove who blew through a king’s ransom during the Romney debacle. You have opinions, too. But that’s all you have. You definitely claim no credibility, no Ivy League connection and no mouthwatering war chest. Your deficiencies were apparent four years ago, when you bombarded Romney “handlers” with opinions. Patriotically panicked, you waged a relentless crusade to recommend specific strategies, tactics and messaging. The polite response — in so many words — “we know what we’re doing.” Clearly, the combined wisdom of Mitts’s all-star team suffered from a type of arrogant myopia, a fatal overconfidence. You could almost hear the behind-closed-door SWOT analysis as they eyed certain victory. Fast forward and you are witnessing Arrogance Redux. Jeb and his dream team sit in a room somewhere to discuss his possible candidacy. Should or shouldn’t he? The team studies the potential field. It goes something like this: “Jeb, no other Governor has either your credentials, your presence or your political lineage. Those other candidates are either newbies or on the irrelevant fringe. Trump’s a joke. The NRC and big PAC money are behind us.” With eyes wide open, these geniuses categorically dismiss the “we don’t want another Bush” street talk. They know that the name Bush is gold because most voters are robots. They know people don’t vote issues; hell, people don’t even know issues. At the end of the day, this is about name recognition. Bill Clinton beat Bush The Elder. This is payback. The GOP simply can not and will not nominate a lightweight Senator, or a sawbones, or a caustic female or a cartoon character. For God’s sake, Bush looks presidential; he talks presidential. He is presidential! But today, the talk in the Bush war room is a tad more tense, just a little less certain. Soon the GOP field will narrow. Bush and his backers will persist indefinitely. Incomprehensibly, if people don’t come to their senses and they stupidly nominate an outsider, the Party apparatus is duty bound to take action and somehow pull off a brokered convention. For the GOP Establishment and Beltway Fraternity, this election isn’t really about winning the Presidency anyway; it’s about not losing control of party supremacy to the right wing riffraff. Nonetheless, as the drama unfolds, you remain dismayed. These candidates hire arguably the brightest strategic minds in political captivity. And then, once again, you recall 2011 and can almost hear the stellar Romney team sizing up their man: Look, he’s celebrity handsome; he has a beautiful wife and family; he understands the economy; he appeals to independents; he was Governor of a big Democrat state; he saved the Olympics; he’s self-made; he has strong faith; he knows how to be non-partisan. All we need do is avoid taking extreme positions — and be positive. Mitt is more qualified in every way — the people are bound to see that. Who knows, when it’s time to step behind the voting kiosk next year, the people indeed will stop playing games and prove the experts right by finally choosing Bush. They’re bound to. You think?
