Tony Silva
If QuiverDaddy were the blog of moment for most conservatives, there would be a collective jaw drop. You mean you beat Hot Air to the scoop of the election cycle? That all of talk radio — from Limbaugh to Levine, Hannity and Laura Ingrahm — all of them have fallen in line with the establishment anointed Mitt Romney? Yes they have.
Let me be clear. None of them have announced their support for a candidate this go around. In fact, many of them are offering up daily rants about his liberal bent — RomneyCare, gay marriage, pro-abortion before he was anti-abortion, etc. However, the pattern set in the 2008 nominating process seems to be surfacing again — promote an “anti-Romney” candidacy and then watch as they all fall. When one succeeds in stabilizing, they’ll attack him. Last time, the conservative they knocked out was Huckabee. This time it may be Cain. The wild card in 2008 was McCain. Nobody seriously believed the GOP electorate would pick someone even more liberal than Romney and once they started to take out Huckabee, the talkers — and their establishment handlers — went into one of the most absurd cases of mass hysteria in political history. Some insisted they’d endorse Hillary Clinton if McCain won. By the time they finally knocked out Huckabee, it was too late. McCain barreled through the hole the Talk Radio defensive line left and even if Huckabee had left the race when Romney’s Talk Radio team harped on his “liberalism” and his “open borders policies” and his “soft on clemency record”, the damage was done.
Many in grass roots conservative circles are convinced that had Talk Radio not intervened on Romney’s behalf, Huckabee would have been able to pull off a consolidation of conservatives behind his own candidacy. With their endorsement, he probably would have walked away with it. Instead, they tried to marry Huckabee to McCain, alienating many grass roots people who would support neither McCain nor Romney. Had Huckabee not stayed in the race, many in socially conservative circles reasoned, there would be no credible conservative they could support. That analysis may not hold water — Fred Thompson was the firewall in South Carolina that essentially blocked Huckabee’s momentum. Unfortunately, that worked for McCain. Huckabee got the blame.
Perhaps Talk Radio learned their lesson and the apparent “objectivity” on the part of conservative talkers now is not feigned. The fact that none of them will declare for a candidate at this point when a handful of conservatives are facing off against a single monolithic moderate is a clue to the establishment strategy. Their hope is that Cain’s bubble will burst and maybe Newt will become the flavor of the month. They’ll destroy Newt with his own human failings and then on to the remaining conservative, Santorum. As long as they can keep the conservative movement from coalescing behind a single candidate, Romney retains his “front runner” status. Divide and conquer.
Failing that strategy, any conservative who looks to be gaining strength against the Romney Juggernaut will be tared as a liberal or a socialist — pick your favorite label — and they’ll go into a 2008 style panic mode with a coordinated on-air mass endorsement of Governor Romney. “If [Cain | Newt | Bachmann | Santorum] wins this, there will be no candidate to contrast with Obama… I’ll then be forced to endorse Maxine Waters or just leave the country” is a possible refrain.
QiverDaddy’s prediction: The mass Romney Talk Radio endorsement will come shortly after the South Carolina primary if the conservative “anti-Romney” has serious traction and looks strong going into Florida. Bookmark this article.
