Comments on: The Professor and Marianne

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:16:45 +0000

Never been to Belmont, but Salt Lake is really CLEAN, as in the bureaucratic kind of clean. And with all the talk about compromise and efficiency I’ve been hearing from Mitt lately, it does have me wondering how much room for wandering we’ll have under a Romney presidency.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:21:11 +0000

Pete just did well in laying out the limits of Rick. Nonetheless, he is worthy of devotion. But only a miracle could get him to the nomination.

By: Robert Cheeks

Robert Cheeks — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:53:45 +0000

“A fairer critic can hear the agony of the Tea Partier who just isn’t going to get a candidate worthy of his devotion.”

Rather depressing considering I am taking you and Pete’s subtle advice and rooting for the Evangelical Rick..God’s Will be done in these matters, however, which I think, is what the Greeks were hoping. My beloved, has suggested that Barry may be modernity’s Nebuchadnezzar.

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:15:02 +0000

There are more Mormons that you’d might expect in Belmont. Surely a little oligarchy is less offensive than cultural contempt. An unfriendly critic might say that all the circus candidates are rallying around Newt–Palin, Cain, Perry etc. A fairer critic can hear the agony of the Tea Partier who just isn’t going to get a candidate worthy of his devotion.

By: Robert Cheeks

Robert Cheeks — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:13:21 +0000

It just occurred to me that me and the beloved visited her rather brilliant cousin, a designer of secret gummint stuff, in Belmont, Mass. during our honeymoon, where it seemed everyone drove a Benz.

By: ceaser

ceaser — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:01:50 +0000

Peter notes the key point, that while Mitt is a Mormon, after you get past the theology, he appears to Americans as the archetypical WASP. I made this point here before, but after I did I got a nice note from one of my grad students. It came after Mitt won New Hampshire and appeared with four (or five) of his sons standing behind him. The grad student said, referring to the sons, “but they forgot their lacrosse sticks.” if mitt gets the nomination, “tone” will be an issue. but as against a card carrying member of the intellectual elite and a card carrying member of the financial elite, i’d like to think americans have their priorities straight and dislike intellectuals more. newt did mitt a favor by forcing the publication of the tax returns. it did seem to free mitt in some way about the personal embarrassment of being among the 1% of the 1 percent. it lifted a psychological burden. the overkill on newt probably comes from the experience of iowa. you think you have squashed him, but here he comes again–to switch from gilligan’s island to another pop image–a bit like freddie krueger. not to dramatize, but the thursday night debate (on my birthday, no less)–and the sunday debate,too– strike me as “historical,” perhaps eliminating a great threat to the republic. And all of the establishment endorsements in the world could not have done that..it had to be done on the stage. so for that i credit mitt. i think i agree with peter–or i hope–that this week will mean that the alternative to mitt, if he does not win, is now more likely rick or someone not in the field, rather than newt…the real choice of 2012 can be made, without the election depending mostly on personal character… unless, of course, you still can’t count freddie out….