Right Pulse

I’d previously weighed into US Republican politics by arguing that Romney would be a better pick than Palin at the next Presidential election because, unlike Palin, Romney has intellectually prepared himself to lead as President and win arguments for conservatives. Highly respected media commentator Charles Krauthammer recently expressed similar sentiments:

Romney really is the frontrunner. He has done himself well. He is a grown-up. He knows economics. He’s trusted on that.

Under any normal circumstance that would not be much of a complement, but given that Obama is in power, it speaks volumes of Obama’s own inadequacies and those of Romney’s rivals.

…he is the guy who is as clean as clean can get. You are not going to wake up in the morning and discover he is crying in Argentina. This is a solid guy and he’s got a record.

A reference to former Presidential hopeful and current Governor of South Carolina’s secret visit to his mistress in Argentina. No ’nasties’ in the closet. Predictable and dependable. On Palin:

…she is not a serious candidate for the presidency.

She had to go home and study and spend a lot of time on issues in which she was not adept last year, and she hasn’t. She has to stop speaking in clichés and platitudes. It won’t work….You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you’re running for the presidency.

All feathers, no meat.

UPDATE I

More from the WSJ on why MR is becoming the defacto opposition leader o take on Obama:

…Govs. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, and Sen. John Ensign — have stumbled or, in the case of Gov. Sanford, flamed out in spectacular fashion. Mitt Romney now looks by comparison like the serious adult in the room…the national agenda is squarely focused on the economy — which plays to Mr. Romney’s strength as a successful businessman…the auto industry, which happens to play nicely to the Romney background as a Michigander and son of an auto-company executive. The other is health care, which tees up Mr. Romney to talk about the health overhaul he led in Massachusetts while that state’s governor….Mr. Romney’s political action committee endorsed 84 Republican candidates for federal office and passed out more than $400,000 in contributions, while Mr. Romney appeared at 34 campaign events for Republican congressional candidates.

I don’t see America’s economic woes going away in four years, and the Federal budget will likely be in an even bigger mess than it is now. So MR will still be relevant by then. However, I don’t understand a political system that does not have a single unifying voice – like an opposition leader – to take on the incumbent throughout the term of office. Waiting until just at the tail end of the term – when an election becomes eminent – to figure out how to attack the incumbent does not make much sense. The opposition needs to be taking small bites out of the other guys throughout the four years as part of a unified strategy to win, and try as best as possible to put aside intra-party rivalry. In otherwords, accept for the time being that MR is the guy to take on Obama at the next election.

Then there is this damning essay about Palin, written by National Review editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg:

…every time I see you on TV, you’re whining about unfair press coverage. Don’t get me wrong: Much of it is unfair, and some of it deserves a response. But it’s not presidential. It’s not even gubernatorial…peddling a few platitudes and truisms about free markets and limited government is no substitute for really knowing what you’re talking about. Yes, you can talk well about the stuff you know — oil drilling, energy, etc. — but beyond your comfort zone, you fall back on bumper-sticker language that sounds fine to the people who already agree with you but is useless in winning over skeptics.

Which might help explain why recent Pew polling indicated that just as many people disapprove of Palin as approve of her.

UPDATE II

Ten well considered and intelligent points on why Palin was never the real deal:

For all Palin’s political attractiveness, the chord she struck with so many during the election campaign and the need for a Republican politician who can connect with Middle America it’s now plain that she’s just not up to it.  Palin has many qualities but she is not the force her supporters want her to be.