As in, they can do it and still get elected.
Allahpundit is raising an excellent point, here:
Why would a center-right voter prefer Jeb Bush to Scott Walker? We all do understand, I hope, that Walker will be running basically as a centrist, yes? …I think he’s going to run as a similar sort of pragmatist as Bush — lots of talk about jobs and education, squishy on immigration, socially conservative but low key about it, and if tea partiers start getting restless with him, he’ll pull the ol’ “remember the time the unions spent millions to recall me and I kicked the sh*t out of them?” card. And then everyone will quiet down.
…Well, maybe not ‘quiet down.’ The GOP base could raise an audible ruckus in hard vacuum. But there is a definite point, here. There are certain candidates who can take advantage of having existing breathing room on things. Scott Walker is merely the most obvious example, but honestly: if, say, Ted Cruz takes a less conservative position than expected on (to pick something at random) increased wind energy subsidies it’s not going to have the same immediate effect on a Republican base voter than would Jeb Bush doing the same thing. It’s not that our base voters have a problem with triangulation, per se: it’s that they’re not always convinced that our politicians are starting from the same place when they start triangulating.
And that’s pretty much how it goes; You get the street credit first, then you spend it to get the rest of the electorate on-board. Not the other way around. It astounds me that this still needs to be said.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: It should be noted, by the way, that Jeb Bush would happen to be a far better establishment Republican stalking horse in 2016 than was either John McCain or Mitt Romney. And I mean ‘better’ in the sense of ‘the country could do worse.’ Not that the New York Times wanted to admit that the Republican base has already usefully changed the basic parameters of the upcoming GOP Presidential primary fight…
Jeb’s positions on a few issues are aggravating to be sure, but the truly damning thing about him as a potential candidate is how frigging amateurish he’s coming off here. Asking McCain on how to snow the base? In the friggin open? Trying to run a general election campaign BEFORE the primaries? If I’m to be taken in by a politician, I at the very least demand it be by a SKILLED politician. This is mickey mouse crap.
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Jeb was a fine Gov of Florida. He’s better than this, or at least he used to be. Someone must giving him bad advice or he’s stopped listening to people who were giving him good advice.
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Sad. Just sad.
he may have just lost his touch. it does happen. whatever, he’ll get bounced before you can say Gary Hart. which is not to say he’s useless… maybe Commerce or ambassador to Mexico…
Won’t surprise me at all – as I said before, to some here complaining, Walker’s not a conservative, so not running as one is him reverting to form.
The only question is whether or not he’ll feel the need to actually act like a conservative in the primaries. It’s actually kind of refreshing that Jeb doesn’t want to – of course the net effect of that will be a President Warren if he gets the nomination but part of me thinks that the Republican establishment doesn’t actually _want_ to control Congress and the White House at the same time.
Warren only looks good as a candidate because the alternative is Hillary Clinton and/or Joe Biden. Fortunately, the GOP *is* good at destroying MA liberals who run for President.
I am aware you have made this assertion, but am struggling to remember exactly which point of conservative orthodoxy you believe Walker violates.
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I also have very little interest in “purity” ritual contests – we aren’t choosing a pope or something, any president who can get elected will have warts. The goal, the point the Iowa and South Carolina purity squads routinely miss, is not to pick a president, it’s to pick a candidate.
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Vote for the most conservative primary candidate who can win in the general, I believe, is the classical reference…
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Mew