Two governors and one former governor after the hearts of
American conservatives were on the same stage Saturday when Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker joined the Romney campaign and Gov. Bob McDonnell at a campaign
event in Loudoun County, the Leesburg Victory Event.[1]
It’s no coincidence that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is
campaigning alongside the so-called conservative hero, Scott Walker, and
another favorite among conservatives, Bob McDonnell. The Romney campaign is
attempting to use the conservative credentials of McDonnell and Walker to
bolster Romney’s own conservative luster in the eyes of the GOP base.[2]
Romney will no doubt have difficulty convincing the
conservative base of the GOP that he is “their guy.” As governor of
Massachusetts, for example, Romney supported and enacted a number of
conservative no-no’s that have made conservatives across the country somewhat
wary of his true conservative leanings.[3]
For Gov. McDonnell, the opportunity to campaign with
Governor Walker and Mitt Romney take on at least two important political
consequences. First, appearing with the Republican Party’s unequivocal prince,
McDonnell boosts his own conservative credentials, credentials which he may
need if he plans on running for higher political office. Secondly, campaigning
with Mitt Romney reconfirms McDonnell’s status as a key figure in the
Republican Party establishment, a piece of the Republican puzzle that every serious
GOP presidential candidate needs on their side.
Ironically, though, for all of McDonnell’s pretensions to be
a conservative kingpin for the Republican Party, there are also some
conservatives who are less than warm to McDonnell’s image as a conservative.[4]
For one thing, McDonnell doesn’t possess the all-or-nothing attitude of the new
wave of conservative legislators that have become in-vogue across a number of
regions in the U.S.; another big conservative no-no (i.e. compromise).
Secondly, McDonnell believes that invading the personal
spaces of Virginians with aerial drones and vaginal intrusions is good policy.
I don’t believe many conservatives in the US would agree.
Nonetheless, if Romney can convince a majority of Americans
that he is a “real” conservative, then he will have pulled off a fantastic
deceit that Karl Rove would even have to tip his hat to. Romney is like water,
he goes anywhere the environment dictates, hardly the quality conservative
Americans seek in their president.
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