By endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, the New Hampshire Union Leader opted to reject local front-runner Mitt Romney in favor of the latest ? and maybe last ? anti-Romney conservative.
Just as striking is how firmly the paper rejected Romney?s framing of the Republican primary and the 2012 general election.
Continue ReadingIn his front-page editorial Sunday, publisher Joe McQuaid did not mention the words ?jobs,? ?economy,? ?employment? or ?growth? ? the core vocabulary of Romney?s campaign. Instead, he focused on the more subjective qualities of leadership and character, explaining that the Union Leader wanted a candidate with ?courage and conviction? who is ?independent-minded [and] grounded in their core beliefs.?
Drew Cline, the Union Leader?s editorial page editor, expanded on that point in a CNN appearance, dismissing Romney as a ?play-it-safe? candidate? more suited for the presidency in the ?late 19th century.? What the country needs now, Cline said, is a ?candidate [who] is bold in his leadership ? [who] has a vision for where he wants to take us as a country and knows how to get there.?
Romney has sought the GOP nomination with the basic assumption that both Republican primary voters and the country in general will end up rallying behind the candidate who is most credible on the issue of job creation. If Romney is right, Newt Gingrich should not be a particularly frightening opponent: Gingrich can?t match Romney for private-sector experience, and he has only an attenuated claim to creating jobs as speaker of the House. When it comes to jobs and the economy, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and maybe even Herman Cain all have a better and more straightforward story to tell than Gingrich.
But that?s not the rubric the Union Leader used for its endorsement. To the extent that the paper is in touch with the spirit of the GOP primary electorate, its focus on abstract personal qualities over tangible economic accomplishments could be a worrisome sign for Romney.
In fairness to Romney, it remains to be seen just how in touch with GOP primary voters the Union Leader is. The paper has only endorsed two candidates ? Ronald Reagan and John McCain ? who went on to win the Republican presidential nomination. Skeptics of the value of the Gingrich endorsement have already pointed out that the Union Leader also endorsed Pete DuPont in 1988 and Steve Forbes in 2000, a jab Cline pushed back on via Twitter.
What?s more, much as Gingrich doesn?t have much of a jobs record to run on, he?s also an imperfect messenger when it comes to character. Republican primary voters may see him differently as a potential president the more they hear about his personal life and his web of Washington business interests. But for now, as long as Gingrich can set up the primary race as a choice of strength versus weakness, boldness versus timidity, confrontation versus compromise, that will play to his advantage far more than Romney?s.
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