Super-duper Tuesday: Are conservative ideas waning in the GOP?

The Associated Press

Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan, but some conservatives think he's OK.

Featured Topic | Posted 23 weeks 5 days ago

Super-duper Tuesday: Are conservative ideas waning in the GOP?

Republicans in 22 states face a great dilemma as they go to the polls Tuesday: Who is the better conservative? Four candidates are working hard to make the case to be the GOP standard-bearer. But it's turning out to be a tougher sell than any of them imagined.

But the real fight is between John McCain and Mitt Romney, who are battling for Ronald Reagan's mantle. Neither man comes close to the ideal, which leaves many conservatives -- including several prominent right-wing talk show hosts and pundits -- wondering what the future holds for their ideas.

Is conservatism fading from the party of Lincoln and Reagan? Is the Republican party moderating or abandoning the principles that made it a success?

Ben likes: The sun'll not come out tomorrow

Mark Steyn/National Review Online

If this is, as many argue, a "long war", then in a two-party system, don't the Democrats at some point have to take joint ownership of it?Parties don't wage wars, nations do. One could make the case that the war, rather than being the sole overwhelming reason for electing McCain, is actually a compelling reason, given their convergence on domestic issues, why you might as well stick Hillary in there. I don't think Mrs. Clinton will be so eager to lose the thing once it's on her watch.

Anyway, just a glum thought. I'm now going to sleep in hopes that, when I wake up, it will all be a bad dream and Calvin Coolidge will be ahead in the primaries.

Joel likes: The McCain divide

E.J. Dionne/The Washington Post

If John McCain secures the Republican presidential nomination, his victory would signal a revolution in American politics—a divorce, after a 28-year marriage, between the Republican and conservative establishments.

McCain would be the first Republican nominee since Gerald Ford in 1976 to win despite opposition from organized conservatism, and also the first whose base in Republican primaries rested on the party’s center and its dwindling left. McCain is winning despite conservatives, not because of them.