NY State Republican Party Can't Come Up With the Goods
Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:48 pm
The Ringer Comes in Second
The danger signals for Bill Weld have been building for a while. The former Massachusetts governor always faced a certain parochial resistance to the idea of his running for governor in another state -- New York. Then Governor George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani, the two major figures who had encouraged him to enter the race for the GOP nomination, declined to formally endorse him. That was followed by the Conservative Party endorsing his opponent, former Assemblyman John Faso, depriving Mr. Weld of a key ballot line in November. Yesterday, the roof fell in when Mr. Weld mustered only 39% of the GOP convention delegates against Mr. Faso. Mr. Weld has vowed to take the final decision to the voters in a September primary, but it's clear the more conservative Mr. Faso is the frontrunner now.
The key to the Weld belly flop was that the Brahmin investment banker simply didn't go over well with the practical, grass-roots members of the GOP. Michael Crowley writes in the New Republic that when he was a reporter in Boston, "Weld was widely seen as a political dilettante, someone reluctant to 'get his hands dirty' in the world of retail backslapping politics. His real gifts were for political theater -- the clever quip and an amusing self-assuredness especially popular among reporters (who like John McCain partly for the same reason)."
Political reporters such as Mr. Crowley are wistfully talking about what might have been. Imagine if Mr. Weld had decided to run against Hillary Clinton this year. His odds of winning would have been slight, but against Democratic powerhouse Eliot Spitzer for governor they wouldn't have been much better. And Mr. Weld would have endeared himself to the Republican Party by providing a challenge that could have softened Ms. Clinton up for 2008. "One can imagine him slicing up the wooden Clinton in debates with his wicked wit. The press would also have taken seriously his more substantive critiques of Clinton," notes Mr. Crowley.
Instead, the GOP faces a dreary choice in its Senate primary -- a haughty foreign-policy wonk named Katherine "K.T." McFarland or a former mayor of Yonkers with a checkered past named John Spencer. In both of her races for public office, Mrs. Clinton has lucked out by drawing sub-par opponents. She must realize that in 2008, when she almost certainly will run for the White House, the honeymoon will finally be over.
-- John Fund
The danger signals for Bill Weld have been building for a while. The former Massachusetts governor always faced a certain parochial resistance to the idea of his running for governor in another state -- New York. Then Governor George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani, the two major figures who had encouraged him to enter the race for the GOP nomination, declined to formally endorse him. That was followed by the Conservative Party endorsing his opponent, former Assemblyman John Faso, depriving Mr. Weld of a key ballot line in November. Yesterday, the roof fell in when Mr. Weld mustered only 39% of the GOP convention delegates against Mr. Faso. Mr. Weld has vowed to take the final decision to the voters in a September primary, but it's clear the more conservative Mr. Faso is the frontrunner now.
The key to the Weld belly flop was that the Brahmin investment banker simply didn't go over well with the practical, grass-roots members of the GOP. Michael Crowley writes in the New Republic that when he was a reporter in Boston, "Weld was widely seen as a political dilettante, someone reluctant to 'get his hands dirty' in the world of retail backslapping politics. His real gifts were for political theater -- the clever quip and an amusing self-assuredness especially popular among reporters (who like John McCain partly for the same reason)."
Political reporters such as Mr. Crowley are wistfully talking about what might have been. Imagine if Mr. Weld had decided to run against Hillary Clinton this year. His odds of winning would have been slight, but against Democratic powerhouse Eliot Spitzer for governor they wouldn't have been much better. And Mr. Weld would have endeared himself to the Republican Party by providing a challenge that could have softened Ms. Clinton up for 2008. "One can imagine him slicing up the wooden Clinton in debates with his wicked wit. The press would also have taken seriously his more substantive critiques of Clinton," notes Mr. Crowley.
Instead, the GOP faces a dreary choice in its Senate primary -- a haughty foreign-policy wonk named Katherine "K.T." McFarland or a former mayor of Yonkers with a checkered past named John Spencer. In both of her races for public office, Mrs. Clinton has lucked out by drawing sub-par opponents. She must realize that in 2008, when she almost certainly will run for the White House, the honeymoon will finally be over.
-- John Fund
