Time: Romney's "disappointing" campaign

Time’s Joe Klein writes today about how “disappointing” Romney’s campaign is.

But there isn't the slightest hint of courage or conviction in his stump act. It's a candidacy for the era before 2001, before things got serious. And his success or failure will be a reflection of how serious the electorate is in 2008.

Apparently Klein admits the unseriousness (if that’s a word) of a particular presidential era prior to 2001. Now, however, we need a “serious” candidate – someone dark, brooding, and most of all angry. This isn’t the time for someone with optimism and a sense of humor. We need someone who will agitate and irritate, yell and scream, and generally follow the Al Sharpton/Howard Dean school of politics. No, Klein, I think the American people have rejected that type of candidate again and again – even in the Democratic party.

But what about Romney’s courage and conviction? It’s certainly a hard thing to quantify and is a qualitative assessment. So, I would ask, what do the people who are seeing him think? About the only indicators I know of are polls and endorsements. As people have become acquainted with Romney his poll numbers have increased. Romney also is not lacking for endorsements (although always willing to accept more). So what is it that Klein sees that so many others do not? He faults Romney for being too light on substance and heavy on style, making a jab at Romney audiences: “And because he doesn't dwell on [policy], his audiences don't.” But it’s hard to see how that is so when Romney has been so forthcoming on policy proposals (the most recent found here on MMM). Such criticism is not founded on fact, but on fantasy.

"I know more about this stuff than anybody in this room!"

The NY Post has the details on McCain's angry, profanity-laced tirade at fellow Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas over the immigration bill.

Romney eclipsing Rudy...

...that's what the Virginia Federalist says.

Wondering...

...how Erick Ericson feels about his McCain endorsement after the latest immigration bill?

Redstate Editor Rescinds Support For Romney

With law school wrapping up and the bar on the horizon, I haven't been posting much these past couple of months (no one else seems to have been either). Whenever I come across something that catches my eye, I have to fight a hankering to post on it to avoid getting sucked back in (e.g., the entire Romney-Sharpton episode this past week).

I feel like this development is pretty noteworthy though. Erick Erickson, the Editor of Redstate and former Romney supporter, has jumped ship for McCain. Any thoughts about the implication of this? Is this news, along with Time's new cover, just a bump in the road or is it signaling more troublesome problems with the perception of Mitt among the public and news media? By all accounts, he had a strong performance at the debate (outside repeating his response twice verbatim to the follow question about his shift on abortion, I think his performance was near flawless), but he still seems dogged by questions of authenticity. Will he battle this his entire campaign?

New Time Cover

Romney and L. Ron Hubbard

This from the Caucus:
"When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. That book was turned into a film by John Travolta, a Scientologist. A spokesman said later it was one of Mr. Romney’s favorite novels. “I’m not in favor of his religion by any means,” Mr. Romney, a Mormon, said. “But he wrote a book called ‘Battlefield Earth’ that was a very fun science-fiction book.” Asked about his favorite book, Mr. Romney cited the Bible."