GOP: State of the Race

Romney is getting attacked in Iowa by Huckabee, and McCain in New Hampshire. WaPo on McCain vs. Romney: The Sequel. Consider the WaPo is MSM, and McCain looks to be their media darling again (while largely giving Huckabee for Hire a pass).

McCain's conservative positions are as much a product of coming from a conservative state as Romney's moderate positions were a product of running as a Republican for governor in a liberal state.

They are both leaders, but McCain's a maverick, Romney's a manager. Other than national security and pork-busting McCain has no consistent philosophy but service to country. On most issues he has the mindset of the Left--balancing the budget rather than cutting taxes, government regulation and caps on campaign donations rather than free speech and transparency, global warming mandates. Romney has lived his life as a conservative, demonstrated decisive success in the private sector, turned around the Olympics, and when he governed, sought solutions and consensus based on a free-market model.

Powerline on Romney's Point, that McCain has flunked Reagan 101:

Both responses by McCain have this in common -- they fail entirely to address the substance of Romney's criticism. The reason, of course, is that McCain has no good response. He did oppose tax cuts, support for which does lie at the essence of Reagan conservatism. Similarly, he did support comprehensive immigration reform and his line on that support now is a grudging acknowledgement that the American people (though not necessarily McCain) want border security first.

Given the choice, I'm for Romney every time.

UPDATE: Latest polls here and here.

UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt on the implications of the Pakistan assassination. And Huckabee flubs a Pakistan question.

UPDATE: And when it came to the crunch on a pro-life issue in Massachusetts, as far as actual governance, Romney supported life. AP:

And for those who accuse him of being a flip-flopper, especially for a 180-degree turn on abortion rights, he has crafted a new response.

"If you look at my record as governor, you can see that my positions are the positions that I carried as governor. There's no change. If you want to know what I'd do as president, you can see what I did as governor," he said Wednesday.

Are voters listening?

"There's a tendency in the close for people to say, 'Let's take one more look here. We're electing a president, so let's take one more look,'" said Ron Kaufman, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign.

UPDATE: Marc Ambinder: Don't count Romney out--his support hasn't bottomed out yet.

Related posts: Mitt: Searched, Romney Front and Center, Huckabee Poll Heads South, The Abysmal Huckabee