The GOP presidential sweepstakes this past week has been an ongoing tale of ups and downs. \u00a0But the most interesting campaign story I heard in the past seven days received only footnote level notice when it broke \u2013 and that was three months ago and overseas.<\/p>\n
This week all the top-level talk has been about Rick Perry\u2019s terrible debate performance on Thursday, Herman Cain\u2019s surprise win of the Florida straw poll on Saturday, and rising talk of New Jersey governor Chris Christie entering the field. The upshot is some movement in the march to November 2012, but not much.<\/p>\n
After all, while Perry has been hurt by a series of deteriorating debate performances, he can still recover. \u00a0He was right when he said after Thursday that debates aren\u2019t the only factor in picking a president. \u00a0Records matter, and Texas\u2019 job creation tally during his gubernatorial tenure has been superb. \u00a0So do positions laid down in speeches and policy papers. \u00a0Still, one of the essential skills needed in the presidency is the ability to effectively advocate your positions in the daily back and forth of Washington and media interchange. \u00a0Many feel that the George W. Bush presidency was deeply diminished in consequence of the president\u2019s own shortcoming in this arena.<\/p>\n
Herman Cain\u2019s Florida victory would have been a bigger deal if he were. \u00a0Combined with his outstanding business success, Cain\u2019s incredibly able debate and stump performances are marking him as a rising GOP star. \u00a0It is hard to believe he has never run for any office before, much less the Oval Office. Next stop will surely be a gubernatorial or senate seat. \u00a0But other than generals and cabinet members (in the past century Eisenhower, Taft, and Hoover), the United States has never elected a president who had no prior electoral experience. \u00a0And it has been more than a century since that experience was anything other than as a vice president, governor, or senator. \u00a0If anything, the Florida results show that party activists remain unconvinced by the field. \u00a0Which is why we keep hearing talk of Christie. \u00a0But it\u2019s not the only reason.<\/p>\n
Rumors are circulating in Washington that Christie operatives have been approaching political consultants about joining a campaign, if there is one. Meanwhile, for a guy who isn\u2019t running, Christie\u2019s speaking schedule is remarkably full. \u00a0He seems to be visiting all the right places at all the right times. \u00a0Top pros tell me that, primary filing deadlines being what they are, if the fat man wants to sing, he needs to join the chorus by the end of October. \u00a0But others tell me that there is more moveability in the sign-up sign-off date than is commonly supposed. \u00a0It turns out to be very difficult to determine who\u2019s right. \u00a0I\u2019ve tried, and so far I can\u2019t. \u00a0But on Saturday Night Live<\/em> this week, the presidential debate skit ended with the Chris Wallace character saying something on the order of, \u201cThere is plenty of time for other candidates to get in the race\u2026 Chris Christie.\u201d \u00a0The rumors continue.<\/p>\n For me, as revealing as any of these developments was something I heard on a trip to London this weekend. \u00a0I was there for a long-standing friend\u2019s birthday party. \u00a0But I made a point of touching base with a few others who keep their fingers on the pulse of the British scene.<\/p>\n I was told that Mitt Romney had blown through town in June. \u00a0The former Massachusetts governor\u2019s campaign placed a brief report of this trip on their website after a few media outlets got wind of it. \u00a0The minor news stories that resulted (none running beyond a paragraph or two) focused as much as anything on the candidate\u2019s fundraising among Republicans Abroad. \u00a0Republicans Abroad is an organization of GOP expatriates. \u00a0Its London chapter is particularly active.<\/p>\n But besides fundraising chores, Romney scheduled meetings and a reception with leading British political figures, including Prime Minister David Cameron, Defense Secretary Liam Fox, National Security Adviser Peter Ricketts, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair. \u00a0Reports I heard in London were that he made a very good impression.<\/p>\n Here is what impressed me. \u00a0The GOP primary campaign has been focusing overwhelmingly on domestic issues. \u00a0To the extent that foreign policy has been in play, debate has been on a broad strategic level and focused on the manifest failure of the current crew. \u00a0But running an effective foreign policy requires not so much making big speeches in foreign capitals, which was Mr. Obama\u2019s principal pre-election activity overseas. \u00a0It requires working effectively with leaders of other governments, particularly our allies, and particularly for all sorts of reasons the British.<\/p>\n To me, Romney\u2019s trip and the reports I received in London marked him as an adult in this arena. No fanfare. \u00a0No grandstanding. \u00a0He quietly laid the groundwork for a productive relationship with our most critical ally, should he win the presidency. \u00a0I am not signed up with any campaign. \u00a0But to me the readout on Romney\u2019s trip was the week\u2019s most impressive news about the GOP race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The GOP presidential sweepstakes this past week has been an ongoing tale of ups and downs. \u00a0But the most interesting campaign story I heard in the past seven days received only footnote level notice when it broke \u2013 and that was three months ago and overseas. This week all the top-level talk has been about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politicalcommentary-campaign-2012","tag-hugh-hewitt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}