I know, I know; a lot of people are bummed that Santorum dropped out of the presidential race. Newt's still chugging away, but mathematically there's not much hope for Newt. What the upcoming primary voters in states yet to hold a primary actually do is looking less and less important to the eventual outcome.
However, that doesn't mean that people should drop their favorite candidate in the primary and just vote for Romney. Protest votes and sending a message are fine strategies, and I applaud and encourage them, and will engage in them when Texas votes.
But eventually, we'll get to the place where Romney has accumulated enough delegates to be the Republican nominee. That's a prospect that fills few reform Republicans and conservatives with glee. So then what?
Jimmie Bise Jr. has an answer. Go to the site for his radio show "The Delivery" and download the podcast from April 4th. Listen to the whole hour. Jimmie rants about the Romney candidacy, and does it in a way that I find quite eloquent. But Jimmie doesn't just rant. Jimmie proposes a Grand Bargain.
I couldn't say it as well as he does:
"I've reached a compromise in my head with the Republican Party...
"I am going to extend some credit to the Republican party. I am going to vote for Mitt Romney. I am going to do my very best, consistent with my ability to keep my own intellectual integrity intact. I am going to recommend to my friends that they vote for Mitt Romney... I want Mitt Romney to beat Barack Obama. I will do whatever I have to do to drag this dead horse over the finish line.
"That's what I'm going to give the Republican party... Republicans, that what you get from me. I don't want to do this, I don't like doing this, but I will do it. I'll do it because, quite honestly, you have me behind the eight ball.
"But know this, Republican Party; after November, I am no longer behind the eight ball. And I don't have to do anything else for you at all...
"So here's where the compromise comes in... I'll drag his bloated ideological corpse where it has to be...
but I want something in return... You have dragooned me into doing something for you....
"I'm telling you, you're not going to have me locked to this oar forever... after November, you start paying me back...
"I will not do this again.
"No more, Republicans, I'm done with this. WE are done with this. All those tea party people that right now you think you have under your thumb, they're there till November."
Hear the rest at The Delivery, and tell me what you think. I think I could live with this, the way Jimmie puts it.
