Today’s Los Angeles Times has an article arguing that the indecisiveness in the Republican race for President is really a signal that the party’s coalition is breaking up:
DES MOINES — The long-standing coalition of social, economic and national security conservatives that elevated the Republican Party to political dominance has become so splintered by the presidential primary campaign that some party leaders fear a protracted nomination fight that could hobble the eventual nominee.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney aspires to build a conservative coalition in the mold of Ronald Reagan, but his past support of abortion rights gives many social conservatives pause. Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, is a purist on social issues but has angered economic conservatives because he raised taxes while he was governor of Arkansas.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona have tough-guy images and hawkish records, but many Republicans are wary of them because of their immigration and other policies.
And even when the party does choose a nominee, he could find himself hobbled by the aftermath of what is shaping up to be a brutal nomination fight:
[T]he 2008 nominee may face a stiff challenge in bridging the fault lines that the fractured Republican field have exposed. For many GOP voters, some of the candidates are simply unacceptable.
The recent Times/Bloomberg poll in Iowa found that 38% of the Republicans who had chosen a candidate to back said they had no second choice. And though 61% of Iowa Democrats surveyed said they could support any of their party’s nominees, 42% of Republicans expressed that view about their choices.
Democrats will unite around Hillary Clinton, or whoever that nominee might be, because they want to win in 2008. Republicans, though, seem to be searching for the perfect candidate and unwilling to consider anyone who doesn’t meet their criteria. The first attitude is usually the one that leads to winning coalitions.
