I wouldn't have thought a diary like this one would be needed today. The idea of Progressives getting down and dirty by waging "Operation Hilarity," got such a thorough smack-down here yesterday that I figured it'd be gone today.
Alas, no.
Instead, Fearless Leader chose to double-down on this awful idea with his diary, "The Longer the GOP Nomination Battle [goes on], the Bigger We Win."
The diaries opposing this knuckle-headed idea have been numerous, well-visited, and have produced a plethora of good and wise opposing arguments. One contained a poll where only 15% of us said yes, they would vote for Santorum, with the vast majority saying Hell NO!
Another diarist wrote how the rejection of this idea has united this community like nothing else we've seen for some time. I believe he's right there, that such unity hasn't been seen since the glory days of the Obama/Biden vs. McMansions/Grizzly Momma campaign back in '08.
But the comment which hit me as being the best as to why this idea really, really sucks was this one by fladem:
This still an awful idea. The irony is they didn't even get it right.
If you want to extend the primaries (and so extend the fight) you vote for Romney right now, who is on the ropes.
Yes, exactly. Because beyond this being a sleazy tactic right out of the Rush Limbaugh playbook, it isn't even a good idea politically speaking.
Mittens ROMoNEY is the guy circling the bowl right now. The conservatives have always disliked him, but if he loses in the state where he was born and raised, particularly if it's a convincing win for Santorum, he may well be in a position where he cannot recover. The race will not drag on then as the Right-wing would galvanize around Santorum, and because no-one was ever really enthusiastic about Romney, the party establishment will get behind the Santorum surge too (forgive me), and dress him up to look more presentable. I'm not saying he'd win, but do we really want to take that chance? And how very, very foolish would we feel if we helped make that happen?
On the other hand, if Mittens pulls this one out with his usual barrage of negativity, he's back in the hunt, albeit weakened, with two angry, rabid Conservatives, and their equally-rabid minions throwing everything they've got at him.
The extremists will never get behind Romney, at least not with any degree of enthusiasm because they can't stand him, and because of his tactics in beating their boys. Romney will have demoralized the base, turned off Independents with his flip-flopping (and his flop-flipping), and pumped up
our base big-time, because let's face it, this guy is the poster boy for the (.000)1 percent! And he's one of the very worst, most unnatural, stiffest, clueless candidates ever.
Now, it may be Conventional Wisdom that Santorum is a worse candidate because of his extremist positions (and because he's an incredible doofus). But I'll tell you what, my gut tells me otherwise. Not that he's a good candidate, I'm not saying that at all, but I've seen strange things happen in this Nation's electoral process (BushCo.) which we're still paying for, and I don't want to open that door of that possibility, not even a little.
Now, I join with those too whose main objection to this hair-brained scheme is that it's just flat-out wrong, and that we are better than that. And that sleaze just begets more sleaze. I'd say don't do it on those grounds alone, but my main point is that it just isn't smart.
Let's put our faith in our wrong-headed Republican friends to arrive at their worst possible candidate. I'm pretty sure they can do it. And let's put our energies and resources in a more positive direction.
Oh, and Markos, put your faith in your peeps here, we got this one right. You can tell by the almost unheard of near-unanimity we've got going on this one.
We still love you, remembering so many fine moments you've had (my favorite was making Tom Tancredo cry), and looking forward to the many, many flashes of brilliance to come.
But for now, you're going to have to check your ego at the door on this one, and please for the love of God, (or the non-believer's equivalence) give this turkey up.