Des Moines Register’s GOP Caucus Endorsement Is Mitt Romney

Pushback against the Tea Party with a strong endorsement of an establishment candidate will send reverberations across Iowa, and the nation.  As the Des Moines Register points out Mitt Romney wants answers, but is not interested in taking a wrecking ball to Washington.  This will sting for conservatives.  There was never any way for one of their kind to get the party nomination.  Especially not with the group of candidates that piled out of the clown car debate after debate all over the nation.    They were just not serious candidates.

In the endorsement the following line jumped out at me and must burn those who want nothing more than red-meat confrontation.

This ability to see the merits of tough issues from something other than a knee-jerk, ideological perspective suggests that Mitt Romney would be willing to bridge the political divide in Washington.

The question that needs to be answered is how soon, and how fast will conservatives start to fall in line behind Romney?  Romney, after all, will be the nomine.

In part the endorsement states the following.

Sobriety, wisdom and judgment.

Those are qualities Mitt Romney said he looks for in a leader. Those are qualities Romney himself has demonstrated in his career in business, public service and government. Those qualities help the former Massachusetts governor stand out as the most qualified Republican candidate competing in the Iowa caucuses.

Sobriety: While other candidates have pandered to extremes with attacks on the courts and sermons on Christian values, Romney has pointedly refrained from reckless rhetoric and moralizing. He may be accused of being too cautious, but choosing words carefully is a skill essential for anyone who could be sitting in the White House and reacting to world events.

Wisdom: Romney obviously is very smart. He graduated as valedictorian at Brigham Young University and finished in the top 5 percent in his MBA class at Harvard, where he also earned a law degree. Romney also exhibits the wisdom of a man who listened and learned from his father and his mother, from his church and from his own trials and errors in life. He does not lack self confidence, but he is not afraid to admit when he has been wrong.

Judgment: Romney disagrees with Democrats on most issues, but he offers smart and well-reasoned alternatives rather than simply proposing to swing a wrecking ball in Washington. He is a serious student of public policy who examines the data before making a decision. His detailed policy paper on the economy contains 87 pages of carefully crafted positions on taxes, energy, trade and regulatory policy, complete with 127 footnotes.