http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1325
by Daniel Larison
There is a developing conventional wisdom that Mitt Romney primarily appeals to and represents “economic conservatives” within the Republican coalition, a view that has not been shaken very much by the candidate’s interventionist promises to quintuple government spending on technology research to benefit Michigan’s battered auto industry.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2975 backers seem to be unfazed by this, just as his record of signing universal, government-mandated health care into law did not deter them from labeling him sound on economic and fiscal policy, but among those not already declared for the former governor, Romney’s latest round of telling his audience whatever they wanted to hear has gone over very badly.
Romney must be one of the first Republican candidates ever to be likened to a Soviet premier on account of his economic proposals. The phrase “economic conservative” obscures the reality that it is corporate Republican interests that Romney serves, and it is these Republicans and those sympathetic to them who are rallying around Romney. Without the ability to play on local patriotism and nostalgia for his father, as he did in Michigan, it is not surprising that Romney’s pitch to South Carolina, which has also been affected substantially by the loss of local industry, has so far failed to improve his standing there.Now faced with the embarrassing possibility of finishing behind Fred Thompson on Saturday, Romney has opted to focus most of his energies on the Nevada caucus held on the same day. A decision that appears to have paid off.
http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/romneys_globalist_protectionism