Newt Gingrich, as I noted after he won South Carolina, is an incredibly flawed figure to claim the “conservative outsider” title. But he has something going for him. Despite the fact that he has had many deviations from conservatism, from backing a federal individual mandate to being paid by drug companies as he pushed the Medicare prescription drug law, many conservatives remember him as the guy who was sticking it to President Clinton in the 1990s.
No doubt, as Stephen Slivinski has documented, even then Gingrich was an obstacle for limited government conservatives. But still, what remains for many people is the memory of Gingrich promoting the “Contract with America,” leading the first GOP takeover of Congress in 40 years and helping to pass welfare reform and balanced budgets.
The problem that Mitt Romney has is not only that he’s taken liberal positions in the past, but that he doesn’t have an argument for what he’s done to advance conservatism. This problem really struck when I watched New Jersey Chris Christie on “Meet the Press” yesterday. The following exchange ensued between him and host David Gregory:
GOV. CHRISTIE: Well, listen, this is a guy who has shown that the American free enterprise system can work and can work to create jobs across America. You look at places like Staples and Sports Authority, everybody who goes to work at those places today has Mitt Romney to thank for it. And he’s going to know how to do that as president, to get government out of the way, to be able to let the private sector create those jobs that we so desperately need and haven’t had in the Obama administration. That’s his greatest contribution to the conservative movement, to show that the American free enterprise system, which is under attack by the Obama administration, does work for people–for real people, middle class people. Because let me tell you, the people going to work at Sports Authority and Staples today, David, those aren’t the elite. Those are middle class Americans who are using those jobs to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads and send their kids to college. Let the president attack that.
But that’s a total non sequitur. Warren Buffett no doubt has proved that the free enterprise system can work, and he’s invested in tons of companies that have gone on to create jobs. Yet nobody would confuse that with doing something for the “conservative cause.”
Defenders would argue that Romney was severely constrained by the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature in Massachusetts. But regardless of the circumstances, there’s a simple political reality. When Gingrich gets attacked for not being conservative enough, he can also point to examples that people remember to deflect the charges. Romney can’t.
