Politics

William Jacobson says that Mitt Romney's "carpet-bombing" of Newt Gingrich has created apathy in the conservative ranks. I can't speak for others, but it has caused me to withhold support from Romney. Not that my support is important, in the scheme of things (the Republican candidate will win Texas hands down), but there may be others like me around the country, and the cumulative effect of such apathy may be to hand victory to Barack Obama. Was it necessarily so? No. Had Romney run an honorable campaign against Gingrich and beaten him fair and square, I could have supported him, despite his many substantive defects. (Romney is not a conservative, though he's more conservative than Obama.) I cannot tolerate thuggish behavior—either by the candidate himself or by his supporters.