Conrad Black at the National Revue Online delivers a lengthy overview of the current state of the GOP race in a style reminiscent of George Will in his Reagan years heyday. I especially like his Warren G. Harding like byline photo-it challenges one to a game of “stare down.” These sort of people hold no fears for me and face to face, if they are not taken seriously, it is an easy matter to look them squarely in the eye.


Verging on the pompous and aristocratic (Hegel, Goethe, Madison make an appearance) he attributes to the GOP voters some blind watchman’s method of selecting the non-Romney’s. They, the hoi polloi have, through the mechanism of Hegalian dialectics chosen the one candidate, Gingrich, who has been, to Black’s admitted surprise, he is human after all, the only one who can stay the course.


The course does not run, it appears all the way to the nomination, sadly for Gingrich and his supporters, rather it blocks Romney receiving it advises Black. Gingrich is the one, chosen by pure dumb luck it appears, whose “scandals” are so pervasive and well known that he is immured against the sort of attacks, that have so effective against all the previous “non-Romney’s” by the leftist media , the Obama team, and the GOP adversaries. Thus his ill fated, but useful saga, can run all the way to the convention.


Black sets out that the convention will thus be deadlocked and will then turn to “the surprise that Newt has set up” in a quick and apparently merciful draft.The chosen one, according to Black will “probably be Jeb Bush.”


How the rank and file, who are apparently more conservative than in any year since the Goldwater run, will accept Bush is not mentioned. How the GOP would imagine the country is ready for another Bush-even “the clever one” is also not addressed.


The, to me, only interesting aspect of Black’s overview of the bleeding obvious, is his comment that, perhaps, a woman is in the offing as the eventual candidate.“Out of this astonishing showdown of able non-presidents, either a mid-primary inspiration or a convention-eve groundswell will identify the right candidate. The office is seeking the man, or woman, but so far without success; so the search will continue.”

This possibility, a woman being drafted, would eventuate from a very narrow field indeed. Condoleezza Rice is the only Republican woman with the experience and profile that I can think of, apart from one other, who might be the chosen one. 


I have written some time ago (Palin/Condolleeza a Ticket For The Ages) that Rice  would be an ideal VP candidate-a concept that has more recently been taken up by “Smitty” at the influential “The Other McCain” site. “The Washington Times”  also floated the concept in a major profile. A Rice vice-presidential candidacy has many positives as we all set out. However it is a stretch to imagine she would be drafted for president.


Clearly there is only one woman who fits the Conrad Black prescription and that is, of course, Sarah Palin. the fact is that she has not endorsed any of the current candidates, nor has she entirely ruled out being a candidate (“it would take an earthquake” is not “no”). 


It may be that, as I wrote recently, Palin will turn out to be a genius for having avoided this embarrassing GOP candidates circus.


AT THIS LINK is a full analysis of how a brokered convention might come into being


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