We're Excited About Romney...No, Really

“I’m not as excited as I am desperate,” Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told The Huffington Post. After a divisive primary campaign season, Republican leaders seem tepid about their presumed nominee, Mitt Romney. Romney struggled throughout the primary season to galvanize conservative voters, even going so far as to abandon his more moderate Republican base. It was only after every other Republican candidate had a taste of the frontrunner status that Romney eventually secured his position as nominee-in-waiting. Still, many GOP leaders are trying to put on a happy face in gearing up for the general election.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), for instance, told POLITICO that, “our conference is excited about coalescing behind Mitt Romney.” Not rallying, not supporting, not fighting for Romney; “coalescing behind him”. A foggy mirror comes to mind. Still, Cantor defended the idea that Republicans remain soft on support for Romney by calling it, what else, a liberal media tactic. "I just don't think that's true, he retorted, adding that the press is, “selecting the ones who may want to give you ... that narrative you want to portray." That narrative is the supposedly untrue one in which Republicans actually cycled through every other frontrunner before finally “coalescing behind” Romney.

Although the Republican leadership seems to, grudgingly or otherwise, endorse Romney as their candidate, are Republican voters going to be as willing to “take one for the party?” Romney still has major conservative weaknesses where Obama’s healthcare and more moderate voting record is concerned. With moderates he’s likewise suffered some real setbacks, where he disenfranchised his moderate conservative base by pandering to the popular Tea Party/Libertarian talking points of the primary campaign. Likely he’ll either backwalk some of those comments as Obama lays them out, or more in keeping with his “etch-a-sketch” comment, he’ll simply ignore the fact that he made them in the first place.

Whatever Republican voters, moderate or conservative, decide to do, you can be sure that Romney will be well-covered. Super PACs all over the country, funded by everyone from Koch Industries to MERCK, will be rallying behind Romney’s business-friendly, limited government platform. Obama isn’t lacking for money, it’s true, but rarely has a conservative candidate been backed by hundreds of millions in corporate dollars. Cantor describes Romney as a, “standard bearer for economic freedom, entrepreneurialism and small business.” However, it’s the big business support that you’re going to find plastered across the air waves this summer.