New York Times
(Editorial)
January 30, 2016
The
battle to be the Republican choice for president has been nasty,
brutish and anything but short. The hope among some Republicans is that
the Iowa caucuses on Monday
and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 will promote a candidate who
can appeal to the half of their electorate that doesn’t support the two
current front-runners.
Those
two, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, are equally objectionable for different
reasons. Mr. Trump has neither experience in nor interest in learning
about national security,
defense or global trade. Even unemployment figures, which he’s pegged
at 23 or 42 percent (the correct number is 5 percent) don’t merit his
attention.
From
deporting Mexican immigrants and barring Muslims to slapping a 45
percent tariff on Chinese imports, Mr. Trump invents his positions as he
goes along. His supporters
say they don’t care. What they may not know is how deliberately he is
currying their favor. At a meeting with The Times’s editorial writers,
Mr. Trump talked about the art of applause lines. “You know,” he said of
his events, “if it gets a little boring, if
I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, I can
sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ and
they go nuts.”
Ted
Cruz’s campaign isn’t about constitutional principles; it’s about
ambition. In his three years in the Senate, he has helped to engineer a
shutdown of the government
and has alienated virtually the entire chamber, both of which he bills
as accomplishments since he lacks real ones. Now, whether he’s
threatening to “carpet bomb” Syrian villages or pitching a phony “flat
tax” that would batter middle-class consumers, Mr.
Cruz will say anything to win. The greater worry is that he’d follow
words with action.
More
than a half-dozen other candidates are battling for survival. Jeb Bush
has failed to ignite much support, but at least he has criticized the
bigotry of Mr. Trump
and the warmongering of Mr. Cruz. Senator Marco Rubio, currently
embracing the alarmist views of the front-runners, seems to have
forgotten his more positive “New American Century” campaign, based on
helping the middle-class. The terrorist attacks in Paris
and San Bernardino exposed Ben Carson’s inability to grasp the world.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has said he would shoot down Russian
planes, engage with the dead king of Jordan and bar refugees, including
orphaned Syrian toddlers.
Gov.
John Kasich of Ohio, though a distinct underdog, is the only plausible
choice for Republicans tired of the extremism and inexperience on
display in this race. And
Mr. Kasich is no moderate. As governor, he’s gone after public-sector
unions, fought to limit abortion rights and opposed same-sex marriage.
Still,
as a veteran of partisan fights and bipartisan deals during nearly two
decades in the House, he has been capable of compromise and believes in
the ability of government
to improve lives. He favors a path to citizenship for undocumented
immigrants, and he speaks of government’s duty to protect the poor, the
mentally ill and others “in the shadows.” While Republicans in Congress
tried more than 60 times to kill Obamacare, Mr.
Kasich did an end-run around Ohio’s Republican Legislature to secure a
$13 billion Medicaid expansion to cover more people in his state.
“I
am so tired of my colleagues out here on the stage spending all their
time talking about Barack Obama,” he told a town hall crowd in New
Hampshire. “His term is over.”
Mr. Kasich said recently that he had “raised the bar in this election.
I’ve talked about hope and the future and positive things.” In this
race, how rare that is.
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