Bad Week For GOP Establishment-Who To Back Now?

The Establishment might have patted themselves on their collective backs after a successful, in the MSM's knitting circle anyway, take down of Governor Palin after her Iowa address "the end of the conservatives love affair" apparently, although what on earth would MSM journalists know about conservatives?

However, their glow would have been short-lived as their list of possibles for the 2016 nomination narrowed by one, and the rest of the key potentials had a bad run to say the least.

Mitt gave it up of course. Some pundits saw that as excellent news "clearing the way for the big donors to flood to Jeb."

Clearly the media/establishment have given up on even having the pretense of wanting a candidate for the best interest of the country and blatantly advise that money (and cheap labor) is all that matters-who the actual candidate is, is of little import as long as he fits the bill.

But things don't always go to plan. Governor Christie's European sojourn, which was touted as "giving Christie a foreign policy resume" ended with him avoiding any press conferences. The Daily Mail simply headlined 

'No questions!' Chris Christie clams up and CANCELS three press conferences on final day of disastrous UK trip"

Christie gave an indication of what he would be like as president with his finger on the nuclear button whilst having to be a diplomat;

"A testy Christie badgered reporters:'Is there something you don't understand about,"No questions"?' It beggars the imagination to try and conceive what the headlines would be if Governor Palin had had such a disastrous visit to the U.K. but, since Christie is MSM protected by the GOP establishment, one has to read foreign newspapers to get the full gist of his disaster.

Governor Christie, for some reason got himself embroiled in the vaccine controversy;

"But coverage of the trip has been dominated by remarks he made Monday after touring a pharmaceutical facility, that parents 'parents need to have some measure of choice' when it comes to whether to vaccinate their children.

Christie's office quickly backtracked, releasing a statement that declared that, 'with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated.' 

But the comments drew scorn, first across social media, and then from medical professionals, newspaper editorial boards and national Democrats, who accused the governor of ignoring medical science."

Christie as the Republican candidate is, frankly, unimaginable. It will be interesting to see how long the money men persevere with him. Allahpundit sees Christie being held in reserve in case Jeb falters, but he would be a forlorn foist on the base.

Jeb fared badly too. He was taken to task, violently, by a raging

 Ann Coulter whose headline made no bones about her feelings for Jeb.

"THREE GENERATIONS OF IMBECILES ARE ENOUGH"

The only silver lining to Mitt Romney being pushed out of the presidential race -- temporarily, I hope -- is that the media's preferred GOP candidate, Jeb Bush, is catnip to the stupidest influence-seekers, so Wall Street will be wasting all kinds of money over the next few months."

His stance on Immigration, which is what endears him to the establishment, riles the base to the point where Jeb has advised he is going to run an anti-base campaign in the primaries. That this would be the most certain way of ensuring his defeat in the general election as Presidents Romney/McCain and Dole will confirm. "He (Jeb) even suggested the mayor of Detroit — the economically depressed Midwestern city where he’s giving his first policy address of the 2016 campaign on Wednesday — use immigration to “repopulate” the city." And at Hot Air;"

Jeb Bush 2013: It’s “ridiculous” that DREAMers don’t have citizenship, impossible to completely control the border"

In passing Coulter also bashed Santorum/Huckabee/Perry/Christie and Rubio on immigration, whilst praising Romney (to no purpose now of course). Not bashing Walker is interesting in this context, we shall see where she goes with that one.

That's Romney/Bush/Christie on the down and out path which leaves Governor Walker. Walker may not be perceived as an establishment candidate, at least until now, rather being pushed as the union bashing, fiscal conservative uniter of the GOP who took on the Dem's and beat them and can deliver a red state" (phew). That formula took Walker straight to the top of post-Romney polls and he is clearly flavor of the month.

How long that lasts will be interesting as the spotlight turns on him (not by the MSM who are swooning, but  by conservatives. As with the others, immigration is the touchstone and Walker fared badly;

This Washington Post headline got the commentators at"Hot Air" in a vituperative "damn the GOP --I'll vote third party' rage" and with comments like this from Walker who could blame them;

"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Tuesday that he supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.Walker added: "If people want to come here and work hard in this country, I don't care if you come from Mexico or Canada or Ireland or Germany or South Africa or anywhere else. I want them here."

Rand Paul-in case the Establishment gets desperate and looks to him, also got involved in the vaccine controversy and had to have a photo of himself getting a booster shot. His image as flaky received a boost at the same time.“There’s 400 headlines now that say ‘Paul says vaccines cause mental disorders,’” he added. “That’s not what I said. I said I’ve heard of people who’ve had vaccines and they see a temporal association and they believe that.”…

In perhaps the ultimate in cynical despair Allahpundit seemed to intimate that all of this is of no consequence-we had better get used to candidate Jeb and forget about such diversions as so called positions on immigration; "Anyway. Bush and his money men will make sure that he raises enough money to buy the nomination, so let’s try to make peace with these “interesting” little takes of his now.

Unless Governor Palin declares and unites the conservative base Allahpundit is absolutely correct and the 2016 nomination-and presidency for that matter is not worth thinking about as the die will have been cast forever. If it leads to a third party -then who knows if that will be for the best in the long run.