COMMENTARY | With the all-important Florida primary approaching, Democrats find themselves in the same position as most prospective Super Bowl viewers. Although the majority of hardcore gridiron fans no longer have a team in the playoffs, they are inevitably drawn to choose sides in the big game. If it's not the Super Bowl, the Florida primary can make a case for being the conference championships of politics, since the winner may well end up with his party's nomination.
Whom should Democrats pull for in this epic struggle?
The obvious choice would be to get behind Newt Gingrich, since all the polling data shows Obama has a better chance of defeating Gingrich than Mitt Romney. However, the Democrats I know are either deeply agonizing over the prospect of a Gingrich candidacy or actively rooting for Romney. Why?
It is not, as one might think, the "be careful what you wish for" theory. That is, no Democrat that I have talked to is concerned about a repeat of 1980, where the candidate they all wanted as the Republican nominee -- Ronald Reagan -- ended up trouncing Jimmy Carter. No one thinks Newt Gingrich is Ronald Reagan.
Instead, these Democrats seem reluctant to pull for a Gingrich victory in Florida for reasons that Peggy Noonan, a former Reagan speechwriter, pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial when she dubbed Gingrich a "human hand grenade" constantly in danger of blowing up. Recalling that Gingrich shut down the government over a perceived slight on Air Force One, the Democrats I have spoken to fear the sort of retribution the former Speaker might try to exact and from whom were he suddenly thrust into the role of most powerful man in the world. As a result, they find themselves pulling for a Romney victory even though in so doing they are at least in spirit supporting the man they believe has a better chance of beating President Obama.
In putting the interests of their country ahead of party, these Democrats seem to be following the lead of the president himself. During the debt ceiling crisis, Obama dropped his demand for a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases when it became clear the tea party members in Congress were willing to allow the government to default on its debt unless budget cuts alone were used to offset the debt ceiling increase. Rather than risk the harm to the country this would entail, the president essentially caved into their demands, alienating many in his own base and perhaps endangering his chances for a second term. Just so, the Democrats pulling for Romney seem to believe that there are things more important than the President's reelection.
I am not implying that Democrats alone possess the patriotism to put party interest ahead of country. According to Politico, the Republican establishment has started to come out in full force against a Gingrich candidacy. In these partisan times, it is good to see the two parties united over something.
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