Mitch Daniels and the Talk Radio Right - Ross Douthat

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/mitch-daniels-and-the-talk-radio-right/#


This is where the populist style in conservative politics becomes self-defeating. The underlying theory behind the talk radio critique of Daniels is basically that you can’t trust a man who disarms liberals with his seeming reasonability, and what you need instead is somebody who takes the fight to the left at every opportunity. This is an excellent description of the qualities required … to be a good talk radio host. But when applied to the presidential scene, it amounts to a kind of politics of schadenfreude, in which actual conservative accomplishments count for nothing, the ability to woo undecided voters is downgraded or dismissed, and all that matters is how much a prospective candidate irritates liberals.

Exhibit A: Dick Cheney, a man that conservatives disagree with on just about everything. Yet he's considered the uber-conservative, based soley on the fact that he's unlikeable and irritates liberals and moderates.