Via CNS (via Hot Air) comes this ‘argument’ from NH Romney supporter and state Senator Gary Lambert. To summarize it, Lambert wants us all to sit down, shut up, and endorse Romney despite the fact that Lambert himself is tacitly conceding that Romney does not share conservatives’ principles and beliefs.

No, really.

The video from CNS is down, but somebody put it up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5HetsEx4o

Here’s the takeaway quote, at about the two minute mark:

Here’s the takeaway quote:

“This is not about picking your favorite, it’s not about picking someone you like. It’s not about picking someone even with your own beliefs and principles. This is about picking a person that can beat Barack Obama, period.”

No. It. Is. Not. If that’s all we cared about, we’d go to Hillary Clinton, bluntly tell her that if she wants to run on a unity ticket we’d give her the nomination via a brokered convention, and then go on to win the election handily… yes, I certainly hope that the very idea is giving my readers conniptions; it’s supposed to. There is more at stake in this election than defeating one man. What is actually at stake here is the resolution of the question How do we get ourselves out of this mess that eighty years of steadily-increasing government has gotten us into? – and I for one will not meekly sit down and shut up because a New Hampshire state legislator wants to shut the clock down less than a week after the primary season starts. There are rules, there is a process, and if I was inclined to shut down my critical faculties and simply anoint a God-King I’d have stayed a Democrat and voted for Barack Obama.

The Romney campaign needs to improve its message discipline. Like, yesterday. Because I know that while they’re probably discounting my opinion, I’m not going to be the only person who reacts this way to that video. And while those people will probably* join me in endorsing Romney if he becomes the nominee, this is no way to make them be enthusiastic about the process.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*You cannot count on that, though. The GOP is the Party That Herds The Cats. And its members, not being Democrats, react badly to heavy-handed attempts at emotional blackmail. Fair warning.