Dan Bartlett Handicaps the GOP Race

Posted on October 9, 2007

Dan Bartlett, who has worked nearly his entire adult life for George Bush, finally resigned from his post as White House Counselor. Feeling "liberated" from working for someone, he let loose at a speech at the Commerce Department. Bartlett brutally handicapped the race for the GOP nomination and his analysis isn't pretty: Republican candidates consist of a Hick, a Dud and an unelectable Mormon Flip Flopper. Oh yea, and then there's McCain.

Never before has Bartlett opened up in a public setting with such an unvarnished analysis of the race. And while he no longer formally speaks for the president, Bartlett spent 14 years channeling Bush and remains virtually his alter ego, so his views could be seen as a revealing look into the thinking within the president's inner circle.
Bartlett was harshest in his judgment of Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who jumped into the contest a month ago and faces his first televised debate today. Thompson, Bartlett said, was the "biggest dud" because he peaked last spring when he first started talking about running and since then has yet to articulate a compelling vision for why he is running. "The biggest liability was whether he had the fire in the belly to run for office in the first place and be president," Bartlett said. "So what does he do? He waits four months, fires a bunch of staff, has a big staff turnover, has a lot of backbiting, comes out with his big campaign launch and gives a very incoherent and not very concise stump speech for why he's running for president."
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His judgment of Romney was only somewhat less negative. While crediting the former Massachusetts governor with the "best strategy and organization" born out of his "business acumen," Bartlett said "the flip-flopping on positions" stemmed from a miscalculation that the primary field would be more conservative than it proved to be.....
The flip-flopping issue, Bartlett added, provides an outlet for another big reason why Republican voters will not back Romney -- his religion. "The Mormon issue is a real problem in the South, it's a real problem in other parts of the country," he said. "But people are not going to say it. People are not going to step out and say, 'I have a problem with Romney because he's Mormon.' What they're going to say is he's a flip-flopper. ... It's a fact, it's reality. I don't know if it's one that will keep him from becoming the nominee for the party but it's something they clearly understand they've got to deal with."
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But Huckabee probably cannot win, Bartlett added. "He's got the obvious problems -- being from Hope, Ark., and, quite frankly, having the last name 'Huckabee,'" he said. "I hate to be so light about it, but it is, it's an issue. Politics can be fickle like that. I mean, you're trying to get somebody's attention for the first time. ... 'Huckabee? You've got to be kidding me! Hope, Arkansas? Here we go again.'"

That's harsh, dude. But probably true.

Bartlett thinks McCain will suffer deja vu all over again by once again winning the New Hampshire primary, then losing the nomination. Guiliani is doing well, he said, by attacking Hillary directly and avoiding heated questions from the far right about his suspect positions on guns, gays and abortion. And those three marriages.

Clearly all those years of playing it close to the vest were hard on Dan. He's feeling liberated, indeed.