National Review non-surprise

NR's endorsement of Mitt Romney is about as unsurprising as the sun rising in the East this morning. Most honest observers of the magazine and its online components would have been stunned at any other endorsement.

The timing isn't surprising either. It comes on the heels of several days of consistent Huckabee-bashing, criticism that sometimes has a whiff of desperation about it. NR's editorial on Gov. Huckabee's foreign policy views seemed to me largely unfair, as if they not paid any attention when reading his CSIS speech. NR completely ignored the major thrust of the speech -- the need to be more aggressive with Pakistan -- as well as Gov. Huckabee's call for a stronger Army and his support for the Iraq surge.

As for Gov. Romney, there's much to admire. As Governor, he was willing to be bold on health care, an issue too many Republicans and too many conservatives neglect (and one where Gov. Huckabee may be a little to the left of me). Yet to simply bypass Gov. Romney's past positions, which include a rejection of "Reagan-Bush" (hunt on YouTube for that one) strikes me as giving him just a little easier freebie than NR would have given anyone else.