Opinion: For Republicans is electability the key to success?

Photo: Tom Grill 

BY ALICIA MENENDEZ

Of all the issues on which the Republican front runners currently clash, “electability” is the most subjective. And the most amusing. Regardless of who makes the case, talking about oneself as the one most likely to be “chosen” carries a healthy dose of narcissism disguised as reason. 

For Romney, “electability” has been the most successful answer to those who question his conservative credentials. Yes, he once supported a woman’s right to choose, a health care program that looked a lot like Obamacare, and cap-and-trade. But many a conservative voter will tell you that he can beat Barack Obama in November and so they can forgive him his Massachusetts trespasses. Electability is all that matters. 

Unfortunately for Mitt, the battle of South Carolina left a chink in his armor. What if he can’t win? Are pragmatic conservatives in the upcoming primary states really going to vote for a man who can’t easily dispatch with a series of damaged primary opponents?  There is some consolation for poor Mitt in the tale of Barack Obama, who just four years ago was labeled unelectable as much for his inability to put away Hillary Clinton as for his name and complexion. And it all worked out for him. Dreams do come true.  

While Republicans each claim the mantle of electability, determining who is most likely to beat Barack Obama is as much about the path to victory each party pursues as it is about the candidate they send down that path. The Obama brain trust has laid out five different yellow brick roads to securing 270 electoral votes. There’s a Florida path; a Western path that includes Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Iowa; a Midwestern path that includes Ohio and Iowa, a Southern path that includes North Carolina and Virginia; and an Expansion path that brings states like Arizona into play. 

Which approach the Obama campaign chooses hinges, in part, on who they are running against. A Gingrich nomination makes a Southern path less appealing. A Romney nomination likely steers Democrats away from Michigan. Theoretically, Republicans should be able to build a path to victory around their nominee, whoever their nominee is. As one Republican operative told me, “I don’t think it’s a big secret that Obama’s paths to victory are our paths too.” 

While the Republican hopefuls chatter about “who,”  as though electability can be determined before the ballots are cast, isn’t it possible that the real question they should be asking is “where?”

- ALICIA MENENDEZ, NBC Latino contributor and Founder of DailyGrito.com