The Cranky Old Man vs The Corporate Titan

Patrick Ruffini and Mark Steyn offer descriptions of the two Republican frontrunners, one explaining why McCain has done well so far, and the other explaining why Romney has not. First, Ruffini on McCain:

If John McCain wins the nomination, he’ll do so on the backs of older belligerent men.

What is this new swing voter bloc? It’s something I’ve teased out from exit polls and anecdotal observations. It helps explain why McCain has decent enough conservative appeal to keep racking up pluralities in places like South Carolina and Florida.

First, the exit polls. McCain does best with older voters. He does better with men than women. He wins military veterans and those who believe the war in Iraq is the most important issue. None of this should be surprising. All of these qualities apply to McCain personally.

But there is something more raw and instinctual at work here too. Older belligerent men are not afraid of confrontation, either personally or politically. I’ve heard more than one guy mention McCain’s volcanic temper as a positive. They equate this with toughness against our enemies.

And now Mark Steyn looks at Romney's response to the cranky old man:

This problem is entirely of Romney’s making. He needed a Mister-Moderator-I’m-paying-for-this-microphone moment, and every time McCain offered him one, with some contemptuous snarl in his direction, Mitt would put on his more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger expression and say prissily that he wasn’t going to descend to personal attacks. It’s never good to play to your caricature, and Mitt’s caricature (as Kathryn well knows) is that he’s an insipid technocrat Ken doll propped up by a lavishly funded campaign. I mentioned a day or two back the Powerline post about McCain’s willingness to knee his opponents in their privates. By just taking it, debate after debate, Mitt gave the impression that, like Ken, he didn’t even have private parts to be kneed in.

So, how would these two styles play in November? McCain would certainly be able to hold the cranky old man vote against Hillary, but against Barack "The Poem" Obama he'd look like, well, a cranky old man. Poetry and crankiness don't go together well unless you're a beatnik. When the granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower endorses Obama, you know the GOP is in trouble against "The Poem".

Romney gets slaughtered by both of them because he seems unable to fight back in the way he'd need to in order to pull off a win.

Even if McCain wins, and perhaps especially if McCain wins, it will not be a good year for Republicans.