Run, Mitt, run: The more establishmentarians there are splitting the vote, the better for conservatives

This year, somehow, we who want to see an electable “movement conservative” take the nomination should therefore want as many establishmentarians as possible to run. We should want Romney and Jeb Bush and Chris Christie (and perhaps Peter King and George Pataki and Lindsey Graham) all to run, all out, while only one or two solid conservatives split the majority of Republican voters on the more rightward side of the spectrum. It is particularly true that Romney and Bush pull from many of the same sorts of backers, and that if only one of the two of them runs, that one candidate will have a major advantage in event that Santorum, Mike Pence, Bobby Jindal, and Scott Walker (to name four of many possibilities) all vie for the conservative slices of the electoral pie.

It should then warm conservative hearts to see it reported that Romney “does not feel he owes the Bushes anything and does not think Jeb is the de facto leader of the establishment GOP.” This Romney–Bush rivalry, if it continues to develop, could provide an opening for a conservative to win pluralities while the two more familiar names battle each other.