Henry Olsen

Mitt Romney dispelled any doubts tonight whether he wants to be president badly enough to fight for it.

The country could save $100 billion or more over 10 years by reducing farm subsidies without endangering struggling farmers or affecting food production.

Last week’s election indicates that the GOP marriage with the white working class is on the rocks. That’s bad news, since the epic Republican landslide in 2010 was fueled by record-high margins among these voters.

For decades, conservatives have won elections by wooing white, working-class swing voters with positions they approved of on crime, foreign policy and cultural issues. Economic growth allowed Republicans to expand most government spending programs while simultaneously keeping taxes stable. For both economic and political reasons, this balancing act is no longer possible.

Republican Jane Corwin’s defeat in New York is to Republicans what the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was to Democrats: a warning of impending disaster if the party maintains its course. Democrats in 2010 refused to see this, blaming their loss on poor turnout and a bad candidate. Republicans cannot make the same mistake.

Despite this election’s high stakes, however, the question of which candidate will bear the GOP’s standard remains shadowed in great uncertainty, owing mostly to the lack of an obvious frontrunner. Given these unusual circumstances heading into 2012, what kind of nominee should we expect? And what kind of nominee should Republicans want?

Wisconsin’s results do not mean conservatives should abandon entitlement reform, but they should expect an energized Democratic base that will fight with all its might. They will need to talk persuasively about what entitlement reform means, stressing that it is absolutely necessary to preserve the lifetime security that entitlements provide.

The results of the 2010 elections fail somehow to account for the continued difficulties that Republicans (at all levels of government) have had after past wave elections.

What can we learn from last week’s House vote on the tax deal? Politicos calculate that important elements of both party bases are unhappy with the compromise, but that the vast American middle wants it.

Look to Ronald Reagan’s conservative principle when rebuilding the new Republican Party. The fulfillment of Reagan’s dream will create the renewed Republican party that has taken back control of the House.

The employment rate has fallen farther and faster in this recession than at any time in the last thirty years and it continues to drop.

This week’s historic Republican landslide is due to a massive swing among white working-class independents in rural and exurban areas, rather than an enthusiasm gap between Republican and Democratic supporters, as the party predicted.