Limited Government at the Water's Edge

Alex Massie and Daniel Larison take a look at the nationalistic overtones in Mitt Romney's forthcoming book: No Apologies - The Case for American Greatness. As the title makes clear, Mitt Romney will not apologize for America.

What's less clear is whether Romney, or any Republican, can make the case that the same federal government that is too incompetent (and corrupt) to offer health insurance to people under 65 can nonetheless direct the course of world history and bring freedom and democracy to all the world's various peoples and cultures. That message is just a little incongruous, but after running many realists out of the GOP camp and into the Obama administration, it seems it's the one they're stuck with.