Afligida élite republicana (aka LOS RECLUTADORES)

POLITICO.com:

(...) Ryan wasn’t the first intellectual crush, though.

For much of this year, Mitch Daniels was the it-boy among Republican thinkers. His gold-plated resume, Hudson Institute pedigree, budget-cutting record in Indianapolis and sober exhortations to confront “the new red menace” of federal spending made the hearts of conservative intellectuals flutter and launched dozens of columns and magazine covers.

“All this comes back to the failure of Mitch Daniels to get into the race - he was the guy who had the potential to unite the conservative intelligentsia and the quirky, eclectic types like me,” said New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, the co-author of the manifesto that aimed to launch a populist “Sam’s Club Conservatism.”

Intellectuals “felt he didn’t pander - they felt he had a substantively impressive record in Indiana,” said his co-author Reihan Salam, who writes a domestic policy blog for National Review, and who began calling for a Daniels candidacy back in 2008. “There was something about his political style that was very anti-political and that people found impressive.”

When Daniels turned his back on the draft movement, Tim Pawlenty sought to move into the Hoosier’s wonky space.

The former Minnesota governor gave substantive speeches on taxes and spending as well as foreign policy. Pawlenty’s rosy fiscal projections won accolades from the GOP’s supply-side wing as bold - or, as Larry Kudlow, put it “blockbuster, Reaganesque, pro-growth.” And the candidate’s defense of a robust foreign policy after the June debate warmed the hearts of neoconservatives who fear the party is going wobbly on interventionism.

“Pawlenty was regarded by the conservative intelligentsia as the safe, solid, respectable choice. They would have settled for Pawlenty,” said Douthat. “You got the sense that he was interested in public policy. You don’t get the sense that Michele Bachmann is interested in public policy.”

But now with Pawlenty out of the race, Ryan still not budging and Perry surging, conservative elites are left with few agreeable options. (...)