Posted on 12/04/2009 5:49:30 AM PST by wzevonfan
Here is a list of 2012 candidates. Generally, I am dwelling on the negatives as this is what is going to limit them in their ability to win but will mention any unique positives.
Please share your thoughts on these or any other potential candidates.
Romney - Romneycare is an albatross. He is a Mormon which impacts appeal. Is popular in Michigan due to his father. Sometimes comes across like a used car salesman. Is probably more conservative than his record and gets a bad rap due to his need to make compromises to get elected in The People's Republic. Big question is can he rally a base that will be disenchanted with his record on social issues and healthcare.
Giuliani - Personal life has historically been a mess, pro-choice, pro-gay at times limiting appeal to social conservatives. Superb defense and fiscal credentials. Comes from NY and has appeal on Long Island and in the suburbs. Like Romney, could carry a significant blue state. Can he rally a base that will not be happy with his position on social issues?
Huckabee - Willy Horton II, clemency issue is big and can be distilled down into a 15 second spot. Fair Tax is legitimate conversation in fiscal conservative circles but sounds radical to moderate voters. Is a minister and has impeccable social conservative credentials. Talks about god too much at times which can be a strong negative to "casual Christians" for lack of a better term. Big question is can he carry DC suburbs, Philly suburbs and Ohio suburbs along with western states like CO, NM, and NV due to staunch social conservative positions.
Jindal - Young, maybe too young. Has had a meteoric rise. Severe media bias against due to his potential. Resulted in horrible reviews of prime time rebuttal which has stuck with voters. Is not investigating ACORN despite scandal. Has a few out of the mainstream catholic views and has even participated in exorcisms. Big question is will media bias torpedo his candidacy before it even begins.
Brownback - Will have only been governor for two years but has a long track record in the senate. Lacks name recognition of other candidates due to lack of controversy. Has strong social conservative credentials, supports a flat tax and has been generally pro-defense. Is typically on the conservation not environmental side of most issues. Big question is can I guy with very little name recognition gain the spotlight in the primaries.
Pawlenty - Decreasing popularity in own state. Is an evangelical who was raised catholic. Has managed to win in a state that is very liberal/independent. He has liberal views on the environment and has a nuanced track record on health care which will be easy to paint negatively. Is likely more conservative than record due to need to compromise. Big question is can he rally a base that will be unhappy with positions taken on the environment and healthcare.
Gingrich - Personal life has been a mess and opens him to charges of hypocrisy. Pretty severe media bias has subsided due to him no longer being viewed as a threat. Big question is can he overcome messy personal history and gain support with social conservatives.
Palin - Media Bias, Media Bias, Media Bias!!!!! What else can you say. She has a great record but so much damage was done during the last campaign. The Couric interview always comes up and the left/press seems truly terrified of her. The uninformed and stupid tend to believe what they hear and think she is an idiot. Big question is can she make a significant enough dent in her negatives and fight the media bias to have a shot.
McDonnell - Just dominated in the Old Dominion by running a smart campaign focused on fiscal issues. Will only have 3 years of executive experience but is running a large, sophisticated state. Has that thesis paper that the press will hammer away at but which helps reinforce his social conservative credentials. Big question is can he replicate his success on the national stage.
The other question of course is if the Dems continue on the current path will it even matter who gets nominated due to Obama bungling virtually everything he touches.
COME ON, GUY!
I have seen lists like this before and virtually ALL
these supposed candidates that are listed accompanied
by thumbnail evaluations, are typically RINO choices, in other words, people who in one way or another, are as sure
losers as John McCain was. That will NOT happen again.
As usual you leave off some actual contenders, like Jim De Mint and Inhofe. Any potential contender we don’t yet know about (or that people like you don’t “recognize”) will have to do a whole lot in the next year or so to distinguish himself as THE candidate for the growing NON-RINO Majority.
It’s no secret that the ONLY one of these listed contenders to have done that SO FAR is Sarah Palin! Why is she always on the list, but given such short shrift??? Yeah, politics is a popularity contest, that’s how Obama got elected, but purely on image alone and nebulous abstract qualities like HOPE and CHANGE. At the outset of every campaign the talking heads cluck and agonize about ‘electability’, making the usual noises like “Well, I like THIS candidate, but is he or she “electable??”.
Well, I will say it again, if things keep moving in her favor, as they inevitably will, she will not only be the ONLY electable one, but WILL be elected. It’s either that scenario, or one just as likely, which is she will once again be a VEEP choice, but for someone who CAN be elected, but THAT person will NOT be a RINO.
Romney will never live down the MA health care debacle. His “experience” is disqualifying. He is the distilled essence of the GOP establishment and the establishment has failed comprehensively. Job one for a successful candidate is to establish him or herself as an insurgent. That role is way out of Romney's range. It is also out of Newt's range and Rudy's and that of everyone you mention (except Sarah Palin and possibly Bob McDonnell). We need to wrap our minds around the counter intuitive truth that inexperience is an essential attribute for the GOP’s next presidential candidate. Inexperience isn't sufficient, as Obama amply demonstrates, but it is necessary. The candidate can't be a conventional, career politician.
The 2010 election campaign will give us a whole new crop of names (John Kasich anyone?)to consider. Let's not waste any time on loser retreads like Romney, or bland milquetoasts like Pawlenty, or authoritarian progressives like Giulliani or geeky Ivy Leaguers like Jindal. In politics, like sport, the only really useful advice is to keep your eye on the ball.
Your fourth sentence, even with the typo, was a thing of beauty and great insight.
We’d fare far better if we concentrated on the CONGRESSIONAL RACES coming up in 2010!
“People get the government they deserve” Joseph D’Maistre
Gang, we HAD a shot at cleaning these places out this last election and, to borrow a phrase from the klintoon White House, WE BLEW IT!!!
While I, like many of you, am saddened that McCain and Palin couldn’t keep the Marxist Obamessiah out of the White House, let’s try to keep things in some kind of rational perspective: ACORN elected a president and vice-president, NOT a monarch.
For years, I’ve been amazed at this idiotic quadrennial fascination with the beauty contest known as the (cue the trumpet fanfare) “PRESIDENTIAL RACE.” Our inattention and/or apparent desire for a king or a strong man dictatorship and/or the increasing numbers of un or ill-educated denizens of the U.S. who feel incapable of lifting themselves out of their own miserable lives has allowed our system to morph to the present quasi-monarchy from its original foundations as a representative REPUBLIC.
People, the most important thing we can remember about all of this is that the Founders constructed the system to put – AND KEEP — the KEYS TO THE FEDERAL CASH REGISTER IN CONGRESS and the current Gang of 535 could bring this out-of-control government spending and the steady usurpation of our freedoms to a screeching halt tomorrow at noon — IF THEY WANTED TO. Attila the Hun could occupy the White House and without the dough to hire the bureaucrats, buy the desks and computers, etc., etc. ad nauseum, Mr. Hun would be hamstrung. (See Article 1, Section 7 of the now largely moribund Constitution for details.)
But they DON’T — for a number of reasons: (And I cite the tax situation as but one example of the problem. Don’t get me started on the ENERGY and Algore’s gloBULL warming scam!)
1. They understand the need to vacuum the excess FRAUDS (Federal Reserve Accounting Unit Denominators) — there are no “dollars” circulating now! — out of circulation BEFORE the bulk of the dumb masses (say it really fast for maximum effect) catch on to the resultant inflation. If you question that statement, ask yourself why else would a criminal enterprise (the federal government) having the power to “create” “money” with the stroke of a pen NEED YOURS every April 15th?
2. The current Gang of 535 understands the need for the massive tax code (so-called because it is written in code by gnomes chained to posts in the cellars of K Street lobbying firms and understood only by their keepers) to reward their friends, punish their enemies and keep the rest of us under their thumbs with threats of draconian punishments should we run afoul of it. It is impossible to NOT run afoul of it.
3. While the dumb masses rant about the abusive practices of this top criminal enterprise’s subsidiary criminal enterprise (the IRS), members of the Gang can pose and posture for the cameras from time to time and declare that “something MUST be done to reign in the abuses of the IRS,” NOTHING WILL BE DONE until we clean house on Capitol Hill and get back to the HONEST, CONSTITUTIONAL MONEY called for at Art.1, Sect. 10. They’ve been playing a rigged game of 3 card-Monte with us for so long – and getting away with it – that, as Herman Cain’s book title declares – “They Think You’re STUPID.” And, hell, for MOST of the dumb masses, they’re right.
And THAT process starts in YOUR STATE and CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT by finding and supporting decent candidates — at ALL levels — who will go to YOUR state capitol and Malfunction Junction and do that house cleaning. Not marching on Washington (unless MILLIONS of pitchfork wielding folk crowd the Mall, the elites are amused by these things and the only folks who benefit from the finite patriot resources devoted to them are the airlines, hotels and restaurants in D.C.)...not sending “money” to the RNC (LOL!)...not writing poison pen letters to these current jerks...but THROWING OUT THE CURRENT JERKS you have identified as NOT having the country’s interests at heart and doing it as many times as necessary to get it done. And then watching the NEW GUYS like a hawk to make certain THEY don’t go bad from imbibing too much of that power Kool-Aid so popular in Disneyland on The Potomac.
A good news in the viability of this approach is that the controlled so-called national mainstream media have far less impact on these widely separated congressional races making it easier to get some good guys elected.
The bad news is that I can speak from personal experience about how the national PARTIES will survey all the contested congressional races and if they DO find a candidate they do not or think they cannot control running on their side, they’ll offer a “consultant” from headquarters to come in and ASSIST the campaign. In at least 4 cases with which I am familiar, the Republican National Committee TORPEDOED those campaigns so a good guy who might be more inclined to cling to the Constitution before toeing the party line didn’t make it to D.C.
And for you who, like a sad number of the dumb masses, THINK YOUR GUY IS OK, go to GRADEGOV at
for your guy’s voting record on taxes, spending or your personal hot button issues. You might be in for an unpleasant surprise.
Then head on over to http://goooh.com and get active in some HOUSE CLEANING in the next election!
I often get the strong sense that the American people have some sick and sophomoric yearning for a new ROYAL FAMILY or BENEVOLENT KING to make their lives what they themselves feel incapable of making them without some nanny-state sovereign. Throughout history, with few exceptions conspicuous because of their rarity, those systems nearly always become malignant and freedom founders and eventually fails. With the exception of America – the IDEA, not the place – most men who have walked the earth have lived as slaves.
As opportunities afford themselves (and this is one), I simply attempt to remind my fellow citizens of that history and what lies ahead if they continue in their ignorance of that history.
I could go on for volumes but you get the idea.
One final thought: With the exception of the guys who CLEARLY pass muster at GRADEGOV, RE-ELECT NOBODY!!!!!
Standing by for a record breaking flaming by the fanatics.
This country needs someone with the courage of his/her convictions, not someone who changes positions on key issues depending on what he/she thinks the voters want to hear that day.
In the 2008 MI primary I voted for Mitt because he was not John McCain. In 2012 I’d prefer a real conservative.
a) Palin is much sharper, dynamic and charismatic than Quayle. I'm not sure Quayle had much of a future even if he hadn't been “Quayled” by the MSM. Nothing against him, he just was not as talented as Palin, IMHO.
b) The MSM had a LOT more credibility in the eyes of the average American back then. There was always a liberal bias, but it was somewhat weaker and a lot less obvious 20 years ago. During the 2008 campaign and since the MSM has pretty much shed all pretense of objectivity, and has forfeited most of its perceived credibility. Three years from now, their attacks on Palin will have little or no effect.
c) The new media gives Palin the ability to reach the voters directly. Also, Fox News did not exist when Quayle was “Quayled” and is now the dominant force in cable news.
d) 0bama, Pelosi, Reid and the Democrats are pushing their agenda of Socialism and perversion so far that a huge backlash is developing. Americans are seeing extreme Liberalism for what it is and are rejecting it. By 2012, voters may be so fed up that practically any GOP candidate could defeat 0bama.
Unlike most freepers, I liked Romney last time around. But he is now a non starter due to Romneycare.
My picks are Palin, Pence, DeMint, McDonell, Thune. In that order.
Unlike most freepers, I liked Romney last time around. But he is now a non starter due to Romneycare.
My picks are Palin, Pence, DeMint, McDonell, Thune. In that order.
Duncan Hunter
Fred Thompson
Sarah Palin
“I will say the candidate for this time around has not emerged”
Ditto. Unfortunately they may not by election time either.
In a country of 300 million people, it’s hard to believe these are the choices.
Palin 2012
It gets much clearer when you break it down to basics. I am a conservative. I think that the more conservative the president we have the better our country will be. The most conservative of that bunch is Palin, so I will support her if she runs (and I think she will). As far as electability is concerned, don’t underestimate her. I don’t know that she is the “next Reagan”. I just know that there isn’t anyone else CLOSE to that standard.
I have lived in Michigan for 70 years and Gov. Romney was not the most popular politican in the state...Lots of people don’t even know who he is. He was Gov. during the Viet nam war.....complained that the military brain washed him...something of a kook......
His Romneycare disaster , would make him a sure loser as a candidate.
Palin has no chance. Outside of FR, she is a joke, quit the governorship, and has too little experience. I like her and think there is a role for her, but she is not going to be president in 2012 or probably ever.
I like Pence. If he is interested, it will be interesting to see how he plays nationally without the name recognition.
DeMint would be ideal, but has no charisma. Unfortunatley, in a superficial world, that puts a nail in the coffin.
McDonnell ran a great campaign, but let’s see if he produces any results before annointing him. Virginia is in quite a mess and McDonnell still hasn’t talked about cutting spending.
I don’t know much about Thune other than that he is good looking and has good hair. Unfortunately, that is a qualifier.
Hahaha!
First of all, how many folks gave 0 "a chance" going into the primaries in 2008?
Secondly, Palin's approval numbers have been climbing, and are now almost on par with 0 himself. What current high-profile Republican has higher approval?
Personally, I don't really care if Sarah is the Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate if we can find someone better for the top of the ticket. It seems clear to me no one suitable has yet emerged (perhaps Bachmann...maybe). Surely no one will yap about her "lack of experience" after 0's tyro tour de force.
Sarah Palin '12! The anti-0!
The two on my list are DeMint and Palin.
Gee... a million plus FReepers. Who knew?
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