Posted on 05/24/2011 6:43:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
How’s this for an impressive Republican lineup?
A likable former governor and TV personality; a two-term governor with an unmatched fiscal record; another former governor with the best education-reform credentials in the country; a rising star in the House; and a photogenic senator from the heartland.
They are Mike Huckabee, Mitch Danieenvirols, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, and John Thune. The Republicans sitting out the 2012 nomination battle would themselves make a formidable field. Indeed, more formidable than the actual entrants. The hottest place to be in Republican politics right now is sitting on the sidelines.
With Governor Daniels deciding over the weekend not to run, it is slowly dawning on the Republican mind that the party’s choice may effectively come down to Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty. This prospect produces a range of emotions running from disappointment to panic.
Former Massachusetts governor Romney is next in line, an advantageous place to be in a party that traditionally chooses its candidates like the guy behind the counter in a deli — take a number and wait. If Romney wins the nomination, it will probably be a victory in the tradition of GOP front-runners Bob Dole and John McCain, who got the party’s nod out of sheer reflex or the lack of more appealing choices.
Former Minnesota governor Pawlenty makes sense on paper. He compiled a conservative record as governor of a Democratic state, and he comes from the upper Midwest, an area where Republicans have growth potential. But nominations aren’t won on paper. Pawlenty will have to energize GOP voters without being too obviously false to his mild-mannered persona.
Jon Huntsman is the other candidate with credentials usually associated with a presidential nominee — former governor and former ambassador. He was President Obama’s ambassador to China, though, and he spent much of his Utah governorship lecturing the party to be less conservative on fashionable issues such as the environment and gay rights. That he is now being mentioned as a top-tier candidate is commentary on the weakness of that tier.
Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann will probably run and generate excitement in Howard Dean style as the candidate of “the conservative wing of the Republican party.” Like another compelling grassroots candidate, Pat Buchanan, she’s more likely to be a glorious cause than an eventual nominee. Herman Cain is a big, appealing personality but has never held elective office. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum lost his job by 18 points in 2006. Newt Gingrich is running around his launching pad in a flame-retardant suit trying to douse the fire.
Which is why the party turns its lonely eyes to New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan. Christie has grappled with his state’s fiscal problems with brio. He’s fresh and unconventional, at a time of exhaustion with politics as usual. Yet the moment he even dips his toe in the presidential waters, his standing will decline among New Jersey voters, who will feel jilted. If he makes the plunge, he’d be staking his career on a late entrance and victory in New Hampshire, where there’s no guarantee he’d sell the way he does in the Garden State.
Among the crop of candidates and potential candidates, Ryan has the profile most similar to that of the Barack Obama of 2007 as he prepared to take his party by storm. Ryan, too, is an implausible candidate; no one has won the presidency from the House since 1880. He, too, is young, talented and winsome, and captures something important in the zeitgeist of his party. But he just ascended to the Budget Committee chairmanship, from which he is already defining the national debate. There’s one quality that unites all the declared or likely candidates so far: They have nothing to lose.
Every nomination fight produces surprises and dark horses, a John McCain in 2000, a Mike Huckabee in 2008. As their field emerges into the cold light of day, Republicans are desperate to be surprised.
If Zer0 is electable, just about anybody is.
I agree
Don’t feel bad, they were talking like this in 2007. Then the Mighty McCain emerged, like a beast stalking the Earth, and laid waste to all...oh, wait. :)
I have noticed a recurring theme in this election cycle.
ALL Repub Candidtes are somehow “lesser men or women”.
NONE are of the “stature” of Dear Leader.
It’s not just the ususal suspects in this propaganda, RINOs are joining in the campaign. This puts whoever gets the nomination in the position of having to be a reincarnation of Ronald the Magnificent.
Just curious. Since you feel the “ultimate GOP nominee has yet to enter the race”, who do you believe that nominee is?
Television has completely destroyed this nation.
The GOP base is looking for PASSION in the nominee. That’s why they’re not in love witht he current field. Aside from the obvious, Ryan, Palin, Bachmann, Cristie...if you look closely at the statements by those who have bowed out..especially Huckabee and Daniels...neither made a Shermanesque statement....they both left the possibility open..so if nobody catches fire..then one or both might succumb to a real draft..
Agreed. We now elect celebrities. It started with 'I feel your pain' Clinton. Bush scraped together a win in 2000 by the skin of his teeth against a moron Algore. I hope we are able to find some leaders to get through the fog of our people's celebrity-obsessed population.
Since I asked who you thought the ultimate GOP nominee would be, I take it from your response you think it’s either Huckabee or Daniels. Is that correct?
It started with John Kennedy.
Are we supposed to take this seriously? You have to mention Ron Paul, even if you hate him. Palin Romney Gingrich Paul Bachmann are well known enough to win the nomination. The Republicans never pick unknowns, that’s the Democrats.
anyone running on the Republican side is eminently more qualified than the Muslim in chief. If we get someone that needs to be nudged a little, then so be it but we need to get this guy out, which is the bottom line. We can’t afford any more years of this guy, period.
McCain was well known and extremely unpopular with conservatives in 2007. He wasn’t particularly high in the polls throughout 2007 (but he did start by leading the polls), but he did win fairly easily. Mostly by being the most famous, or the top republican.
Until Gingrich is out of the race, he’s the possible McCain of 2012.
Rich Lowrey states: “ That he (Huntsman) is now being mentioned as a top-tier candidate is commentary on the weakness of that tier.”
Uh no Rich, it’s a commentary on the weakness of the commenters. Huntsman is a total non starter everywhere except DC and New York. He will catch the combined wrath of the Bush and McCain haters.
Wrong question. The real question is who is genuinely conservative and who is not. The rest will take care of itself.
Those only concerned with “electability” are demrats, uninformed, RINOs, doctrinaire libertarian or other pseudointellectuals.
The paramount issue for this pres. cycle is to return America to its roots—The Constitution, Bill of Rights, the family and capitalism. This is what a conservative believes. All the other issues are subsets of those overarching principles. If conservatives cannot sell conservatism to the majority of voters they deserve to lose.
I agree. When she announces her candidacy it will rock the world.
Lt. Col. Allen West is the answer.
Check out some old newspapers in Google News Archives.
Just about every op-ed piece between 1977 and 1979 said that Ronald Reagan was unelectable.
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