Right now Herman Cain is number one on my list. I think he has improved a lot in the short time he’s been running, and he seems to respect the fact that he needs to listen to and take some direction from the electorate. He keeps making mistakes (nobody’s perfect) but recovers from them pretty well. I worry that there are too many areas of policy about which he knows too little, and that this will be a weakness in his candidacy. (I trust him to surround himself with good people and effectively lead the team and make good decisions as President, but he is vulnerable to “gotcha” questions as a candidate.) He is well-spoken and likeable and I trust him pretty well. Not bad.
Rick Perry is my number two (and was formerly my number one of the declared candidates). I, like most FReepers, have problems with some of his positions and actions as Governor. When he performed poorly in the first debate I wasn’t too worried. When he failed to improve in the second, I started to worry. When he tanked the third debate I went back to looking at the other candidates. If the guy can’t figure out how to stop blowing the answers to the same three obvious questions over and over then there is something wrong with him. Now he’s kind of hiding from the media. At some point soon he’s going to have to step up to the plate and face the big-league pitching. Nobody gets a pass in the primaries because the ‘Rats are masters at generating category 5 shit-storms and whoever we nominate had better be ready. As of today, Perry is not.
I have wanted to like Michele Bachmann and have given her a chance but she has failed to develop into a strong candidate. She is a distant third place for me.
None of the other conservatives seem viable to me, and Romney, Paul, and Huntsman are out on ideological grounds.
At this point my primary vote is Cain’s to lose, but I am also trying to dissuade FReepers from trashing Perry too much just in case we wind up nominating him for some reason.
That is what I wish would happen. Perry is far from perfect but he is rock solid on quite a few conservative issues.
If worthless liberal bastard Romney gets the nomination I will leave the POTUS slot blank. I loathe his rotten filthy guts!