Posted on 05/09/2011 6:20:47 AM PDT by markomalley
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Talk to enough people around this key primary state and you'll learn two lessons, over and over again. One is that there is absolutely, positively no unity among Republicans about any presidential candidate or potential candidate; there's no such thing as a frontrunner. The other is that in the back of their minds, many Republicans are hoping that somewhere, somehow, a superhero candidate will swoop down out of the sky and rescue them from their current lackluster presidential field. They know it's a fantasy, but they still hope.
It's not just dissatisfaction with the field -- Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Gary Johnson -- that took part in the first GOP debate on Thursday night. Even if the other would-be candidates -- Mike Huckabee , Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, and Donald Trump -- had all been onstage with the others Thursday, there still would have been plenty of unhappiness among South Carolina's political professionals, activists, and ordinary people who just follow politics. Seeing each candidate as flawed, they focus on the unattainables -- Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio -- who they believe might bring a fresh face and new hope to the GOP.
Of course, each of the unattainables is so new in his job -- governor of New Jersey, chairman of the House Budget Committee, senator from Florida -- that they could not easily drop their responsibilities and run for president, especially since they haven't been building campaigns for months, as most of the other would-be candidates have. And of course, if any of the unattainables actually ran, the dissatisfied might quickly develop doubts about him, too. But at least they'd be new doubts, rather than the old, lingering ones about some of the current candidates.
All this has led to intense frustration among Republicans in South Carolina -- and around the country, too. They believe Barack Obama is eminently beatable, even after the recent triumph of killing Osama bin Laden. When his bin Laden bounce settles down, it's likely that Obama will return to the mid-40s job approval range. And yet Republicans are fighting the idea, heard not just in the press but among some of their own colleagues, that a president in the mid-40s can't be defeated. It doesn't make sense to them. So they hope for some new way out of the problem.
The one candidate already in the field who is generating excitement as a genuinely new face is Herman Cain, the talk radio host and former CEO of Godfather's Pizza. It's not because Cain is young -- at 65, he is the oldest candidate in the field, aside from Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich -- but because he brings a businessman's credibility to a race dominated by economic issues; has a gift for commonsense talk; and does it all with a little showmanship (along with some startling weaknesses in the area of foreign policy and national security). After Thursday's debate, when Frank Luntz conducted a focus group discussion for Fox News, Cain was the big winner.
Now another possible candidate, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, appears to believe he can be the new face Republican primary voters are seeking. Huntsman, who just a week ago returned to the United States from his Obama-appointed post as ambassador to China, is moving at warp speed to set up a campaign. After meeting with potential donors in New York, his first primary-state stop was South Carolina, where he met with Governor Nikki Haley and other top politicos and gave a non-political graduation speech at the University of South Carolina. Huntsman has already assembled a team, made up in large part of the advisers who worked for John McCain in the last election.
If voters perceive a McCain connection, that could be bad news for Huntsman. By and large, Republicans in South Carolina have no nostalgia for the 2008 McCain candidacy. They will always respect McCain for his military service, and of course McCain won the South Carolina primary, but many look back on his '08 presidential run with regret; some will tell you they held their nose to vote for him in the general election. Huntsman's opponents will try to pigeonhole him as a civil-unions-loving, cap-and-trading moderate. If they succeed, and a man with a solid record of governing becomes known as McCain without the heroism -- well, that wouldn't help.
In the end, it's always possible Republicans will return to their old habits and nominate the candidate who finished second the last time around. In this race, that could mean either Romney or Huckabee, who virtually tied for runner-up in the 2008 primaries. At the moment, Romney is pretty much nowhere in South Carolina -- the enormous amount of money he spent in the state in '08 has bought him very little loyalty -- and has not put a lot of effort into Iowa, either. Huckabee, still doing his program for Fox News and radio commentary for ABC, is giving off signals that he will run but hasn't yet made a final decision.
One thing is certain: No previously-unknown savior is going to descend from the sky to save Republicans. If they are to defeat Barack Obama, they'll have to do it with someone from their extended field today.
>>> Poor Michael Medved. The #1 radio cheerleader for McCain last time can’t decide whether he wants to pimp for Huntsman, or for Daniels >>>
Don’t forget HUCK!!! (another Medvedev favorite) / misspell intentional
yes her absence from the list is very telling. it’s almost as though if they wish her to go away that she will.
Of course you’re right. How could I forget. I was probably so stunned from his most recent praise for Lindsay Graham that I wasn’t thinking cleary.
You are so right, and not only are they Graham’s buddies, they are the folks who worked for the liberal Republican against Haley in the primary AND THEN MANY WORKED FOR THE DEM against Haley in the General Election.
They are all McCain re treads as well. These are not the DeMint folks.
If I might take a wild guess, Rush’s enthusiasm about the debate was based on several factors, not the least of which was the Cain was unknown to so many people beforehand. You already liked him, so you got what you expected.
The folks who knew nothing of him were by and large impressed and surprised. I think that was sort of RL’s thinking.
There's no former or present governors that really seem up to the task of defeating Obama, even among the ones that are already on the radar.
Palin is the closest thing we have, and she's a real mixed bag of very strong positives and negatives. The rest of the popular folks are very junior in experience. The veterans are not popular. Not a good balance.
As far as former or present generals, David Petraeus is probably the only one with enough star power (no pun intended) to give Obama a run for his money. I don't know how he'd fare in the primaries, but he'd be very competitive in the general election.
Colin Powell is DOA, and beyond that, the general bench is pretty shallow.
Who else does that leave? Senators? Congressmen? The favored ones are very junior, very light on experience. There's businessmen like Trump and Cain. Tempting, but are they what America is looking for? Hard to say.
For a year where Obama is increasingly vulnerable, he seems to be blessed with weak enemies.
SC Republicans are so clueless that they just do whatever Lindsey Graham tells them! So it was McPain in 2008.
I like Cain. I like Cain a lot, but I was mildly disappointed in his SC debate. He mostly gave what I call ‘Outline’ answers - outlining issues without any specifics other than his call for the Fair Tax.
I was surprised he scored so well among the Luntz panel. I think it was due mostly to the fact that he is new and not a politician.
If Palin doesn’t run, I would hope a non-politician is our candidate. I believe almost anyone can beat Obama, and if Rubio takes the second spot ( VP) - the election is over.
A Cain-West ticket would be loads of fun. I heard Breitbart say that is his dream ticket if only to stick it to the PC crowd.
Personally, while I could vote for Palin myself I see her running in the Goldwater dimensions.
Yes, ol’ Abe Lincoln said you can’t beat somebody with nobody, and the Republican electorate still agrees. Yet they keep nominating nobodies.
I find it curious that people loved Rick Santorum until he foolishly put party politics ahead of his own beliefs and at the behest of President, endorsed Arlen Spector. Now, it seems that people are unwilling to forgive that one mistake. Yeah, I know it was a BIG mistake that cost the whole party, but Bush convinced him it was the right thing to do.
I just don’t think that Santorum would make a mistake like that again. Bush was too egotistical to believe that his own charisma might not be enough to win friends and influence people. He constantly underestimated his domestic enemies, if not his foreign enemies. Santorum’s mistake was following Bush.
You mean ex-governor Palin who quit her job because she couldn’t take the heat, and who will not likely be runnIng.
Check again on Greaseball Giussolini’s real record on taxes and regulation. And how could somebody who stated that illegals were an “asset” to NY be considered to be strong on security?
>>> Check again on Greaseball Giussolini’s real record on taxes and regulation. And how could somebody who stated that illegals were an “asset” to NY be considered to be strong on security? >>>
You are debating points I did not make. I simply said that he campaigned to the right of McCain, and I stand by that. I said he governed New York as far right as possible for that city. I said he was right of McCain on terror specifically. And I specifically said that was the ENTIRETY of the point I was making and that it was NOT an endorsement of him for President in 2012.
Agree CEW, the way these SC R-rats are as devious as the most feral D-rats. They were shameful in the lies they propagated against Haley in favor of the D-rat Gov. The SC Statehouse is full of these types that resented Sanford for being a Conservative but they really hate Haley as a female and Conservative. We have an infestation of good old boyz and black bigots in the SC Government.
I have some good conservative friends in SC and they tell me it is exactly as you have said. I also worked with some of SC’s elites in an AD PR Polling firm in Columbia in the 80’s — during the Carroll Campbell era. He did a good job taking the state from the D’s, but his crowd is not a tea party crowd.
[Byron York, eyes shut]
It's not just dissatisfaction with the field -- Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, and Gary Johnson -- that took part in the first GOP debate on Thursday night. Even if the other would-be candidates -- Mike Huckabee , Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mitch Daniels, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, and Donald Trump -- had all been onstage with the others Thursday, there still would have been plenty of unhappiness among South Carolina's political professionals, activists, and ordinary people who just follow politics. Seeing each candidate as flawed, they focus on the unattainables -- Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio -- who they believe might bring a fresh face and new hope to the GOP.
Oh, he had room on the list for "The Donald" -- there he is, in blue -- but you're right, he didn't have room in his weighty, ponderous, oh-so-consequent consideration of Republican hopes for 2012 for the one name that matters, God bless her pointy little stiletto heels.
Someone said she'll enter the race late .... I'm beginning to believe them. I think she realized quite a while ago what she is up against -- think about this: what does it take, to unify NeoStalinist Obama backers and white-shoe "Rockefeller Republicans" in a single political strategy to suppress her candidacy? It's mind-boggling -- and she is campaigning in a way to, ahem, "trump" them.
But York is still singing from the Yacht Club hymnal: "I Snubbed Her Once and She Took the Hint, Down at the Sagamore Club".
What's a "DRat"? Is that shorthand for a Strom-style Dixiecrat?
Hey, hey, hey! You know the Rules!! "Yorkie-poo" didn't mention her, so She Who Must Not Be Named is "out" -- beyond the scope of our discussion here! -- so please confine yourself to the names on The List, okay? Remember, FReepers, Rhinosceroid little noses to the grindstone now, we gotta have Republican unity!!! Rah! Rah! Rah!
</massive sarc>
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