“Paul Ryan,” we read today in the Washington Examiner is, “underwhelemed with [the] current GOP field“: “We don’t have the presidential candidates right now,” the Wisconsin Republican told New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny, “The field hasn’t materialized yet, so we’re out there doing it ourselves.”
At least, Ryan acknowledged that the field hasn’t materialized yet, but other pundits gnash their teeth and wring their hands about the apparent weakness of the apparent Republican field. It’s as if the presidential election were this summer and not next fall. “The way things are going,” James Taranto quips today commenting on a Times piece on the absence of passion for Republican candidates, “President Obama will be impossible to beat this year.”
Why all this focus on the 2012 presidential race when we’re barely in the second quarter of 2011? Could it be that those dwelling on Donald Trump want to show us the sorry state of the Republican presidential field? Or could it be that we’re dwelling on the upcoming presidential contest because Americans increasingly feel the incumbent is not up to the job?
It’s way too early to speculate on the 2012 contest. Perhaps some candidates who today sit on the sidelines will toss their hats into the ring when they realize the opportunity a weak economy and unpopular incumbent afford.
The Mainstream Fantasy Media would like nothing more than to have an early “front runner” to trash and cripple. They would require said person to lay out a detailed agenda and action plan, which they will not ask of Obama in any way, shape or form. The game is to distract, undermine and discard.
This whole business is about wearing out the public, destroying candidates and positioning another McCain type into filling the losing spot.
For my satisfaction, I would love to see Trump, Palin, and Bachmann cloned and multiplied to keep tearing away at Obama’s ship of fools and his demagoguery in particular. There is plenty of open season left on “The Won” and he fully deserves to stay peeved and nasty.
Huckleberry, Pawlenty, Daniels, and Romney are double doses of Nytol, but smart enough to keep their powder dry and wait until hunting season actually opens. But even then, I can only see them getting run over by the Chicago style steam roller of voting corruption, illegal funding and repeated lies, deception and scaremongering.
Bachmann is working hard on name recognition, Trump is having a sporting good time and Palin is far cagier and astute than anyone in the business of predicting politics is willing to admit. I think this is a season to pay attention to the Las Vegas book.
Meanwhile, the Republican “establishment” is busy watching to see how the big 500 fat cats are assessing the race. Romney has been playing to them since 2008. But the big 500 do not understand or even care to consider the power of the TEA Party. The establishment lost against Clinton twice and they barely eked out a win with GW Bush and crashed and burned with McCain.
The real story is how the coffers of “independent” Republicans are being filled. The money available to Palin or Christie or Ryan is unknown. But, it is by no means small change compared to the big 500. The sea change is not limited to getting Obama out, but also includes shifting the center of gravity in the GOP.
Listening to “the man on the street”, the GOP mainstream is increasingly irrelevant and they are totally unaware of it. Karl Rove…go home.
Agreed. A frontrunner will appear out of left field who is not on the radar right now; the MSM is obsessed so they can clinch a RINO Republican. President Obama is not a leader; ironically, he is acting like candidate Obama while he is the POTUS. The MSM know Obama is not a leader & are playing defense for him. But they would do that with any other Democrat President as well.
Gary Johnson! Gary Johnson! Gary Johnson!
All true, Helio.
I’m sorry to believe that the most intellectual and common-sense blessed leader as well as the most complex and handicapped (politically)… is Newt Gingrich.
Unfortunately I also believe he’s just another tired, old white guy Republican hack.