Conventional wisdom of less than a month ago was that either Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels would be the GOP presidential nominee in 2012. Maybe Romney, but nobody likes Romney.
Then Daniels dropped out, and the “smart” money was on Pawlenty. Until this week. After his tepid performance in Monday night’s debate, the pundits already are writing off his chances. They aren’t dismissing him because of his ridiculous economic plan, mind you, but because he failed to deliver a promised insult about Mitt Romney. Oh, and he’s boring.
I swear, some days I think I’m going to wake up from the dream and realize I’m still in high school.
At this moment, Mitt Romney is the obvious front runner. But for a variety of reasons, Romney is unpopular with both the GOP establishment and the Tea Party. Of the lot of them I think Romney is least likely to fall on his face during a general election campaign, so I hope he stays unpopular.
Republicans are looking for a white knight to rescue them from running a clown candidate. NJ Gov. Chris Christie was getting some buzz a few weeks ago, but his popularity is slipping. And he says he’s not running.
So now they’re looking to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who in any other time in American history would be considered a certifiable looney tune. Now the normally sober Nate Silver says Perry potentially is the most conservative candidate who is electable. And political news media are taking Michelle Bachmann seriously.
My project this weekend is to re-read “A Comedy of Errors.”
Felicity,
If they want her to make a serious run, Palin’s advisors should read “The Taming of the Shrew.”
And I wonder if Jeb, “Hamlet” Busy is sitting somewhere pondering, ‘To run, or not to run, that is the question…’
Maybe Obama will win, and it’ll be “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Not perfectly well, but better…
And maybe we’re worried about all of these clowns running on the Republican side for nothing.
It may be “Much Ado About Nothing.”
OK, I’m Will’d out…
Robert Scheer, Seven Republican Dwarfs:
The link to taking Michelle Bachman seriously is The Washington Post, a newspaper no one should take seriously any more. They are conservative and Republican these days and only print propaganda. I think calling them Pravda on the Potomac is a name that better identifies this piece of garbage.
Great link, moonbat!
Newt said something significant that made me feel a lot better. It was the only serious comment I can recall in the first hour of posturing.
“But I want to answer Sylvia at a different level. This campaign cannot be only about the presidency. We need to pick up at least 12 seats in the U.S. Senate and 30 or 40 more seats in the House, because if you are serious about repealing Obamacare, you have to be serious about building a big enough majority in the legislative branch that you could actually in the first 90 days pass the legislation.
So I just think it’s very important to understand, it’s not about what one person in America does. It’s about what the American people do. And that requires a senatorial majority, as well as a presidency.”
Bonnie , Maybe the Washington Post is a propaganda rag, and their cited reasons for taking Bachmann as a serious contender might be off base, but I believe that Bachmann is, or will be, the formidable contender in the GOP field. Not because of who she is, but because of her diversity in connecting with a wide range of interest groups..I see her as having a distinct advantage over the rest of the field if uninformed voters blindly follow their individual issues without regard to the overall consequence of what it would mean to put her in office. She’s got women voters, tea party voters, evangelical, conservatives, generational repugs who vote the party come hell or high water, and I’m sure there are a whole lot who will translate and perceive Bachmann’s stupidity as an asset…just like they did with Sarah Like I’ve said before…she scares me…and that’s because of the voters mentality, not her’s.
“Seven Republican Dwarfs” – Thanks Moonbat, it was a good link. Some of the comments below the article are priceless too.
This mornings read – Meet the new MILF that will create starbursts in Republican men”s eyes:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/14/michele-bachmanns-unrivaled-extremism-gay-rights-to-religion.html
Bachmann is one scary and dangerous Dominionist nitwit.
I think the Republican Party will eventually nominate Romney, who will appeal to the traditional party elites, but who won’t do much for the base of loony-tunes now known as the Teabaggers.
The elites know that Romney polls best against Obama, and have already started belittling the other candidates. Gingrich pretty much did himself in already. The other day, they pretty much cast Tim Pawlenty Stupid aside. They’ll keep Cain for awhile, to keep up the fairy tale that they’re a big tent party. But they’ll slowly start to whittle the field down, but keep in mind that they’ll probably still need a whacko to bring out the base to help secure the House and get control of the Senate.
Bachmann can make it interesting in the beginning because she could take Iowa, her birth state, SC and NH, making her very formidable in the early primaries. And while I don’t think the elites want her to head the ticket, they have to be careful how they handle her, as they may need her later. This could be the most entertaining part of the upcoming episodes of “The Great Clown Show.”
The unknown here is Perry, and how the elite will treat him. Texas is starting to crack financially, as Perry’s smoke and mirrors financial hocus-pocus is now starting to catch up to reality. If they treat him seriously, they may switch to him over Romney. But I think that an even dimmer and more religious bulb than Little Boots, one who has already talked about secession, will make a great target for the Democrats to aim at. So, he may come in as a star, but I think he’ll be consigned to an also-ran if he does get in.
But no matter what, they’ll need someone who’ll appeal to that base. I think it’ll be either Bachmann, to also go after some female independents who may like her pious motherhood and hyper-religiosity, or Marco Rubio, to try to grab some of that Hispanic vote that’s starting to flee from them. Both appeal to the deranged base.
After an entertaining year, my prediction, after “The Great Clown Wars of 2010-2011” will be a ticket of either Romney/Bachmann or Romney/Rubio. There’s an off-chance that Perry may be acceptable as a VP, but I don’t see it. He won’t bring in much that wouldn’t already be there. Bachmann and/or Rubio will excite the same wingnut base as Perry, but can also bring in female/Hispanic independents that ‘Secess’ Perry won’t.
That’s my best guess right now.
But DO read that Bachmann link, and be afraid, be very afraid.
Oops, obviously, it should be “The Great Clown Wars of 2011-2012.”
Hey, I’m just glad I didn’t write 1910-1911, so give me some credit there.
And, for those worried about Christie, I think maha’s right – his star is fading in NJ, and he said he isn’t running.
But, that can change. We can use the old “Al Gore Test” and look to see if Christie starts to lose weight by going on a really serious diet, or staple/rubber-band his stomach for faster results.
But right now, even in “Super-size Nation,” I doubt that that Krispy Kreme Christie, a William Howard Taft body-double, will appeal beyond those people who like a big fat bully who sounds like Tony Soprano. And I don’t think he’ll appeal much to independents west of OH, and south of DC.
Like I said, it should be an entertaining, though scary, 12-14 months as “The Great Clown Wars” are fought on fields of banana-peels.
But don’t worry, the MSM will work like dogs to make all of these bozo’s look like they are presidential timber. After all, it’s not their job to look at things analytically and call a clown a clown. It’s your’s, as a reader/viewer/listener/surfer.
“Now the normally sober Nate Silver says Perry potentially is the most conservative candidate who is electable”
I’ve noticed since Nate appears more and more on the cable gab fests he’s become slightly less credible. He’s become just another “analyst” picking apart some useless poll taking up time in the 24hr news cycle. He has to call Perry legitimate so they will have something to talk about. Isn’t that the whole point of political polling seventeen months out from an election? I’m waiting for the media to poll it’s own popularity, somehow I think they’d be lower than whale poop!
I don’t discount a Bachmann nomination, or even a Bachmann presidency. She’s a loony enough and a dim enough bulb that I’m quite certain the real powers n this government will look at her and believe she can be easily managed through the Presidency, just as GWB was easily managed by Cheney, Paulsen and others. And they’ll let her lunatic religious stuff slip by because it really doesn’t affect them one way or the other.
Scary times we are in folks, the scariest being that all this extremism on the wackadoodle fascist right enables Obama to run far to the right himself, as long as he stays a step or two back from the brink the true crazies have delineated. I see no good outcomes from 2012 for most of us.
I’m fascinated by the fact that everybody knows that the real competition is gonna be between Bachmann and Palin.
This is ridiculous, for so many the only reason to pay attention to what the republicans do is the potential for a catfight.
High school never ends, Maha.
Good comments, all. So far, if the latest polls are to be believed, the only groups impressed by Bachmann are the media. Poll-wise, she’s still at 3%.
There’s a new book out on evangelical, right-wing christians (I think it’s by ?Goldberg) in which the author explains their thinking. They ‘run’ everything by god – science, history, economics… – and whatever god thinks on the subject at hand they believe – and act accordingly. So when god tells them that global warming is a conspiracy perpetrated by atheists, that’s what global warming is. Period.
We might question their direct line to god, but they don’t, which is why they are so frightening. If we even suggest that their ‘contact’ is in their own whackadoodle heads, they slap us with the labels atheists, socialists, liberals…it’s a long list.