Is there a potential Republican Candidate for Prez 2012 that anyone's excited about?

[American Horse]

The only one with buzzzzzz is the one from Russia, oh, sorry about that, Alaska.

Seriously though I think Jeb Bush might be a good choice or Mitch Daniels.

Out of all the Bush men, I think Jeb Bush is the best. He ran Florida for 8 years has some across the board draw, but can he overcome his bros wars?

Mitch has some Washington experience as the first budget director under Bush and he has certainly kept Indiana's budget under control through these trying times. He has the economic and governmental smarts to help the country get out of this mess we are in. Certainly more than Sarah.

Agree.

I like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels. I could vote for either one.

Don't think either will be running though.

As for who's running in 2012?? As far as I know no one had declared their running yet. Kinda hard to pick one when you don't know who's running.

Mitch (he's our man here in Indiana!) has been said to lack stature. He's just 5-feet 7-inches in height, and its been said he would look dwarfed standing next to Obama on a debating platform. My own personal opinion is America is disalusioned with our basketball playing golfing man-boy president, and will look harder at choosing an adult this time around.

The left can be expected to beat up on Mitch for having been Bush's Office of Management and Budget, and for his having been employed by big Pharma Eli Lilly and Company. Finally they will once again ridicule him for "selling" the Indiana Toll Road (the perenial loser) to foreigners. It would be great, if he's the party's choice his VP running mate was Haley Barbour, who lack no skills at being knock down smart in any verbal assault. He's a veteran, at giving substantive answers to the "know it alls" who think he's just a redneck from Ol' Miss.

 

[Jarhead]

A smart voter will see how things pan out over the next year or so before making any type of decision.
Haven't we all learned a lesson about how ones words mean nothing?
I say lets see how certain Governors, Senators and congresspeople ACT before we say "he/she has my vote".
Times like these are ideal to find the right person....

 

[Claudette]

The only one with buzzzzzz is the one from Russia, oh, sorry about that, Alaska.

Seriously though I think Jeb Bush might be a good choice or Mitch Daniels.

Out of all the Bush men, I think Jeb Bush is the best. He ran Florida for 8 years has some across the board draw, but can he overcome his bros wars?

Mitch has some Washington experience as the first budget director under Bush and he has certainly kept Indiana's budget under control through these trying times. He has the economic and governmental smarts to help the country get out of this mess we are in. Certainly more than Sarah.

Agree.

I like Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels. I could vote for either one.

Don't think either will be running though.

As for who's running in 2012?? As far as I know no one had declared their running yet. Kinda hard to pick one when you don't know who's running.

Mitch (he's our man here in Indiana!) has been said to lack stature. He's just 5-feet 7-inches in height, and its been said he would look dwarfed standing next to Obama on a debating platform. My own personal opinion is America is disalusioned with our basketball playing golfing man-boy president, and will look harder at choosing an adult this time around.

The left can be expected to beat up on Mitch for having been Bush's Office of Management and Budget, and for his having been employed by big Pharma Eli Lilly and Company. Finally they will once again ridicule him for "selling" the Indiana Toll Road (the perenial loser) to foreigners. It would be great, if he's the party's choice his VP running mate was Haley Barbour, who lack no skills at being knock down smart in any verbal assault. He's a veteran, at giving substantive answers to the "know it alls" who think he's just a redneck from Ol' Miss.

Agree again.

I saw a little expose on both Barbour and Daniels on Fox last week. Like what I saw and heard.

Daniels has done a great job in Indiana as has Barbour in Miss. I think they would be one hell of a great team to run in 2012.

Don't know if it will happen though as I don't think Daniels is that interested in running. Don't know about Barbour.

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

My main problem with Romney is to me he has this condescending air about him that's always there. I don't think we've ever elected a President where that was an obvious trait. At least not since television. He has this quality about him where he comes across acting like he's better than everyone else and knows more. That is a quality the Republican Party can't stand. The other things they can hold their nose over if they think he's their only chance at the White House, but this is a subconscious thing that I think will prevent him from ever getting the nomination. He has too many values that are in opposition to the Republican Party. He tries to pretend that he's one of them, but he's not.

 

[American Horse]

Mitch (he's our man here in Indiana!) has been said to lack stature. He's just 5-feet 7-inches in height, and its been said he would look dwarfed standing next to Obama on a debating platform. My own personal opinion is America is disalusioned with our basketball playing golfing man-boy president, and will look harder at choosing an adult this time around.

The left can be expected to beat up on Mitch for having been Bush's Office of Management and Budget, and for his having been employed by big Pharma Eli Lilly and Company. Finally they will once again ridicule him for "selling" the Indiana Toll Road (the perenial loser) to foreigners. It would be great, if he's the party's choice his VP running mate was Haley Barbour, who lack no skills at being knock down smart in any verbal assault. He's a veteran, at giving substantive answers to the "know it alls" who think he's just a redneck from Ol' Miss.

Agree again.

I saw a little expose on both Barbour and Daniels on Fox last week. Like what I saw and heard.

Daniels has done a great job in Indiana as has Barbour in Miss. I think they would be one hell of a great team to run in 2012.

Don't know if it will happen though as I don't think Daniels is that interested in running. Don't know about Barbour.

Here are two interesting clips of Barbour, one on his view of Palin, and the other Rachel Maddow "expose" hit piece on his history with, of all things oil and the Republican party.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhhqYcQKg8Y[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ym4nk-2B0o&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Middleman]

How about the Dems??

Was watching a show on the History Channel Re: The Presidents. I was really surprised on the number of Presidents who held office but weren't nominated by their party for another term. Both Dem and Rep presidents. Good show.

Will Obama run??

Will the Dems nominate him or someone else?

Hell. If I were the Dems I'd seriously think about unhitching my horses from his wagon big time.

If they put up Hillary instead, and she runs against Palin, I'll vote for her. Obama against Palin and I'll vote third party.

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

Obama will not step aside in 2012 for another Dem candidate, nor will anyone challenge him within the party and beat him. That's a kind of ridiculous notion in my opinion. Someone said, it's happened many times before. Must have been a long, long time ago. The only one I know of in the last 100 years was LBJ who stepped aside. I was going to say Nixon blew out Humphrey, but actually looking at the popular vote, it was pretty close.

United States presidential election, 1968 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyway, he won the electoral vote handily and LBJ was a unique situation. Kennedy challenged Carter, we all know how that turned out. Democrats won't make that venture this time, no chance. Obama will be difficult to beat in 2012 by the GOP, unless the worst year of his first term is the last one.

Obama received 41% of the white male vote, and an even lower % of the male WASP vote. The other 59%+ of WASP males are the people most vitriolic towards him and most would never vote for him or Democrat anyway.

To beat him with the part of the electorate that does matter, swing voters in swing states, independents, you need a really good candidate in my opinion. Still searching...

This field will likely be better than the Democrats in 1988 (Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Michael Dukakis, Richard Gephardt, Joe Biden, Al Gore, Paul Simon etc.) -Dukakis won and we all know what happened after. But it might not be much better. I don't know if there's another field that would be comparable. It hasn't played out yet, but for now, I don't see an electable candidate. The 1996 GOP field was pathetic imo. They don't even count.

 

[WillowTree]

i BATHED THE BEAGLE AND THE JACK RUSSEL, BOTH OF THEM COULD BEAT LIPS PLANTED FIRMLY ON SOROS ASS OBIE WAN KNOW NOTHING.

 

[JakeStarkey]

You are, Willow, an idiot about political reality.

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

JakeStarkey,

You seem to be a realist and high on your opinion of projections. I like to try to figure these things out. Nate Silver is pretty solid, though I wish he didn't sell out to the NY Times. Use RealClearPolitics site and some artful guessing and you can come pretty close to predicting outcomes.

My question is what do you think the likely outcome in 2012 is at this point?

I think you posted earlier, you think Romney is the only one that would have a chance against Obama.

Intrade has him at 22% to get the GOP nomination. Then, at that point, I'd give him less than 50/50 of beating Obama. What do you think?

 

[Toro]

The Palinistas are REEEEEAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYY excited about Sarah Palin!

 

[JakeStarkey]

My predictions, Elephant McDonk, about 2010 were completely off through July before I finally realized the voters were going to soley cast the ballot on their pocket books, not ideology not Sarah not leftists not the Easter Bunny, only on their pocket books. At that point, as my signature demonstrates, I was pretty close to the final result.

Yes, I think Romney, if he can get the nomination, can beat Obama, and depending on the economy (if it is still this way in 18 months), may have a much better than 50/50 chance of victory.

The issue about Romney's nomination rests completely with Southern evangelicals. If they reject him, he will not get the nomination. And, if they reject him, the responsible conservatives and centrists will make sure that if Palin does get the nomination, that she will be badly battered in the process. She cannot win without the Republican moderates and the independents. Both groups detest her.

 

[rightwinger]

My predictions, Elephant McDonk, about 2010 were completely off through July before I finally realized the voters were going to soley cast the ballot on their pocket books, not ideology not Sarah not leftists not the Easter Bunny, only on their pocket books. At that point, as my signature demonstrates, I was pretty close to the final result.

Yes, I think Romney, if he can get the nomination, can beat Obama, and depending on the economy (if it is still this way in 18 months), may have a much better than 50/50 chance of victory.

The issue about Romney's nomination rests completely with Southern evangelicals. If they reject him, he will not get the nomination. And, if they reject him, the responsible conservatives and centrists will make sure that if Palin does get the nomination, that she will be badly battered in the process. She cannot win without the Republican moderates and the independents. Both groups detest her.

She doesn't poll too well with women either

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

Certainly Palin has no chance whatsoever in a general election. I agree with you on that.

As for Romney, I don't think he has better than a 50/50 chance of winning the general if he gets the nomination. My thought is he's "next in line" for the GOP. If he wins, it will be because there are no other alternatives. I'd like a darkhorse candidate's chances more if one exists.

Obama's approval rating is 47% today, which is higher than Clinton's or Reagan's at the same point in their 1st terms.

Romney speaks well on the economy. If it's as bad or worse than today and Romney wins the nomination easily because of his perfect messaging on the economy then I agree with you...

But, I think the economy will slightly improve. Obama will get the Presidential election machine revved up again, and it will work substantially better than the Democratic machine of 2010.

It won't work as well as it did in 2008 as some will be disillusioned and he doesn't have Palin to run against, but I think he will surprise with a better than expected next couple of years.

I'm sure there could be plenty of responses from WASP Male Republicans that think I'm completely wrong, but their opinions aren't the ones that matter on election day.

The only example of an incumbent being easily beaten was 1980 with Carter. That was a perfect storm. A strong challenger flanked him in his own party, pushed him all the way to the convention and never reconciled with him. His flock (Kennedy's) didn't come in the fold. Then Carter had a horrendous last year in office with Iran, Afghanistan, the Economy, the Olympics, the convention. Carter was a bad closer. Finally, he was beaten by a stellar candidate that drowned him in the charisma department, debates, etc..

Presidential incumbents are extremely difficult to beat. The best prospects the GOP has are on the bench and will stay there until at least 2016. They even acknowledge that.

 

[JakeStarkey]

All of that may well be true, EM, as my recent prognostications have demonstrated that it took me a long, long time to sift the tares from the wheat. I do think, however, the overall determiner will be the state of the economy. The better it gets, the more difficult upsetting Obama becomes. If it holds like this or, heavens help us (though, actually, I will be prepared to reap what the dummies sowed), gets worse, the better for any GOP candidate but particularly for Romney, which will make the race an easy chip shot onto the green.

 

[antagon]

i like mitt romney. he is the most sane-sounding republican up for pesident at the last election. he made an amazing concession speach when that idiot mccain had him beat in the primary. i dont see obama necessarily loosing a reelection bid, but if that were to happen, i would dig mitt in the WH.

 

[American Horse]

i like mitt romney. he is the most sane-sounding republican up for pesident at the last election. he made an amazing concession speach when that idiot mccain had him beat in the primary. i dont see obama necessarily loosing a reelection bid, but if that were to happen, i would dig mitt in the WH.

And Mitt would not have lost if Huckabee had not acted as spoiler.
I hope that is obvious to all here who like him or Huck.
Romney did not sponsor the same health care bill, as the Mass bill evolved into. But regardless, he would do what's right, not what's expedient.

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

I'm not going to suggest Romney would make a bad candidate or President, but I would guess that he will do what's expedient and not necessarily "right" as the previous poster posted he would.

When he ran as a Republican in Massachusetts he was pro-choice and for RomneyCare, etc.

When he was running in the primaries, he shifted right for expediency. He attempts to be a chameleon and everyone sees through it. That's his biggest problem. He's perceived as being two-faced.

Nobody likes that, especially conservative Republicans.

 

[antagon]

on the matter of what's right versus what's expedient, these matters, particularly the former, are very subjective.

mitt romney is not an ultraconservative. he is more in the vein of the reagan republican, and more moderate for certain.

from the perspective of highly conservative republicans, i hate to break it to you, but nobody, but NOBODY will DO what you consider right... because it is not right. the same would abide for the highly liberal democrat and their heroes.

i dig mitt because he doesnt subscribe to that bullshit or feel that he needs to pander to people who do. pandering has gained some favor among the rightening R base, but i doubt there will be any chance of a presidency until that base comes to grips with more moderate positions and supports a like-minded candidate.

 

[ElephantMcDonk]

Switching from Pro-Choice to Pro-Life within a few years when you just happen to go from running for Governor of Massachusetts to running for nominee of the Republican Party is symbolic of what many people see Romney as.

He will say or do whatever is necessary to get what he wants and has no real ideological compass. That's perception anyway, and I think it's pretty much true.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. If you don't have principles that's bad and if your moral compass is off or doesn't exist or doesn't go into you decision making, that's not ideal. Republicans particularly hate that. But, I think it's the subconscious reason a lot of people will never like Romney.

There are those that don't like him because he's Mormon, or his health care program in Massachusetts, or that he seems inept on foreign policy, or that he comes across as talking down to people and condescending, but I think his biggest problem is he's a flip-flopper.

He's probably as good as it gets this time around for the GOP and if Obama is incredibly weak politically in 2012, Romney would definitely have a puncher's chance if he got the nomination, but I think he's weaker than many people think.