Do you guys really want the presidency in 2012? I mean look at the losers you are running and the heavy hitters you are holding back. I think that maybe you realize that Obama is more useful to you in office than out of it and that you're thinking 2016 represents your best shot.
I have to tell you that in no way, shape, or form do I think that the United States would benefit from another four years of Obama. I cannot imagine that anyone who is *not* in the party leadership would think that, either. The only thing that I can possibly assume is that the Republican leadership realizes just how weak the entire party is and that they've pretty much thrown up their hands for the election in the hope that they can get him impeached somehow. I can't fathom how anyone could consider this field of Republican candidates as possibly electable--I mean, Newt Gingrich? Really? Contract on America--hello?! The best of that bad lot, in my opinion, is Michelle Bachman and she has as much chance of getting elected as the College of Cardinals has electing me pope. (The female, Orthodox Christian thing pretty much puts paid to that!) You're right--the party seems to be opting for 2016. Why, I have no idea.
You seem to be assuming that the Republican leadership and their corporate masters are interested in what's best for America. I've seen no evidence of this. I think that they are looking at things strategically and they are rolling the dice that four more years of Obama bashing and saying "no" will make conditions in this country such that a Republican candidate who is not a total freak has a good chance of being elected. And I think that in political terms it's a good call. Not without risks but if they can keep it up the odds work.
What the Republicans are doing is unrecognizable to me. I've never seen any spectacle like this before. I wanted to show my wife Rick Perry's performance last night and she thought that I wanted to show her something funny online. When I showed her his performance in last night's debate, she really, really felt sorry for him. It is hard to watch someone go through that type of experience without cringing. It is incidences like these that reinforce the Left's use of the term "stupid" when they refer to the Right because it is such a blatant example of a very specific critique the Left has always attributed to the Right. I can't believe that there is any master plan to actually get one of these people into the White House. I think that there are just a lot of competing factions on the Right throwing anything they have up against the wall just to see what sticks. If there are any heavy hitters out there that can form any kind of cohesive run for the presidency and actually get the radical Right, and I mean radical, and more moderate Righties, to support anyone, and then try to pull in independents, well more power to them. I just don't see that happening.
The Republican's this past year have showed precisely where their allegiance lies. And if you don't make tons of money it's not with you. The Republican party doesn't give a damn about the American people. They want to literally take the money from the poor and old and give it to their rich friends on Wall Street. That's not American, it's not Christian, it's not even nice. I want to know how you can be a Christian and purport to even remotely care about the teachings of Jesus and still support the Republican Party? I mean Jesus lays the hippy stuff on a bit, and the only people he ever got physical with was the money changers. Plus the Bible outright condemns the practice of loaning money at interest. It is an abomination.
We are seeing so many more Republican challengers because they all know defeating BO & his dismal record will be easy pickin's. Some who wouldn't merit a second look in previous elections are licking their chops at the prospect of going head to head with the worst president we've ever had. Now, to turn the tables, when will the dims awaken and realize if they want to keep the WH they will have to hurt some feelings & run a qualified candidate? To an earlier point, it is most likely dimocrat strategy to concede the WH this time around so BO won't have to be embarrased by the party (the electorate maybe but not the party) and asked to step aside. This way they can fade the heat on our problems & go back to blaming the right.
I don't think it really matters how many buffoons take the leap off the Republican Primary stage, everyone knows it is Romney who will go up against Obama and Romney is not likely to make an idiot out of himself like the others. What is happening with the other candidates is that Romney is not hard core conservative enough for the typical primary (aka extreme) voters so they keep flirting with the Bachmanns or the Cains and the Perrys (Gingrich will probably be next) at this stage. But the inevitability is Romney. And he has to be smiling big because the rest of the pack is making him look more and more like a solid, professional candidate with every fatal blunder the others make. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
I agree we've never seen anything like this debacle of a primary. I think the GOP's major blunder that set this up was trying to align with the extremists in the party in order to get their votes, going back to the Southern Strategy and, more recently, Rove's deliberate alliance with the fringes that were blackballed (John Birch Society etc) back in the day. In 2010, the GOP learned that "no compromise" meant just that. Reach across the aisle to actually accomplish something, and you're primaried. With that kind of embraced do-nothingness in Congress, it's impossible for the GOP to produce a credible sane realpolitik presidential candidate. I distrust Rick Perry because clearly, he is clueless about anything outside of Texas. He was drafted by big money to run for president, which makes me highly suspicious. ' In over his head' doesn't even begin to cover it!
