Write off 2012?
When Mark Sanford was caught going to Argentina to visit his mistress, the media widely reported the downfall of a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate. That got me thinking–why bother focusing so much on the 2012 presidential election since the Republicans are almost certain to lose?
Despite Congress’s best efforts to derail the Democratic Party, the media is still in infatuated with Obama. It’s pretty much going to take the President being caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy for this to change.
Meanwhile, the Republican bench for the next election is laughably bad. Mitt Romney is still a flip-flopper, Sarah Palin is still a joke, Mike Huckabee is still too ideological, Bobby Jindal is still too unpolished, Tim Pawlenty is still too boring and Newt Gingrich still has too much old baggage.
None of those people (nor any other challenger I can think of) would stand a chance against Obama + the media in 2012.
Therefore, I would suggest that the Republicans nominate Palin or Huckabee so brand social issues-focused, populist brand of the Republican party can finally be put to rest. It also doesn’t make sense to waste a young, talented politician like Bobby Jindal on what is a lost cause.
So therefore let’s forget about 2012 and switch the presidential focus to 2016 when Obama won’t be able to run again.
By then, Republicans should be in position to take back Congress (the Senate cycles that come up in 2012 and 2014 are overwhelmingly Democratic and I assume voters will take out their frustrations with bad governance on the Democratic congress since they won’t do it to Obama).
By 2016, the Republicans should have a bench of much better small government candidates, such as a polished Jindal, a more widely known Mike Pence and an older Aaron Schock. Or perhaps the best candidate isn’t even known yet. After all, eight years ago Barack Obama was a state senator who had just gotten walloped in a U.S. House primary.
User Comments
Twitted by averagejoele
July, 2009
[...] This post was Twitted by averagejoele [...]
shyler
July, 2009
joe,
i applaud you for your effort with the site. pretty neat.
i remember growing up thinking that the democrats were the political party and the republicans were the idealists. i of course now recognize that i was incorrect, but there is something appealing to the under-politicization of ideals, to me at least.
so, the idea of putting the party before the ideals, in pursuit for power, is exactly what i think is wrong with the Rs now.
eh. perhaps i’m ignorant of all data in political science data…