Palin - Bachmann! GOP 2012 Field

They're already talking GOP presidential field for 2012.  Here's my take...

Since any giddy follower can sing the praises of even the most failed politician (Look at how many still defend Obama), I thought I'd focus more on the negatives.  I'll start with unfinished business from the 2008 debacle...

FAILED CLASS OF 2008 - Don't go away mad, just go away

This failed class of 2008 has less than 5 minutes foreign policy experience between them, and their records are either thin or spotty.  What I wrote about this trio back in November 2008 still stands.

Palin entering the primaries will rend the party, because her loyalists cannot bear any criticism of her whatsoever.  And Huckabee and Romney are like matches and gunpowder.  The constant sniping, bitching and smearing their two camps engaged in produced John McCain and poisoned the waters.
  
Sarah Palin - She did great things in a sparsely populated state, but she needs to be a senator or cabinet member first.  The comparisons to Reagan are ill-informed.  Reagan was Screen Actor's Guild president for over 10 years, served two full terms as governor of America's largest state (and the world's 10th largest economy).  He had been studying, writing and speaking about serious issues from a conservative perspective for a full 20 years before he became president.

Mitt Romney - Romneycare.  If that's not enough, he's a political shape shifter (even more than most)

Mike Huckabee - Like Romney, a big government type.  He released a rapist-murderer who used this misplaced mercy to go rape and murder some more.  Huck needs to read Adam Smith, "Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent."


The Short List - My Favorites
Here is a list of my favorites, each followed by a negative or knock against him.

Tim Pawlenty - Conservative governor from a blue state.  I like his style, but many hardcore types will call him a RINO because he made compromises

Mitch Daniels - He's short and balding.  He's also put Indiana on sound fiscal footing, has cabinet-level experience, and is a common sense conservative who lives his values.  Can substance overcome style?

Mike Pence - Mike Who?  A serious man for a serious time.  I think he's ready, but most of America doesn't know who he is.

Jim DeMint - He's a senator.  A conservative superstar, he has a lot of chips he could cash in on the way to winning the nomination.

Herman Cain - Herman who?  We've never had a president named Herman, but this man needs to be the first.  Former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and tea party hero, this is a no-nonsense, call it like it is conservative.

NOT YET
Marco Rubio - Our first Hispanic president*, but not in 2012.  If he runs now, he's just an Obama on the right.  He needs to get some foreign policy cred and show us what he's made of on the national scene.

Bobby Jindal - Our first Indian-American president*, but not in 2012.  He's brilliant, extremely accomplished, but he's too young and he need some foreign policy cred. 

Paul Ryan - Like Jindal, he's young, brilliant and knows how to break it down for us common folk

Chris Christie - He's only been governor two years, and the situation on the ground in New Jersey is still fluid.  He's a wonderful guy, doing great things, but we need to see if his efforts bear fruit.

David Petraeus - He's said he's not running and he'd have to leave the battlefield to do it.  I don't see it happening.

Jeb Bush - His name is Bush

* - Please excuse my very un-conservative descent into liberal identity politics!

NO WAY
Judd Gregg - Judd Who?  This is the Republican that almost joined Obama's cabinet.  Someone needs to tell Senator Gregg that East Coast country club republicanism is dead.  The Bushes drove the final nails in the coffin.

Gary Johnson - He smokes pot

Ron Paul - Too old.

Newt Gingrich - Poor old Newtie shows a little leg every four years, but nobody's buyin'.  He's yesterday's  news.  He flirted with the Clintons, he flirts with big government ideas, he adulterously flirted while his ex-wife was on her deathbed.  The left has permanently demonized him.  What has he done besides being Speaker of the House and doing a whole lotta talking?  I could go on, but you get the picture.   

John Bolton - He's intelligent, he's experienced, but he's too blunt and polarizing.  The left has demonized him.  Being a heroic UN-attacking rottweiler requires a different skill set than being president.

Bob McDonnell - Name recognition.  He's a conservative hero who contributed to rescuing Virginia from the blue column, but he just hasn't had the national exposure and I don't know what his foreign policy credentials are.

John Thune - He's a Senator.  What else has he done?

Rick Santorum - Great guy and conservative hero, but he couldn't even get reelected in his own state. 

Haley Barbour - He's a loquacious southerner.  They'll dig up some racist stuff on him and it'll be all over

Rick Perry - He's said he's not running, and he's also said he's hell-bent on riding with the governors in the states rights gunfight.

Jonah Goldberg is much better at this than I.  Go read his analysis, Sorting out the 2012 GOP Pack

Also check out Howard Kurtz's The GOP's 2012 Fantasies