Where is the GOP heir apparent? It’s an odd election cycle when the Dems have one & Repubs don’t

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | August 17, 2014 | David M. Shribman

[2ndDivisionVet]

The party of the next guy has no next guy.

For more than two generations, the Republican presidential nominating process has had an immutable internal logic to it: The next guy in line gets the nomination. That’s how every Republican president of the post-Eisenhower era has won his party’s nomination and how just about every GOP presidential nominee since Thomas E. Dewey (1944 and 1948) got to the top of the ticket. It’s certainly how Barack Obama’s two opponents, Sen. John McCain and former Gov. Mitt Romney, were nominated.

But just as the Republican Party is going through one of its periodic struggles for identity — earlier such battles were fought in 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1980 and 1992 — the party finds itself without a “next guy.”

The only political figure with possible claims to the title is Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 vice presidential nominee. But he is more interested in becoming chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and realizing his dream, perhaps as difficult to attain as winning a presidential nomination, of rewriting the federal tax code....

[2ndDivisionVet]

Ted Cruz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz

[4Speed]

Wait, it’s 2016, why tell the Enemy who Herman Cain is, or any other candidate, Like Perry....?

OK, don’t announce your candidates early, wait till the American people draft someone, or several someone’s, and then the Dems will be attacking the grass Roots Americans as well as the replacement workers from the GOP to DC.

I’m for delaying and making the attack dogs stay on a leash.

[JSDude1]

We don’t need a freakin’ “heir apparent”. What we need is a conservative with cajones. That would be IMO, Ted Cruz and farther back Rand Paul.

[2ndDivisionVet]

You need to use the keyword “Rand Paul” here and be quickly disabused of any notion that he’s a conservative.

[fatima]

The Jeb against The Hill.

[Finny]

The only compromise that I see between conservatives and the GOP-e is Governor Rick Perry.

I don't know ... compromise is how we got here. People like me, willing to vote for leftist Republicans just to keep the Democrat out of office, compromised right into 2012, where voting Republican was voting for nationalized health care, gay marriage, environmentalism, etc., but at least it was a Republican, right? Wrong. More compromise is just going to make it worse.

The "brand" Republican is diet decaf Coke to the Democrat's full-octane Pepsi. That's what it's like, being in a restaurant and having those two choices. Republicans want the same flavor government, but "healthier" without the buzz or the sugar.

I'm an American in that restaurant. I'm like a tens of millions of Americans sick of Diet Decaf Coke and Pepsi. All I really want is plain tea. A little buzz and a lot healthier. Less is more.

Perry will just be a "new improved" diet decaf Coke for the GOP. That's the brand he represents, whether the GOP admits it or not.

We need a second party. Republican and Democrat are merely different "brands" of the same product put forth by a party that goes by two names.

[painter]

They are already on Perry’s case.

this is going to blow up in the Dems face.

Perry is going to be the nominee and the next President.

[Dr. Thorne]

JEB! will be the GOP candidate and our next president. The fix is in.

[Deathtomarxists]

None of them will be the next president. IT will be another marxist or no election at all. That is how they work.

[TBP]

Sarah?

[fatima]

Amen,Give it up everybody.I’m Good,I’m Good.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Uh huh.

[RichInOC]

“Look, look at this. We got Hurricane Grace moving north off the Atlantic seaboard. Huge...getting massive. Two, this low south of Sable Island, ready to explode. Look at this. Three, a fresh cold front swooping down from Canada. But it’s caught a ride on the jet stream...and is motoring hell-bent towards the Atlantic. What if Hurricane Grace runs smack into it? Add to the scenario this baby off Sable Island, scrounging for energy. She’ll start feeding off both the Canadian cold front...and Hurricane Grace. You could be a meteorologist all your life and never see something like this. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be...”

“...the perfect storm.”

[RobbyS]

If I were a cynic, I might think that the Bushes have a hand in the matter. The special prosecutor is one of their guys. The old man, I think, still wants Jeb to get his shot.

[octex]

Any visible heir apparent would be under a microscope for the next two years.
**************************
Similar to what I was planning to post after reading comments. .....It’s MUCH too early to be picking a front runner.

Donors should hold onto their money and not give it to the RNC or other big GOP-e PACs. Wait until viable candidates with Conservative values come out around March 2015 and then donate directly to your favorite candidate.

[tbw2]

An heir apparent means we don’t have a democracy but an aristocracy.
We should have an open primary to decide who should be on the ballot. The fact that we actually have an open primary season is good, though it might be a good idea to shorten the primary season to lower the cost of running.
And the Democrats shouldn’t rush to make Hillary queen. They will essentially ruin the party by guaranteeing that the next people nominated on their side are Clintons, Kennedies, Obamas or some other Democrat royalty because they’ll have run no one else in ages.

[JSDude1]

I disagree. Unorthodox, but it’s yet to be seen that he is what you say.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So you didn’t bother to search or you’re okay with what he’s up to?

[Pelham]

+1

[JSDude1]

I am skeptical, but supportive of Rand Paul (though not everything). He certainly beats Christie, Bush, McCain, Romney, etc..