Why wouldn’t I run ? For starters, there are many more qualified people than myself. Even were it remotely possible, I would think serving in lower office would tend to be a minimal prerequisite, wouldn’t you ? (Or at least a business executive of a major company with management skills)
Strange could be a word. The people that should’ve run oddly did not. It left the field with a bunch of egomaniacs that were second-tier at best. Most of us were expecting Palin to get in, as she was the proverbial “next in line” candidate with the Conservative base behind her. Why she didn’t is the question (it’s not like the media ever let up on their attacks of her, so she was already used to it, so that wasn’t necessarily the reason). Perhaps it is because she could see the disastrous situation in DC and whomever would be President for the next term wasn’t likely going to be able to turn things around in just 4 short years. I’ll not bother to entertain other nefarious reasons floated about in internetland.
One thing, however, is crystal clear. The entire process for selecting the Presidential nominee is profoundly broken and must be changed. This ludicrous IA-NH-SC troika that makes or breaks candidates has to stop. Neither IA nor NH, both now Democrat states Presidentially, have any business playing a major role in determining the GOP nominee. States like TX ought to have a leading early role, especially since it is amongst the most solid of GOP Presidential states (having not voted for a Democrat since 1976).
I’ve advocated methods such as drafting candidates and Conservative pre-primaries to weed out the unviable nominees and RINOs (Willard would not even get past the door).
I think it is a mistake that we have allowed the notion to prevail that only those with law degrees or "C" level executive experience need apply and then that you should make your politics your entire career, in which case, your upward progression is dependent upon how many favors you can give and how many palms you can grease on the way up.
The establishment have created these rules to keep regular people out of the process and as a result, we have political cronyism in place - an entire class of people who have no issue imposing socialism on the rest of us because they know that they will be part of the protected class that gets to make all the rules for everybody else.
Perfect case in point is this Obama socialized medicine. It's good enough for us rabble but note that government workers have their own health care system which is far superior to what anybody has in the private sector. In fact, you would see Obama-Care repealed on Monday morning if it were to be imposed upon congressmen today.
As for Palin, I would have voted for her. I spent all last summer boosting her candidacy and I was 95% sure (at this time last year) that she was running. I think had she run, none of us would be talking about Mitt Romney today as I think Palin would have won this going away. However, I think the liberal media would have launched a smear campaign against her the likes we have never seen. The liberals are not as threatened by Romney (but they may be in for a surprise). At any rate, I think a Palin vs Obama race in November would have united the conservatives and we would prevail - though it would have been much uglier.
Lastly, totally agree on the flawed process. In a nutshell, this is the remedy I have been proposing:
Hold THREE national primary elections (actually three sets of 50-state primary elections).
The first set of state primaries to be held in February. Only those with 15% of the state vote move on. (This should weed out the fringe candidates and the pretenders.) No delegates to be awarded in this first run-off.
Hold a second set of primaries around the April timeframe. In these primaries, 50% of the available delegates are awarded on a proportional basis. In this manner, we should narrow the field to 2-3 finalists as those with lesser delegates will run out of money and drop out.
The third and final set of primaries to be held in June. The remaining 50% of delegates to be awarded in each state on a proportional basis.
The candidates will then take those delegates to their respective conventions in which a nominee will be chosen to represent their party in the November elections.
Let me mention one more thing. These primaries must be CLOSED to party members only. So if you are a registered Republican, you have no business voting in a Democrat primary - and vice versa. If you are registered Independent, sorry, you don't get to vote in a primary. Unless you want to register as a Republican or a Democrat, or a third party (such as the Libertarians), you have no business selecting a party nominee. (You may vote as you choose in the general however.)
In this manner, all citizens who belong to a political party will have an equal say in who their party's nominee will be.
I'm open to ideas of a better way but that's my best effort so far.