Posted on 05/06/2015 2:28:36 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - The pack of little-known Republican presidential candidates grew larger this week, raising this unasked question:
Do any of them believe they have a serious chance of winning the nomination and the presidency in a political process that usually rewards high-profile figures who are widely known among the broad base of their party?
There are exceptions to this rule, but more often than not, people with White House ambitions who have beaten the competition and won the highest office in the land had been working toward it for a long time.
Consider Ronald Reagan who devoted years to the chicken dinner circuit, giving inspiring speeches across the country long before he won California's governorship and went on to capture the presidency.
Not only was he widely known among his party's rank and file, but also among untold millions of Americans who had been listening to him on the radio for years.
In 1976, when he came within an eyelash of beating President Gerald Ford for the nomination, they had been hearing his five-days-a-week, radio commentaries over hundreds of stations.
Washington's campaign reporters thought of him as little more than a right wing, former actor, largely unaware that he was being heard by farmers across rural America, a lot of truck drivers and many more from coast to coast.
When he won the nomination in 1980 and went on to defeat Jimmy Carter, he had run the nation's most populous state for two terms and was clearly ready to lead the country.
That's the kind of job preparation our political process demanded then, as it did for others before and after that.
This week, Ben Carson, a brilliant former brain surgeon and a charismatic speaker, threw his hat in the ring, along with Carly Fiorina, who led Hewlett-Packard for six years as its CEO.
Carson has drawn his share of supporters as he's gone about the country, though he is hardly a household name. Fewer Americans know Carly Fiorina.
Recent polls show Carson has the support of 6 percent of GOP voters. Firorina draws only 1 percent.
Both can deliver inspiring speeches about how they've overcome huge obstacles in their lives to rise to the peak of their professions. But neither of them stand a chance of winning the nomination.
They have no serious campaign organization to speak of, nor well-known, high level advisers on their team. They are largely unknown to the broader electorate.
They're not the only ones. At least three GOP senators are in the race, all of them early in their first term: Ted Cruz of Texas, who is electrifying audiences with fire breathing oratory; Rand Paul of Kentucky, an eye surgeon; and Marco Rubio of Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants.
In terms of their elective status in the Senate, they are freshmen. Cruz has been in office for only two years and four months, much of it spent campaigning around the country. Paul and Rubio have both held their seats for just four years and four months.
Even though none of them have completed their first term yet, they believe they're fully prepared to be chief executive of the government, run the country and lead the Free World.
That's more than a bit of stretch, wouldn't you say?
Looming over the 2015-16 presidential election cycle is the fact that Barack Obama served less than four years in the Senate (most of it campaigning around the country) before he resigned his seat in November, 2008 to prepare for the presidency.
And we know how that turned out, don't we?
The result is that voters are, I hope, far more attuned to the issue of experience, or lack thereof, because they've had to endure its painful short-comings.
The people who voted for him were mesmerized by his teleprompter oratory, believing he was equipped to lead the country. But many became sorely disappointed when the lackluster, underperforming recovery dragged on year after year.
So here we are, nearly six and a half years later, with an economy that virtually stopped growing in the first three months (0.2 percent), the stock market in decline, gas prices rising and the voters in a sour mood about the country's direction.
The Gallup Poll reported this Tuesday that economic confidence among Americans was "down sharply last week."
"Gallup's Economic Confidence Index was -9 for the week ending May 3 -- its lowest weekly score since December," the pollsters said. "This reflected a six-point decline from the previous week, and is the largest week-to-week drop since last July."
What this tells me is that our country needs someone with executive experience who knows how to strengthen our economy, create jobs, boost incomes, and slash our debt-ridden budget.
The GOP candidates who know how to do this are the ones who are governors who have run state economies, slashed unemployment and pruned their budgets.
Three of them are running for president or seriously considering entering the race: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Walker took a high-unemployment economy and cut the the jobless rate down to 4.6 percent, turned a $3.6 billion deficit into a $911 million surplus, cut taxes and raised per-capita incomes.
Bush took charge of the nation's fourth most populous state by lowering taxes, enacting school choice reforms, curbing spending, and cutting the state's bureaucracy.
Kasich turned around Ohio's shattered economy by boosting investment, growth and new job creation. The state unemployment rate there at a 5.1 percent low.
Washington is a mess. The economy remains weak, wages are flat, the budget is up to its neck in debt, and the government is badly in need of experienced, executive leadership.
We can no longer afford to offer the next president on-the-job training.
you so quickly dismiss Ronald Reagan..
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
What the he
Just blechh
I'm not sure I understand your point. How did I dismiss him?
You could not be more wrong. These extraordinary times don't have sh-t to do with Obama's inexperience. He's very successfully implemented the real reason we are where we are - his hard core leftist beliefs. Has zip zero NADA to do with his inexperience. I cannot express how off key that is.
And the Senators have been Warren Harding, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama. Not a whole lot better.
If being a governor qualifies someone, then Cristie, Walker, Rubio, Bush, Jindahl, and Huckabee are on the short list.
It means that Jerry Brown would make an excellent candidate to be president. Well, at least he could trump anyone on our side who hasn’t been a governor. You know, you have to have been a governor...
It means that Romney was imminently qualified.
If being a governor qualifies someone, then every one of these guys would trump anyone who isn’t a governor.
Your take away from this should be that anyone who says a candidate has to have been a governor is backing a governor or former governor and knows they aren’t as good as someone else who would mop the floor with them.
I won't tell ya who to vote for, although the choice is entirely clear at this very moment. I will say this: vote for who you want, but if it ain't Cruz, just be prepared to lose 2016. Real Conservatives are tired of the battered women syndrome in the GOP and ain't going to put up with it. If that means Hitlery in 2016, so be it. It's time the GOP wise up and start listening. Real Conservatives aren't going to play the "lesser of evils" game anymore.
If your goal is to lose 2016, go right ahead. Vote for huckster or any of the other RINO's.
Or a whole lot worse for that matter...
Once could point to Obama, but he falls in a wide crack with reality something akin to a freak parallel universe where truth and freedom doesn’t trump no citizenship, no proven record, upbringing as an Islamic child, and attendance at universities he and his family couldn’t pay for.
I toss him out on the absurdity he represents.
He is clearly the hands down winner for most likely to be a traitor to our nation, and an active mole within our White House.
Very good observation. I think Jimmy Carter is the best example of the “governor experience” being bogus that I can think of.
And we know how that turned out, don't we?
Yes. He won the White House, while those experienced and highly qualified candidates Bob Dole, JohnMcCain, and Mitt Romney failed miserably.
Thats how that turned out.
We're not falling for your GOPe crap this time, sport.
That's the thing.
Obama had a vision (albeit an anti-American one), he had goals, and he had a helluva marketing campaign.
That's what drives someone to be President, not someone being in various elected offices for 2+ decades.
The point is: it's not about experience as an elected office holder.
It's about the agenda, the vision, the values, the commitment, the intelligence, the integrity. In most cases, long experience in elective government office only ends up being used against We The People.
Think about how criminals leaving prison come out as better trained criminals than when they went. Prison is like Criminal University.
And elective office all too often becomes Corruption University -- making connections, buddies, new techniques.
Life experience, work experience is important. But what experience does Ted Cruz lack that will make him ineffective as President.
You think he can't surround himself with brilliant, experienced, principled, patriotic experts that share his values to fill cabinet positions?
You think he can't recognize experienced, patriotic military specialists to lead our military, and that he can't adopt the policies that will strengthen our ability to defend ourselves?
You think he can't deal with the legislature, or the judiciary?
You think ANY other candidate can do more to restore Constitutional law to our federal government?
Just please. Can we get serious?
Honestly, I think of Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Romney this way.
Which one of those guys was worth his salt. Bush had his moments both high and very low.
Bush absolutely destroyed the viability of Conservatism before he left office.
Without him, Obama is not elected president.
No. Rule No. 1 is don’t let the left wing press frame the issues on which the right must determine its candidates. Let Republicans run their own debates.
We tried the OJT thing with the Kenyan community agitator retard guy. It didn’t work out.
Cruz control for me also.
Conservatives everywhere believe the comrade has this country teetering on the brink. So, what do we have? such things as we see on this thread, the “one has to have been a governor.” As if we are back in the 70’s, 80’s, or something, business as usual, you know.
Forget all these worthless little cliche’s, the times cry out for someone who, in every conservative’s heart of hearts, KNOWS he will do what he says he will do. That someone is Cruz. Here’s a man a conservative can actually trust. He has proven time and time again, that he has the “right stuff.”
Exactly so, time people here recognized that.
As far as Bush is concerned, the one thing I can say in his favor is that he does love the country and our military. Sure can’t say that about the current Occupier.
And because of the idiots that vote (R) no matter what, I'll keep sending money and time to the Cruz campaign.
I know who I want to vote for, and who I will vote for.
Jeb and everybody else can pound sand.
Cruz or lose. It's that easy.
I, and many others like me, won't let the media or GOP-E select the candidate without some pushback.
/johnny
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