My two cents.
No way Jose! Governor Goodhair should be retired to his ranch.
Unfortunately we have enough problems in Texas with truthfully only him and KBH in the race. A good candidate, Debra Medina, grassroots organization is growing slowly and it is unknown if it will be enough to send both packing into retirement.
Your list has 4 truly national candidates: Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee and Palin. Romeny does have the most experience (business-wise and political-wise of all) but I don’t believe electable for many reasons, however RomenyCare is not highest on the list of his detractions. Huckabee and Giuliani are both progressives with a liberal bent. Huckabee in all areas, Rudy not so much (Rudy should serve several terms as Governor of NY before trying again). Huckabee, even though following state law and governor perogotive has hit his Willie Horton moment. Palin, yes has media bias against her but other things for her in voters minds.
Of this group in 4 years, IMHO Sarah Palin can recover. She needs to let the people see her first hand and not through the MSM.
Newt is toast, he’s from another era and will not have a chance. As well as losing most of his former appeal to many many voters. He sold out in reaching across the aisle lately and this has tarnished him greatly in the eyes of many.
The rest are all local wonders. Jindal, Brownback, Pawlenty and McDonald ... IMHO local flash in the pans. Have done nothing to garner a true nationwide base of support. These names are never mention in Texas circles that I have discussions with, in any serious thoughts of consideration for support.
Ron Paul can stay home too. No serious consideration of him will ever be seen again. He is a wild card, a loose cannon that can seriously jeopardize America as badly as the current president.
I’m hoping, against hope maybe, to see Fred Thompson or Duncan Hunter come forward again. I would like to see and hear more of Pence, DeMint and Coburn ... then again losing them in Congress at this time could be a negative.
I also hope to see the RNC and even the DNC to remove the Party-controlled Primary rules currently in place. The National Parties along with the MSM pick the candidate ... the voters are not in this formula at all.
That was certainly a well thought out response. You stated, “I also hope to see the RNC and even the DNC to remove the Party-controlled Primary rules currently in place. The National Parties along with the MSM pick the candidate ... the voters are not in this formula at all;” that touchs on a thought I’ve had for some time, i.e., that there’s certainly something amiss with the way the “parties” are functioning these days. And of course, we’re all aware of the problems with MSM having sold out and having abandonned their traditional role, but that’s an entirely different topic. I’m utterly unimpressed by any of the current crop of potential candidates; most have no real grounding in traditional conservative values and this has caused a near melding of the two parties at the center. As a result, each election cycle we seem left with nothing other than the choice between the lesser of the evils; which of course means we’re left with an evil of one form or another. The feel I have for this is that the “party” system has broken down in much the same way the entire system has broken down, i.e., that the National organizations have way too much control, money, influence, etc. and thus the local organizations have lost any real ability to guide or direct the national organizations. One example of how this isn’t working is that the so-called Platforms are largely ignored altogether. Another huge problem that this has caused is that Candidates aren’t properly vetted and feel totally unaccountable to the “folks back home”. The mess this has caused is rapidly spinning out of control because, as seen in the last election, our elections are causing more and more extreme swings of the political pendulum such that we seem to get less workable, stable economic direction and policy. It may be the case that the only way out of this mess is to somehow capture some of the “fire-in-the-belly” of these tea party movements to inspire people to vociferously participate in their local party apparatus such that they can wrest some power away from the amorphous, largley independent National organization. I don’t know; it’s just a thought. Maybe it has something to do with the way the parties are funded, but I’ve never had the luxury of the time to research that matter. However, on the surface, it does appear that the entire funding system for these elections is completely out of control.