Posted on 04/17/2011 1:30:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On the heels of Barack Obama’s announcement of his 2012 reelection campaign, speculation has been mounting over which candidate Republicans will nominate to challenge Obama. But you won’t find the next Ronald Reagan in this group of potential candidates.
With 20 months left until the presidential election, the list of potential candidates is still long.
UC Santa Barbara political science professor Dr. Ted Anagnoson, who specializes in the study of the American presidency, explained that unlike in 2007, when Republicans and Democrats declared candidacy early in the year, in 2011 Republicans are still waiting to make official declarations of candidacy.
“As soon as a candidate declares candidacy, they must follow the federal campaign finance laws,” said Anagnoson. “Candidates are waiting so they can save money.”
For purposes of space and time, only a few candidates are worth mentioning at length. Expect people like Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Rand Paul to receive media attention in the coming weeks. But these candidates will struggle to find the momentum, enthusiasm, or mainstream appeal necessary to win presidential primaries.
Steven Begakis, third-year Political Science and Economics double major and UCSB College Republicans president, said he hopes Republicans nominate a true conservative candidate that can articulate the conservative philosophy to the American people.
“I don’t want someone to win who doesn’t possess our principles, like John McCain,” Begakis said. “He’s a dinosaur who’s been in Washington a long time.”
But for conservatives like Begakis, a question looms. Can a candidate who runs on conservative economic and social values win mainstream and moderate voters in a presidential election?
Lately the most talked about conservative has been former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate in the 2008 election. Palin, who since her defeat in 2008 turned herself into a television star, has been hinting at a 2012 presidential bid since her defeat in 2008.
Palin is the Tea Party darling and is an entertaining political character, too. In her disastrous 2008 vice-presidential campaign, Palin wrongly drew comparisons between Barack Obama and terrorists by emphasizing his middle name, Hussein, and by over-exaggerating Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, a radical political activist from the 1960s.
But unfortunately for Republicans, their most talked about candidate lacks the credibility to be a serious contender.
“She’s like the nice lady at church” said Begakis. “But in a debate or interview setting she gets defensive and isn’t able to explain the conservative philosophy. She is a piñata, not a president. She could splinter the Republicans, and that could be a disaster.”
Palin has gone in a very different direction since running as the Republican vice president nominee. She’s now more of a star than a politician, and a bid at the presidency would be a financial step backward for Palin, Agnagnoson explained.
“She changed her entire economic status,” said Agnagnoson. “And she has made a business out of her name.”
Sarah Palin cannot beat Barack Obama in a presidential election, and Republicans will be better off the sooner they realize this.
Former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney has also made a name for him for himself since the 2008 Republican primary. He is a younger, moderate conservative and the current frontrunner among Republican constituents.
Romney is seen as “the next in line” by Republicans for the presidency, and this will help him with fundraising in the crucial primary state election.
What sets Romney apart from other Republican candidates is his positive attitude, experience, discipline and political talent to defeat Barack Obama. He has the ability to win over moderates and conservative Democrats and his experience in professional finance will win him points in an election where the economy will be the main issue. Begakis and Agnagnoson also praised Romney for his communication skills and positive public image.
But Romney has made political mistakes that won’t win favor with the conservative Tea Party vote, which is expected to have a particularly strong impact on the 2012 primaries. As governor in Massachusetts, Romeny supported a statewide universal healthcare bill identical to the Obama healthcare plan approved by congress last year.
Repealing “Obamacare” has been the Tea Party’s biggest concern, and with enough influence members could pry the Republican nomination out of Romney’s hands.
As for the dark horse of the 2012 primaries, expect former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich has the party support to fundraise enough money to be a serious contender, and Begakis has confidence in a Gingrich presidential campaign.
“If there is any time he could win, it would be in 2012,” he said.
But Gingrich has baggage. Having been in Washington D.C. for decades and been remarried three times, Gingrich’s closet is full of skeletons.
Agnagnoson added that while Gingrich was Speaker of the House in the 1990s, he had a reputation for being too bipartisan with Democrats, creating a public perception that he could not politically subdue then-Democratic president, Bill Clinton.
When Republicans do elect a presidential nominee in mid-2012, their showdown with Obama will rest heavily on the health of the economy. Incumbent Obama will be difficult to beat. But if in the next 20 months Obama loses his grasp on the well-being of the economy, then he will also lose his grasp on the White House.
Hahahaha! Stop! I'm wheezing! C'mon, stop! My sides hurt!!
The one term Governor Romney left office with 34% approval, he was a failure regardless of right or left.
Totally gay.
The RINO wing's wet dream....
Political analysis from the college paper at UC Santa Barbara. I am so impressed!
There go the commie libs again. Worrrying about the Republicans. They really need to worry about their own ‘RAT party and how it has been hijacked by CPUSA.
Wait a sec... “Younger” ?!? Remember the trolls in ‘07/’08 complaining about how Fred Thompson was “too old” ? Slick Willard will be OLDER in November 2012 than Fred Thompson was in the early primary days of 2008... just 4 months short of 66. That’s “younger” ? WHAT ?!
Here's their "Republican" expert.
| Mitt's 'I was for it but now I'm against it' RomneyCare is a millstone around his neck, it's made him unelectable. You'll need a weathervane to determine which way Romney will stand on any given issue. Mitt will change his policies at any given moment depending on who is listening. Just too fake, plastic and untrustworthy.
Please choose a better nominee. This guy is a phony.
|
So in Mass this is a bad thing?
Political analysis from the college paper at UC Santa Barbara. I am so impressed!
++++++
You are so right, I couldn’t agree more !!
Yes, Mitt Romney failed when he was in office.
That, and the pinata statement tell me this is another Lefty hack trying to demoralise conservatives.
“The Massachusetts Republican Party died last Tuesday.
The cause of death: failed leadership.
The party is survived by a few leftover legislators
and a handful of county officials and grassroots activists
who have been ignored for years.
Services will be public and a mass exodus of taxpayers will follow.
In lieu of flowers, send messages to Republican voters
warning them about a certain presidential candidate named Romney.”
- Boston Herald, 11/12/2006
"In 2006, while Romney was chairman of the National Republican
Governors Association - a group dedicated to electing more
Republican governors - his own hand-picked Republican successor
as governor lost badly to the Democrat, despite the fact that Republicans
have held the governorship in Massachusetts since 1990. Romney largely
ignored the Massachusetts elections and spent most of the time
during the campaign out of state building his presidential campaign.
He came back and publicly campaigned for the Republican candidate
the day before the general election!
“Locally, this is a rebuke to Mitt Romney and checking out within six months
after being elected and having accomplished almost nothing,”
[Jim] Rappaport [former chairman of the state Republican Party]."
- Boston Globe, 11/8/2006
"Governor Mitt Romney, who touts his conservative credentials to out-of-state Republicans,
has passed over GOP lawyers for three-quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he has faced,
instead tapping registered Democrats or independents -- including two gay lawyers who
have supported expanded same-sex rights, a Globe review of the nominations has found.
Of the 36 people Romney named to be judges or clerk magistrates, 23 are either registered Democrats
or unenrolled voters who have made multiple contributions to Democratic politicians
or who voted in Democratic primaries, state and local records show.
In all, he has nominated nine registered Republicans, 13 unenrolled voters,
and 14 registered Democrats."
- Boston Globe 7/25/2005
Romney Rewards one of the State's Leading Anti-Marriage Attorneys by Making him a Judge
Romney told the U.S. Senate on June 22, 2004, that the "real threat to the States is not the
constitutional amendment process, in which the states participate,
but activist judges who disregard the law and redefine marriage . . ."
Romney sounds tough but yet he had no qualms advancing the legal career of one
of the leading anti-marriage attorneys. He nominated Stephen Abany to a District Court.
Abany has been a key player in the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association which,
in its own words, is "dedicated to ensuring that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision
on marriage equality is upheld, and that any anti-gay amendment or legislation is defeated."
- U.S. Senate testimony by Gov. Mitt Romney, 6/22/2004 P>
"Romney announces he won't fill judicial vacancies before term ends
Despite his rhetoric about judicial activism, Romney announced that
he won't fill all the remaining vacancies during his term - but instead
leave them for his liberal Democrat successor!
Governor Mitt Romney pledged yesterday not to make a flurry of lame-duck
judicial appointments in the final days of his administration . . . David Yas,
editor of Lawyers Weekly, said Romney is "bucking tradition" by resisting the urge to
fill all remaining judgeships. "It is a tradition for governors to use that power to appoint judges
aggressively in the waning moments of their administration," Yas said.
He added that Romney has been criticized for failing to make judicial appointments.
"The legal community has consistently criticized him for not filling open seats quickly enough
and being a little too painstaking in the process and being dismissive of the input of the
Judicial Nominating Commission," Yas said.
- Boston Globe 11/2/2006
The author either sleeps with Mitt Romney OR is mentally ill.
Romney is Not Conservative.
Romney is an old, old, Mexican (ineligible).
Romney is a proven-failed Governor.
"As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.
* Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states.
* Between fall 2003 and autumn 2006, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly three times Massachusetts' anemic 1.9 percent pace.
* While 8 million Americans over age 16 found work between 2002 and 2006, the number of employed Massachusetts residents actually declined by 8,500 during those years.
"Massachusetts was the only state to have failed to post any gain in its pool of employed residents," professors Sum and McLaughlin concluded.
In an April 2003 meeting with the Massachusetts congressional delegation in Washington, Romney failed to endorse President Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal."
[Cato Institute annual Fiscal Policy Report Card - America's Governors, 2004.]
You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, “Who is that man ?”
You try so hard
But you don’t understand
Just what you’ll say
When you get home.
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?
Mitt isn’t even conservative enough to be a compassionate conservative.
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