[crushkerry]

Patrick Hynes is a freeper (screen name: Kerry Crusher) and the proprietor of the website www.anklebitingpundits.com. In addition to this piece, he is also published today in The American Spectator in an article entitled "Misunderestimate Dean?

[crushkerry]

Ping

[Drango]

If you knew Sununu like I knew Sununu...

[connectthedots]

Sununu is why we have Souter on the Supreme Court. On that basis alone, I'd say no.

[OldFriend]

So he's deferential to the palestinian terrorists?

[LdSentinal]

No. Sununu is of Lebanese descent. Case closed.

[Aeronaut]

Senators just don't win Presidencies very often. What Republican Governors are on the horizion?

[balch3]

Nothing said about where he stands on abortion or sexual perversion. Hmm.

[LibertarianInExile]

Because he's just as big a RINO as his dad is. Wrap that up and put in the bank.

[rmlew]

Sununnu supported the Law Of the Sea Treaty (LOST) in the Senate Foreign Relations committee. He is not worthy of Smith Senate seat, much less the Presidency.

[WFTR]

He seems to be a decent guy, but I don't see anything that suggests that he can win votes outside New Hampshire. Does he have any kind of executive experience? There's a difference between being an effective legislator and being an effective executive. There are many voters who are too ignorant to understand that point, but a surprising number do understand it. The last president to win election with a purely legislative background was Richard Nixon, and even he had served as vice-president. John F. Kennedy was elected without executive experience, but he won only by vote fraud in Chicago and by understanding the power of TV at the beginning of the TV age.

Does he have any experience outside of politics and public service? Republicans will elect people whose business experience has been strongly driven by family ties, but they haven't elected someone without other experience since 1972. George W. Bush worked in oil and in baseball before becoming governor of Texas. George H.W. Bush worked in oil before running for Congress (and losing) and serving in the CIA and as ambassador. Ronald Reagan was an actor who came from a completely blue-collar background.

Does he have any signature issue besides Social Security reform? The best that can happen politically with Social Security reform is that no one really notices a difference for the next twenty years. The worst that can happen is that people will have reduced benefits or believe that their benefits are reduced and end up angry. No one is going to ride this issue to the White House. If all he has to show for twelve years in Congress is that he helped with Social Security reform, he's not going to have much support.

His running makes the New Hampshire primary less important, and he will lose some popularity in New Hampshire for that reason alone. I don't like the fact that we tend to nominate our candidate in a few primaries at the beginning of the primary season. I think a healthy fight is good for the party. The last truly competitive primary we had was in 1980, and that primary produced the Ronald Reagan presidency without which there would not likely have been a George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush presidency.

Bill

[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

Why the heck not Sununu?

A strong, well-spoken conservative (lifetime ACU rating of 95%) and WOT supporter from a northeast state that boasts one of the most important Republican primaries, Sununu is on my short list for President in '08.

[Republican Wildcat]

Why not Senator John Sununu (R-NH)?

No - he's a Senator. For VP perhaps, but not President...then again, with a sitting Dem Governor that also makes that a drawback.