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I am getting tired of the circular firing squad. First principles:

Everything depends on entitlement reform. To have even an outside chance of that, we need to hold the House and elect a conservative majority in the Senate. Since 60 Senate seats would seem to be out of reach,a dem filibuster of substantive reform is likely. That leaves four possibilities: paralysis and inaction (very likely); peeling off enough moderate dems in the Senate to break a flibuster (unlikely); a backbench dem revolt against their rule-or-ruin leadership (extremely unlikely); or passage of entitlement reform through reconciliation (difficult, but probably the best option at this point).

I think any of the Republican presidential candidates would sign the needed reforms if they reached his desk. But they will never reach his desk unless we get a working majority in the Senate and develop a legislative strategy to break or outflank a filibuster. I want a nominee who helps elect downballot Republicans in battleground states, and who has the discipline and organizational skills to navigate what will be an extremely difficult, long-odds legislative struggle.

I left out the fifth possiblity. The democrats desperately need new leadership. American politics are being poisoned, and the reason is that one of the major parties is so deep in denial that systematic lying has become its ingrained reflex. Thoughtful democrats must know this, and at least some of them must be sick of it. This goes far beyond petty party politics; the future of the country is at stake, and the times cry out for a democrat leader to say, "Enough; it is time we told the truth."

In other words, a DEMOCRAT of some stature needs to stand up to the union bosses, race hustlers, and socialists who currently exercise a policy veto in the democratic party and say, "No more."

Such things can happen, and in surprising ways. Nixon went to China. LBJ, an otherwise very bad president, broke the southern democrat filibuster on civil rights and ended Jim Crow. One looks at the recent record of the democratic party with despair, but then someone like Ron Wyden takes a remarkable stand on health care and ... can we do anything with the opening?

I believe we have reached the point where a electorial solution is no longer possible.
The Dhimmocrat/MSM wing is just too strong to permit the necessary questions even to get ASKED in any meaningful way.
The RINO/$$ wing is too strong to allow the conservatives to organinze—they will throw up too many ‘Ross Perots’ with their 3rd party runs (how they will win THIS time, too in November).
2010—we bought 14.5 MILLION guns.
2011—we bought 16 MILLION.
2012—??
I think we all know how this mess will end.

Lock and load, boys and girls—it’s going to get interesting.

A very thoughtful post, but even more than that, a vision that looks “strategically forward”.

You wrote:
“I want a nominee who helps elect downballot Republicans in battleground states, and who has the discipline and organizational skills to navigate what will be an extremely difficult, long-odds legislative struggle.”

Based on this, I’d have to say that Mr. Gingrich is the man most likely to have the skills to get the job-at-hand accomplished.