Posted on 12/28/2010 11:18:45 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As some like to say, the 2012 presidential campaign began the day after the 2010 midterm elections.
And with the bulk of the action on the Republican side as contenders start lining up to challenger President Obama, it's not too soon to start speculating about who's most likely going to be at the top of the GOP ticket.
Republican strategist Mike Murphy has worked on the campaigns of Sen. John McCain, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and others. He tells Morning Edition guest host Linda Wertheimer that Romney and current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels now top his list of likely GOP nominees.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, doesn't have broad enough support in the party to make it all the way to the nomination, Murphy thinks.
In fact, he believes Palin has "almost a bigger constituency in the media than she does ultimately ... in the entire Republican primary process."
That said, Murphy thinks the other GOP contenders want to see her run — if only to keep the news media occupied for nine months or so. "What you really want to be is the candidate who emerges toward the end of 2011," he says.
Here's some of what he had to say. More of his conversation with Linda is due on tomorrow's Morning Edition. Click here to find an NPR station that broadcasts or streams the show.
(AUDIO AT LINK)
I refuse to accept your ‘she didn’t know north from south Korea ‘ bit........that was a lie
I’m not so sure. Huck is the one candidate of 2008 I’ve gained more respect for. He’s come around to much of the Tea Party platform. I don’t expect purity but I do expect the evidence that someone has learned from their past mistakes. I could actually vote for him now though I don’t want that to be the decision I have to make. The only candidate I can enthusiastically support at this point is Sarah Palin. I believe we need what she represents. If the GOP wants to win they will all get behind her and stop trying for some kind of magical GOP candidate that the media won’t savage. This is a fight. Obama’s lost his mojo. Palin still has hers.
Palin is smarter than most of her detractors and has pretty good instincts. She knows how to recover from a mis-step. She learns.
One of the things that make her so much stronger than they expect, and one of the things that make it hard for them to get a handle on her, is that she has a principled core, and she really believes what she says, she really means what she says, and she really says what she means to say.
She pretty much is what she appears to be. Her public persona is pretty much who she really is. I think her supporters always had that sense about her and the more people know her the more they know this about her.
When she said she wouldn’t run unless there wasn’t anyone else, most of us understood that she meant, if there were no principled conservatives running. Some probably thought that was a pose; I think she really meant it. She isn’t looking to see who is electable, she is looking to see if any constitutionalists are going to step forward. And if they don’t, she will. So far, they mostly aren’t.
She won’t run unless she thinks she can win; I think her ego is enough in check that she won’t kid herself. If she’s running, you can bet she is convinced she will win.
And she will probably be right.
I refuse to accept your ‘she didn’t know north from south Korea ‘ bit........that was a lie”________________________
You misunderstand. She didn’t know “why” there was a difference between N & S Korea. You can research this easy enough, or just wait for it to show up in the campaigns of her opponents, as it most surely will. I’m just sayin’....
“He’s come around to much of the Tea Party platform.”
So has Mitt Romney. I guess I’m pretty cynical about this. But when he and Huckabee held office and actually made decisions, neither was much of a tea partier.
I’m not a Huckabee guy either...I would vote for Romney over him, given the two choices. There’s going to be a split in the socon primary vote between him and Palin...let’s hope it doesn’t put conservatives into the VP slot again...magritte
Nope......you can’t use anonymous sources of McCain people saying that......which is where that came from, it won’t work since the media and others will be saying “who specifically saw or heard that” and since the anonymous sources lied and said that Palin bought those expensive clothings which later out was proven false...ha!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.