Posted on 09/12/2011 7:26:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Electability.
It's an elusive quality. It's like chemistry, between movie stars. It's like tinnitus, for wine. Or is that tannins? You know what I mean — the quality of wine that keeps wine experts' voices ringing in your ears when you are stuck next to them at dinners.
It's like buzz. It's like the It factor.
It's what Bertie Wooster would call a certain indefinable Thingness.
Somehow, we have this idea that a person can be “electable.” Of course, you can’t be electable in a vacuum. If I am electable in the middle of a forest and no one is there to notice me or care — well, I’m probably Ron Paul. But the whole question of electability is, at best, a glorified form of guesswork. It's a study in group probability. “Do you think X can beat Obama?” is quite a different question than “Would you vote for him?”
I would define electability as “the vague sense that there are people out there who would vote for this guy.”
It's not likability.
Nowhere is this distinction more apparent than when it comes to Rick Perry.
If there's one thing that Rick Perry's current increasingly ineluctable progress toward the GOP nomination has taught us, it is that the two qualities are not only unrelated, they might not even have grown up under the same roof....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Are you being paid by the Palin non-campaign to post on FR?
Of all the questions in the CNN poll that was released today, the one on electability had to be the most important.
ORC International Poll — September 9 to 11, 2011
Question 42
Which Republican candidate do you think has the best chance of beating Barack Obama in the general
election next November?
Perry 42%
Romney 26%
Palin 7%
Gingrich 5%
Bachmann 5%
Paul 5%
Cain 3%
Huntsman 2%
Santorum * N/A
He’s tall, dark and handsome. And he’s not Mormon.
What’s electable about Rick Perry? The opponent. Same thing that’s electable about any nominee the GOP might have up to and including a turd sandwich.
He's offended by 5k bribes!
Perry: I gave illegal aliens in-state tuition, it’s the American way!
He isn’t a quitter. His record of governing. I’ll take results over soundbites any day.
Being elected once in a small liberal state would tend to cast doubt on your electability.
Probably one of the most annoying turns-of-phrase on FR. But hey, you asked.
Good question, but in reality he is not Romney. He is likeable, which is key to getting elected. He knows his bread is buttered with the Tea Party movement and is a survivor, as opposed to Romney et. al. (except for Bachmann) who wish to diminish the Tea Party Movement.
I’m undecided but I am glad Perry is in the race at this point.
And mule stubborn.
In some years, that might be a negative. This time around, I think people are looking for a backbone. What a contrast between Perry and wimpy Barry.
Perry doesn’t back down until absolutely in-your-face forced to (as in gardasil and TTC).
In a COC, could be a positive.
All else being equal, there are two, and exactly two Republican candidates who have that “it” factor, the ability to almost effortlessly energize voters, such that the voters want to vote for them.
Palin. And Perry.
All else however is not equal. The GOP is a corrupt tar pit of dinosaurs. The tar pit of dinosaurs, want Mitt Romney.
So what’s it going to be?
Voters, or the tar pit?...
To be honest, I think you nailed it.
Most Americans, and even most Republicans, probably don’t have a detailed understanding of any of these candidates or their history. Actually, I’d wager we on FR are the only people who really know what all these candidates are about, and that’s why we have strong opinions.
But the only thing that matters is to beat Obama, so if Perry has “it” then we must vote for Perry regardless of whether he would be the best president, which many of us doubt.
Perry was at Bilderberg a year or two past, by the way.
“What’s so electable about Perry?”
He isn’t Kenyan. He wasn’t raised by his grandparents after being birthed by a slut. He has governed a state. He has excelled at job creation. He loves the USA. There’s more but that’s sufficient to answer your little question.
In my opinion, Perry is not electable....failed in tonight’s debate. Not impressed with anyone.
I say people are desperate to find someone, anyone to run against Obama. Most of those are moderates who don’t care much whether or not the candidate( in this case, Perry) is a pandering, career politician and will perpetuate the political ruling class. It just makes them feel good to say they supported someone running against an arch liberal, socialist, communist.
The problem is Perry or Romney being elected moves us only slightly to the left of center, from the far left. That won’t be enough. TO undo the damage of the Clinton’s, Bush and Obama, it’s going to take some action based on true conservative principles.
Can you imagine the howling of the left when the EPA, DoE, TSA are shut down, the BATF is rolled into the FBI, and other such streamlining and cost cutting. Eliminating subsidies, entitlement programs, etc.
Perry won’t do it, Romney sure as heck won’t do it.
I didn't like that answer at all, and it may prove to be Perry's undoing. I thought it was weak and pandering. Santorum and Bachman sounded much better on this issue.
No matter what, AB0 in 2012.
LOL So now they are fretting over Mitt suddenly not being electable. They just spent the last few weeks saying perry shouldn't be nominated for being unelectable. Anyway, Perry rates higher on the issues in that poll then Mitt. This person needs to remember it's a Republican primary. The only reason mitt topped the polls was electability. He was displaced because people felt Perry had that and was closer on the issues.
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