Posted on 12/11/2014 11:12:24 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
For fifty years the Republican nominating process has been the avenue through which the party chooses the nominee for the next election season. This year’s nominee is never in doubt. Whoever finished second last time simply steps up for his turn.
If the second-place finisher from the last campaign decides not to run, as in ’68 and ‘00, the nominee is appointed by the party leadership and presented for ratification in the primary process. This is no historical accident, but rather a product of the institutional structure of the party. That institutional structure has broken down.
Priorities and practices that took hold when the party was organized around northern commercial interests are being torn down and replaced as the Dixiefication of the GOP reaches a new phase. Republicans will enter the next nominating cycle without a presumed candidate. It appears that for the first time since Goldwater the base will choose the nominee for the White House.
Technically, the second place finisher in 2012 was Rick Santorum, but he was little more than the last clown out of the car. It’s not clear he’ll even be able to muster a credible challenge in ’16. No frontrunner is emerging from the party’s elite as both Bush and Christie have failed to assemble the support they would need to overcome massive resistance from the Southern rank and file....
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.chron.com ...
I stand with Ted
Then there’s this:
Republican Bigwigs Will Own the Tea Party
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-10/republican-bigwigs-will-own-the-tea-party
Putting aside the "paranoid bloc" jibe, this author seems never to have heard of Ronald Regan.
And Richard Nixon, who was whip smart.
Plus Barry Goldwater, even though he was beaten badly in 1964, turned out to be right on almost everything.
Liberals always let you know who they are afraid of
Rumbling from Jeb and Mitt may actually be a good thing. If both jump in, maybe they will bloodly (politically) each other enough that neither appeals to the general Republicans.
Quite possibly there are factions that oppose another Bush as much as there are, across the aisle, factions that oppose another Clinton run.
Of course, with the Republicans, we never know. They fold as quick as they can.
So was Senator McCarthy, and they still use his name as an insult. BTW, he was in tight with the Kennedys, but you won’t hear that story on the evening news.
And he was right about most things.
I just love the way liberals are terrified of Ted Cruz! Lol!
We really need to caricature Ted in Vampire attire with bloody fangs holding up a liberal he just drained of its blood.
Old Joseph P. Kennedy, even though he was a fan of fascism, was a strident anti-communist.
Bush and Christie have failed to assemble the support they would need......
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Latest poll shows Hillary defeating Gov. Krispy Creme by 11 percentage points in New Jersey. LOSER!!!
no.. he is saying Cruz is smarter than Reagan.
Heh — I think they’d lump me in “the paranoid bloc” because I DON’T trust the government and, in fact, rather expect the government to abuse power. (Which, incidentally, is why government power should be minimal: it lessens the possible damage that it can do.)
yep, Cruz terrifies them.
This coming from the party that had Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton as potential Presidential candidates.
If they don't know that they are just fooling themselves.
I am praying for Ted but we will likely get Mitt.
Barring some bizarre breakdown on the Democratic side the ’16 Republican nominee has virtually no shot at the White House . . . [but] Winning the 2016 nomination will probably grant the nominee powerful influence over the party structure at a critical moment.Winning a third term in a row is pretty difficult for a party to do, as Karl Rove pointed out in the WSJ today. The last party to do it was the Republicans in ’88, with Bush41 running as Reagan III. Last time before that was when we had “twenty years of treason” under FDR/Harry Truman. Right now Obama doesn’t look like the second coming of Reagan or Roosevelt - and Rove is probably also right that Obama has plenty of time to make things worse before Nov ’16.
A winner from the base could acquire enough leverage to squelch efforts to broaden the party’s appeal, instead accelerating the concentration of the party’s power in Dixie and further divesting the party from any interest in national politics. A base winner will put the party on the fast track to some kind of regional split. As dangerous as that sounds, it’s probably inevitable. Let’s give them what they want and get this over with.That’s not how it worked out in 1980, tho. Republican John Anderson ran third party and pulled about 10% of the popular vote - and Reagan still skunked Carter 50%-40% in the general election.Obama won’t run for reelection in ’16, but the stink of his malfeasance will hang heavy over whoever does carry the GruberCrat banner then.
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