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I'm not so sure Duncan Hunter is an impossible shot. He's doing very well in South Carolina, one of the early primary states. He also had a respectable debate performance at the Reagan library.

Right now, Romney is doing conservatives a big favor by eating into the support of McCain and Guilani. I think he would be a respectable candidate and quite competent on economic issues. But I have my doubts as to him being mean-as*ed enough to fight the war on terror and the terrorist enablers at home. An ex-army ranger and paratrooper is clearly the better man for that job.

>>>But I have my doubts as to him being mean-as*ed enough to fight the war on terror and the terrorist enablers at home. An ex-army ranger and paratrooper is clearly the better man for that job.<<

Duncan Hunter is a very capable candidate, no doubt. Hopefully the debates on Fox will help bring him more into the spotlight. It seems he doesn’t have the groundswell of support that he needs, though perhaps that will change.

I’ve seen him speak on illegal immigration, and I’m very much in his court on that issue.

That said, Romney is the only candidate other than Hunter who I hear regularly calling our enemies jihadists. Not insurgents, not the Iraq problem. Not terrorists. He gets to heart of the matter. That’s a good sign, in my estimation.

I think he would be a respectable candidate and quite competent on economic issues

One thing I find promising about Romney is that, while Governor of Massachusetts, he was able to make some substantial conservative gains while working with an *overwhelmingly* liberal Democrat state legislature. He's an innovative thinker. We need someone like that with this unfortunately Dem-controlled House/Senate situation in DC.

Hunter is, by "qualifications," clearly the best out there. But qualifications for the presidency are about more than a track record of political issues---it involves a track record of national organizing, of national fundraising, of getting national notoriety.

In terms of having a shot, no. He doesn't. I think one of the reasons Kerry was able to bushwhack Dean so easliy is that Kerry DID have the national name recognition, and had a long-standing party apparatus willing to get behind him. Hunter isn't close to having the statewide organization in place, so even if he does well in a single state primary, it won't carry over as it did with Kerry.

Meanwhile, both Romney and Rudy appear to be doing well in NH. Rudy has had a bad two weeks. His abortion stuff hurt---and not his POSITION on abortion so much as he seemed to waffle in that position. I think he would have been much better off, early on, to say what he is now saying. He would have gotten some props for honesty.

Romney, on the other hand, is benefitting from the attacks by Sharpton and from Romney's unwillingness to back down.

For two months, I've said that the winner would be the first one perceived as a "FIGHTER" who will attack DEMS (not Republicans) and who will call them out BY NAME.