But that's kind of irrelevant. If you think Romney will be the nominee, go for it.
You can mark down my prediction now: we haven't yet seen the 2012 GOP nominee really on the scene. I don't think it will be either Palin or Romney, and probably not Pawlenty or Thune. It could be someone as unlikely as Scott Brown, but more likely someone really not in the public eye yet.
“HUH? I wrote on my blog in AUGUST that it would pass. Perhaps I got overly enthusiastic, but I warned here repeatedly that the Dems would suffer a serious defeat if it meant getting non-health-care passed. It appears I was entirely right.”
Yes, LS. No one ever predicted Health Care would pass by Democrat majorities in both houses back in August. At Free Republic, there was not one single post who ever thought Health Care would pass. There were no drama queens on Free Republic. Oh no. But one lone figure in the wilderness, the brilliant and amazing LS, alone, “predicted” it.
Sarcasm aside, every other drama queen on Free Republic “predicted” it as well. My problem with you is that you made a thread titled “The Wheels are Coming Off” and you declared that health care wouldn’t pass. And you are so vain to hoist yourself up as some sort of prophet that you think you said something in your blog no one else did (but everyone was saying at the time) and then you pretend you didn’t predict the opposite just months ago.
You are not being intellectually honest. I expected more from you.
“But that’s kind of irrelevant. If you think Romney will be the nominee, go for it.”
I think Palin will be the nominee.
“You can mark down my prediction now: we haven’t yet seen the 2012 GOP nominee really on the scene. I don’t think it will be either Palin or Romney, and probably not Pawlenty or Thune. It could be someone as unlikely as Scott Brown, but more likely someone really not in the public eye yet.”
You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Running for President is extremely expensive and you must start years ahead. I was near the last Republican to be president, George W. Bush.
When he ran for re-election for governor of Texas in 1998, the Lamestream Media pounced on him and tried to make it an issue that he would run for president so Texans should not vote for him. Presidential candidates are definitely recognized a couple years from when they run. They have to be. It takes years to get a campaign going. Karl Rove even on TV told Palin that if she wants to be President she needs to start getting the campaign together now.
Obama was a nationally known figure in 2006.
McCain was a nationally known figure in 2006, of course. For the 2000 election, Al Gore was, of course, already known. W. Bush was very visibly making plans to run for President as soon as he got re-elected for Governor (which the media kept going bananas over him about). In 1996, Dole was pretty much an old guy and known (at least in the RINO circles).
A presidential run is nothing like a senate run. It is not a jack-in-the-box where a candidate pops up from nowhere. It only seems like that to people do not pay attention.
What governor out there is going to make a run for the president? We know a senator isn’t going to make it and the GOP doesn’t have many senators anyway. Romney will likely try to run but his health care has pretty much imploded his chances. It certainly isn’t going to be someone on the outside like Petraus.
From being close to a presidential campaign, I can say that what matters is the energy being done at the stump speeches on the trail. Bush was a pretty good campaigner and was definitely treated like a ‘rock star’ prior to his running.
Palin is the only one I can see who has the identical charisma that I saw Bush initially campaign with. However, Palin has it in far greater droves. She is also making all the moves that I recall Bush making prior to his eventual run. Bush, as governor, kept making himself be the ‘Anti-Clinton’. You’d have thought Bush was some extreme conservative back then.
The point is that anyone who wants to become president must be putting together an organization two years, at least, prior to the election. I see Palin doing this. I see Romney doing this. I don’t see anyone else visibly doing this.
You keep saying that a mystery presidential candidate is going to magically appear when you know this does not occur in modern American politics. Obama was very famous in 2006. McCain was always famous even back in 2000. W Bush was famous enough to have the media attack him for presidential ambitions back in 1998. Hillary Clinton was always known for her presidential ambitions even when she was a First Lady.
All your talk of ‘jack-in-box presidential candidate’ is just wishful thinking because you are scared of Palin.