Posted on 04/06/2011 9:53:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Never before in American politics have so few offered so little to so many. I refer to the prospective Republican candidates for next year's presidential elections, not a single one of whom elicits a response that might be mistaken for enthusiasm from the voters, the pundits, or the party's elder statesmen.
There are a couple of generic governor types like Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota or Mitch Daniels of Indiana, and a long list of has-beens and never was's. But the Republicans despair of finding the man or woman who can define an alternative to a weak and waffling President Barack Obama.
Something deeper is at work than the luck of the draw. Former president Ronald Reagan defined his part for a quarter a century, and it is worth remembering how he did so. During the 1979 primaries when Reagan trounced his establishment competitors - Texas governor John Connally and the elder George Bush - he was told during a strategy session that not one Fortune 500 chief executive officer had endorsed him. America's big corporations, the pillars of the party during the Dwight D Eisenhower and Richard Nixon administrations, backed Connally or Bush.
"Then I will be the candidate of the small businessman, the farmer, and the entrepreneur," Reagan told his staff. The late Jude Wanniski, who preached what became Reaganonomics from the Wall Street Journal editorial page through the 1970s, told me this story 10 years later, when I became his partner in an economic consulting firm.
Reagan unleashed a wave of entrepreneurship such as post-depression America had never seen, and transformed the Republicans from a party of country-club conservatism to the party of boot-strapping creative destruction.
Where are the entrepreneurs?
Judging from recent economic data they are an endangered species.
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Herman Cain.
With the MSM ready to provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of “in kind” contributions to Obama in the form of lies and vicious, unfounded personal attacks on whoever dares to challenge him, it’s a daunting prospect for a challenger, at best.
No one wants the job for the pubs because you get eviscerated, harrassed and lied about by the media. That is why it’s best to wait until almost the last possible moment to announce.
Yes, it's frustrating, but certainly understandable. There are many good people out there, but they're taking a pass.. they simply don't want to lay themselves open for a vicious, hostile media that will relentlessly attack not only them, but their families on a 24-7 basis. They know they'll have to contend with the headwinds of not only an enemy propaganda cabal, but a massive financing disadvantage.
Plus.. who in their right mind would even WANT to preside over this dysfunctional mess?
The left is going to write our epitaph in a thousand different ways, right up until November 2012. Chuck this one (and all the rest) in file 13.
As is expected, the GOP will find a stimulating and exciting candidate like John McCain or Bob Dole to run against a charismatic liberal like 0bama. God forbid they run some old school bore like Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann.
That's Sarah in the role of Cincinnatus. That's why they have spend so much effort and plumbed the depths in trying to silence her.
If we just lost a few RINOs who think they can be President.
BS!
We can easily agree on a candidate.
When Reagan rises from the dead, we are solid.
This is a much different country than when Reagan was President.
Who was enthused about Nixon or Ford or Bush 1 or Dole or Bush 2?
Goldwater Yes
Reagan Yes.
That’s about it. This the norm for the pansy GOP.
And you can add McPain to the first list.
Grumbling Old Pops
Dick Lugar/Mitch McConnell 2012!
I don't think America would even have the soul to elect Ronald Reagan these days.
I don't think so, either.
I think that has more to do with it than anything. Behind closed doors our political class knows what's coming.
They know whoever takes the next 4 year term is going to be the lead engineer of a downhill locomotive with the wheels coming off.
We had an Illinois politician that was narcissistic enough to want the job in this situation before, and it seems we're getting another one this time.
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