Yes, Romney is terrible. The only way he wins the nomination is if movement conservatives and Tea Party folks split their votes between multiple candidates in the primaries. If there are several candidates acceptable to the Tea Party, it is going to be pretty important to coalesce behind one fairly early - otherwise we may indeed get Mitt the way we ended up with McCain.
Again, it isn't that I don't like Pawlenty, but seriously? Is that really the best we can do? Aren't we all hungry for someone a bit more charismatic that conservatives can truly get excited about? Someone who actually directly takes on the unions, the social welfare state, etc. And it isn't enough to fight those battles, we need someone that can persuade the public and not just preach to the choir.
One problem I suppose is that some of the candidates I'd really like to see run probably won't till next cycle. I am thinking folks like Susana Martinez, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, etc.
Everyone has their flaws, some have fewer (Reagan, Washington) and some have more (Carter, Obama).
After 7 years of this Obama charisma thing, charisma just is not what it is cracked up to be. I was born in Canada under the Trudeaumania thing, a reaction to which may explain my preference for boring people like Tim Pawlenty. Other than being the anti-Obama on the charisma scale, what else you don’t like about Pawlenty?
I want “not-Obama”. Obama = basketball, Pawlenty = hockey. Great!!
Chris Christie is a social liberal. He’s a fiscal hero, but the more that conservatives look at Christie, the less enticing he will be to us as a Presidential candidate. And as for foreign affairs, President Christie would be what everyone else in the world hates most about Americans, kind of like Hitler + Kruschev = Christie kind of thing. The fact is Christie does the most for America by being an exemplary bad-ass GOP governor of a blue state.
Also, I don’t want to risk supporting folks for executive office who have never run anything besides their own campaigns (like Obama) - that has turned out horribly. So that rules out Ryan, Rubio, etc. I love Ryan, Rubio and many of our recent congress critters, but not yet... though come to think of it Rubio might make an outstanding VP candidate, he would add some charisma that Pawlenty lacks.
President Tim Pawlenty and Vice President Marco Rubio - I think that would be a really good combo.