Risking another crucifixion here, but if one looks at it realistically, we had a horrible field to start with.
No one candidate at the beginning seemed viable and one was hard pressed to see why any of them thought they should be president.
I think Palin is a little at fault. So many people here (myself included) were sure she would run and win.
She kept stringing us along way too long. She knew all along what would be entailed in the race and how it would affect her family.
So people were left in a void and many here flocked from candidate to candidate seeking a savior.
Cain: why did he run with no credentials at all to be president? None. And why did he get so much initial support? I think it was Palin supporters looking for someone to love. They chose the wrong lover.
Santorum: why did he run? He’d been a fairly conservative senator for two terms but had been beaten badly, and I mean, badly by a democrat, and hadn’t done much in politics since.
Bachmann: a little more argument for her running as she is the self-proclaimed queen of the tea party, but her stature as presidential dropped like a rock in a hysterical outburst over Gardisol. Gardisol??? With all the problems we have, she chose to take on Gardisol.
Ron Paul: he runs every time even though knowing he can’t win. He views it as a chance to get his positions out there and it is. That’s the problem, we all know his crazy positions, foremost among them the notion that middle easterners are nice people who only attacked us because we are mean and interfering.
Gingrich: Meteorical rise to the top with the contract with America. An idea machine, some of his ideas are far out (see Moon) but most of them are good. But what made him think he was suddenly ready to be president so many years after he resigned as speaker?
Rick Perry: (admit to prejudice here - he was my candidate) The only one who seemed viable. A successful governor who knows politics but not from a Washington prospective. Had a lot of anti-establishment ideas, but never caught fire for some reason I cannot imagine, maybe it was the first debate.
Mitt Romney: One term governor who created a health care program in his state eerily similar to the hated Obamacare. Has a lot of money. Always wanted to be president.
So, there it was and here we are.
So, that’s what we had.
Good. Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each.
No, Palin was not guaranteed a win, and I say that as someone who advocated her selection as VP in 2008 and was an advocate for her for president from the ‘08 election until Oct 5, when she said she would not run.
Gov. Palin said it herself on Fox Noose last night. She said that if she was in the race, the GOP establishment would be doing to her exactly what it is doing to Newt right now.
Both Palin and Newt are hated by the left, the media and the Vichy GOP (including both moderates and ConservativesLite®).
I was also sure that she would win, but I knew what was in store for her if she had - a long, hard slog which would put a lot more wear and tear on her family, and no guaranteed outcome.
Unlike Sarah, Newt has no small children at home. His kids are all grown up and have families of their own. Three of hers are still in school. Also, she couldn’t have run from Alaska. She would have by necessity had to move to Arizona and run from there. Obviously, she did not want to uproot her family and do that.
Both Newt and Sarah are/would-have-been long shots, but she is guaranteed a major role in his administration if he can somehow beat the long odds and pull a win out of the fire.