You can thank Sarah Palin for that.
The "will she/won't she" distracted everyone for far too long.
Romney, who already had an organization, was the only one who did not have to play catch-up: everyone else temporized to see what Palin would do.
As a result, we are left with this underwhelming field.
Good strategy by Palin for any 2016 hopes she has, bad luck for America.
Perhaps, but Palin not running didn’t affect anyone else. SHe didn’t prevent anyone else from doing the legwork and laying the groundwork. Didn’t stop anyone else from running or preparing. Besides, all the experts and those in the know said from the moment she resigned in July 2009 that she wasn’t running and would never run, so it’s not like her decision was unexpected or a surprise or anything. Everyone knew or should have known for 2 years that she wasn’t going to run. She gave them enough of a warning.
I also think Huckabee not running was a factor. Huckabee would have won IA easily and likely won SC easily as well. He’d have been less of a target than Newt and I think conservatives would have gotten behind him to stop Romney. He’d have won in FL and been the heavy favorite right about now. I bet he’s kicking himself that he didn’t run.
And, we also have to admit that we need candidates to run good campaigns or at least campaigns free of huge blunders and gaffes. We can’t have candidates that we find out had multiple sexual harrasment settlements and were giving money to a “mistress” for years including well into the campaign itself. We can’t have a guy who struggles at putting sentences together, insults the base on a major issue, and then can’t even remember the 3 agencies he wants to eliminate and has the worst debate gaffe of all time. We can’t have someone whose last political act was getting blown out in a key swing state by 20 pts despite being a 2 term incumbent(the worst loss by an incumbent Senator in US history) and who is on record as being against contraception among other positions. We can’t be reduced to pinning all our hopes on a guy who has been out of office and hasn’t campaigned/run in an election for 15 years, not to mention never ran in an election outisde his home district in GA, who has been married 3 times and has a record as an adulterer/cheater, and has all the other baggage Newt has.
So, finding a solid candidate, and having him or her start preparing right away to unify the base and prevent situation like this year and in 08 where the base is split 4 or 5 ways for too long, is really the key going forward