Pat Buchanan raised the level of debate the first time he ran, this was before he went off the deep end on a lot of issues.
I do not believe it was true of Keyes, nor would it be true of Tancredo.
And yes I am dismissing Gingrich as not being able to compete effectively for the nomination. I LIKE Newt Gingrich. One of the reasons I’m a conservative today was from watching Gingrich, Vin Weber, Connie Mack and others on CSPAN in the early 80’s. Heck I spent 6 years living in the Atlanta area and for four of them Newt was my Rep.
But Newt has amassed too much personal baggage and was too successfully vilified (wrongly) during his tenure as Speaker.
Newt is a great guy and when he talks conservatives should always listen.
“Newt is a great guy and when he talks conservatives should always listen.”
I agree with all you say and hope Gingrich and Thompson both run. It would be great if they did. Gingrich in particular could help sharpen the debate and be a good expounder of a slid conservative platform.
The discounting should come in terms of polls numbers though. Polls are unreliable as is and an early poll of a non-candidate is really meaningless imho.