“it might a game changer.”
That would be fine by me. As a small businessman from the South, I like him for his business experience more than anything and his folksiness might help him as well. xI just don’t see him winning the big prize with so little political experience.
The previous FL straw polls were done in a different time with different slates of candidates. Smaller ones, if memory serves. At the debate, this one looked like an army squad lined up ready for a fight. Nine players. With a big field like that most anything can happen. Throw in the Tea Part factor (i.e.something new) and you have even more unpredictability.
It’s a bad metaphor but I’m thinking of the Kentucky Derby. Every year it has the biggest Triple Crown field and it is the toughest of the 3 races to handicap. Lots of horses and lots of inexperience, hopes, and dreams.
This race requires patience. We have to see what that “squad” comes up with.
I think everything you said is valid - and when I say the Florida straw poll “might” be a game changer - I mean just that — it might — and of course, it might not.
And I agree, a 9 candidate field and 9 man debate is not necessarily indicative of how the same person might do in a 3 or 4 person field or a 2 person debate. I think a lot of folks are trying to read into debating Obama or Biden what they see in these mass free for alls. Could be misleading. I think the Kentucky Derby analogy works.
Also there is a huge desire for folks with something other than the normal political experience this year, but we’ll see with Cain how big of a factor that is.
I think 2012 is a year with possibilities that have never existed before. That’s not to say those possibilities will necessarily happen - just means they are on table and they never have been before IMO.