Executive experience?????????????
It’s one thing to win. It’s another to govern.
What’s Rick got in this category?
Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman are the only candidates with a decent amount of executive experience.
Perry is a populist who has been an undisciplined campaigner, in contrast to his electoral record in Texas.
Romney's record as a political executive has been the subject of some criticism.
Huntsman had a conservative record as a political executive but insists that he's a proud member of the liberal elite.
Rick Santorum is not a dream presidential candidate but all of the candidates running have their weaknesses, to put it gently.
Something even better. He actually got the US Senate to work for our side while he was there! He got the House working earlier. Can you name anyone else, live or dead, running or not, who can claim the same. Even Jim DeMint can only claim to have been a good brake on the left. If we win the WH we'll almost certainly win the Senate and hold the House, as the deck is stacked against the left. But getting to 60 in the Senate is a longshot. Expect Dingy Harry to dig in and try to block everything. We need someone who knows how to get things done in the Senate. And that doesn't mean caving to the left! And if Obama want to run on 'executive experience,' given his record pre- and post-2008, Rick can laugh him out of the WH.
Romney would be an unmitigated disaster. Gingrich is bold, and assertive but the question in everyone’s mind is whether he is electable in the general. If we need a fresh face, someone with less baggage, telegenic like Reagan, who can be assured of the evangelical vote and is capable of picking up the crucial female 29-49 demographic, it is hard to pass up Santorum as the last one who is both conservative and viable. Santorum himself makes this point in doing the rounds in Iowa that we have the establishment candidates (Romney, Perry and Gingrich),the libertarian in Ron Paul, and then the true conservatives in him and Bachmann. If Santorum fails to make it, then either Gingrich or Perry is the preferred choice of those of us who believe in a 180 degree reversal of the Obama policies, foreign and domestic.
See his senatorial record as a leader. There are many fine videos out there where he addresses his experience. Three Beers Later blog has his stop at the San Fernando Valley Republicans. There up at YouTube as well.
My favorite is his stopping partial birth abortion.
(Why so many question marks? Did the button stick?)
He was a Senator.
So was Obama. I don’t see it as a disqualification.
The rest of the GOP field isn’t too impressive.