2011-10-09
Of course I wouldn't have liked any of the Republican candidates anyway, but I doubt that there has ever been a more mediocre group of presidential candidates than Romney, Perry, Bachman, Huntsman, Cain, Santorum, and Gingrich. And never a group of candidates more desperate to say anything they think the audience-- the Tea Party-- wants to hear. Anything. Anything at all.
It's not that all Republican leaders are always idiots. John McCain sounded interesting before Bush blind-sided him in North Carolina in 2000. Chris Christie actually sounds pretty interesting now. Patrick Moynihan, who claimed to be a Democrat, could occasionally be interesting, if not tiresome.
Christie believes in Global Warming, thinks there is no such thing as an "illegal" alien, supports some form of gun control, and thought the opponents of the "ground zero mosque" should get a grip. One of the things that most makes him interesting is the kind of sensible attitude that has led him to decide not to run.
Rick Perry is just not very bright. You actually feel bad for him standing up there with no one to help him think of intelligent things to say. Just when I thought he was going to have the courage to stand up for the idea of vaccinating young girls against HPV he turned out to only have to courage to whine about how he would never do it again. I also admire his stand on college tuition for children of illegal immigrants but he's not only in the wrong party for that one-- he's on the wrong planet.
Herman Cain is clearly only interested in selling his books and his services as a speaker on leadershit-- that's what it is-- this culture of useless and vague aphorisms and "wit" that passes for leadership seminars-- , for which he receives $25,000, presumably to explain why he is so brilliant he will be president except that even he would probably giggle at the thought that he was ever in it for anything but the free publicity. He has one good idea: the U.S. should have a goods and services tax-- it makes a lot of sense economically. But then, that's just science and facts and information. He's rather run ads like this.
Michelle Bachman? Who on earth ever thought she would be a good candidate for president? Whoever convinced her of it should be arrested and charged with fraud. Even most hard core conservatives will have more than a little trouble electing someone this clueless.
Santorum is a psycho. The man is clearly mentally unbalanced. Prompted to explain his position on homosexuals in the military-- he wants to repeal something but he's not sure what-- he suddenly ejaculated "there should be no sex in the military-- no sex at all!" He has that nasty, bitter, self-righteousness doesn't play well outside of church.
Gingrich really wants to be pope. He's smart to get enraged whenever anyone raises the question of hypocrisy: he was cheating on his wife, who was dying of cancer, at the very moment he was demanding that Bill Clinton be impeached for groping an intern. He also seems to suddenly believe that the separation of Church and State is a myth. He's very family oriented and expect to see his wife co-governing if he gets elected, the possibility of which seems dazzlingly remote.
And then you have the Mitt. Romney-- who is surprisingly similar to Obama in a lot of ways-- he even enacted a health care plan in Massachusetts that is very similar to Obamacare-- a cold-blooded technocrat-- might be better off selling nuance. The more he tries to scoop up those extremist Republicans, the more he diminishes his one asset: the sense of reasonableness and rationality he used to represent. He's eating away at his own virtues by repudiating all of his moderate positions. He is now uncompromisingly pro-life, uncompromisingly against taxes, uncompromisingly against illegal immigrants, uncompromisingly against the HPV vaccine.... is there anyone in the room who doubts that once he wins the Republican nomination he will announce "just kidding" and go back to those sensible ideas that appeal to independent voters?