Friday, March 18, 2011

Who Do YOU Want ...

I know this is a Triathlon Blog but my mind and body is pretty wore down with training so I want to talk about something else.  So ...

Regina over @Chiu On This had a funny cartoon from the NYT about about "running" but it was actually talking about running for President in 2012.   This cartoon got me thinking about 2012 and who I'd like to see as the GOP candidate. Right now I am not real excited about the current pool of has-been's and never-will-be's that seem to be in the forefront.  



Here are a list of "prospective" candidates:

-  Mitt Romney, Former Massachusetts Gov, the front-runner, largely because he was the runner-up to Sen. John McCain in 2008.
-  Sarah PalinFormer Alaska Gov, who has recently made a name for herself by endorsing winning Tea Party candidates.
-  Haley Barbour, Current Mississippi Gov, a social conservative in his second term.
-  Mitch Daniels, Current Indiana Gov, a fiscal conservative in his second term.
- Mike Huckabee, a Fox host and former 2008 presidential candidate.
- Newt GingrichFormer House Speaker.
-  John ThuneSouth Dakota Sen, a conservative and darling of the party for defeating former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.
-  Chris Christie, Current New Jersey Gov, whose budget cutting in his first year has impressed many in GOP ranks who want him to apply his touch to Washington.
-  Tim PawlentyMinnesota Gov, already running and showing his conservative side.
-  Bobby Jindal, LA Gov, probably running and gained some points in his handling of the BP Oil Spill.
-  Rounding out the list are Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Ron Paul.

We will see a few more candidates pop up in the upcoming months but for now for the purpose of this post, this is the assumed list.
Personally, the only candidate on this list who I am remotely excited about would be New Jersey Gov Chris Christie. He would absolutely destroy Obama in a debate and he would hold his ground in cutting reckless spending from the Federal Government.  However, he claims he is not running?
I like Jindal,  Pawlenty, Daniels, and Thune in their current positions but, IMO, none of them have the ability or charisma to articulate the Conservative message to the country.  This is probably the most important attribute a candidate needs to have because the GOP is pretty split right now.  The current establishment of Republicans want to see the party capture more Independent voters by leaning more towards the center of the political spectrum.  The Tea Party segment wants to see the country get back to the principles of the founding fathers and limit Government intrusion and taxation which is perceived as leaning to the right. 
My feelings are that we need a candidate that can pull together both factions of the party and also explain to the undecided voter why the country needs the fundamental changes away from the policies of the Obama administration. Hopefully a candidate exists that can achieve this lofty goal.
So my questions are who do you want to see run for President in 2012?  Am I missing some one?  Or is someone on the list a better candidate than I think?  What says you ...

Thanks for Reading,
Jeff

16 comments:

  1. me! vote for me! and when i take over the world, i'm gonna make 'casual friday' a daily thing.

    :D

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  2. I am voting Regina, because I dont know if Ross Perot is still alive or not.

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  3. I live for the day when there is a living candidate that actually makes me want to vote. Sigh.

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  4. Oddly, completing a Graduate degree in Political Science made me hate politics and voting for anything even dinner choices.....(but NOT for me for my ACURA)

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  5. Everyone is playing Switzerland. That either means these political posts make you uncomfortable or the candidates all suck! Probably a little bit of both (-:

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  6. I have a whole blog post bouncing around my head on a related topic: political trust. There are two parts to this. The first is do you believe in what they say. I don't think some of these candidates even know what they are saying (Palin) and others will say anything to be noticed (Newt).

    If they do know what they are saying, then can you trust them to do what they say? Mmmmm. Knocks out more.

    In summary, Christie in 2016.

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  7. I have no allegiance to either party. I've voted both sides of the aisle in every election. I personally hate the two party system because when it comes down to it, no one seems to have the balls (or lady bits) to break "party ranks". In this day of age, I find it very hard to believe that all 241 Repbulicans or 193 Democrats feel EXACTLY the same on issues. Too much behind the scenes/under that table favors going on I guess.

    *end rant*

    Given your list, I have liked what I have seen/heard from Christie, Huckabee, Pawlenty, and Paul, but honestly don't know enough about any of them at this point.

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  8. I choose mitt out of current options.

    Otherwise.
    I
    Choose
    Patrick Mahoney.

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  9. I was about to complain about that boring list....until I saw Ron Paul make it at the bottom.

    Did you watch the last debates in '08? Dr. Paul destroyed everyone. It got so bad that some unnamed person stopped sending him invitations to come debate. Personally I didn't watch them. But I heard from a family member that watched one debate that he was pretty impressive.

    Unfortunately, Ron won't ever win - because he's too liberal for Republicans, too conservative for Democrats and too smart for everyone else in the country (the 0ther 90%).

    But until I get my name on the ballot I'll keep voting for him!

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  10. If Christie ran, I would vote for him. The WI governor should be his VP. Their platform would be, "Cut Egregious Spending." If they killed unions in the process, I wouldn't be dissapointed ;)

    Of the Repub candidates who are planning to run, I don't think they have enough to bump Obama out of office.

    Obama had the greatest PR campaign in the history of the world to get elected. He showed a ton of promise, unfortunately he is ending up a bit flat as a president.

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  11. God that list just makes me depressed! Sad to say Sara Palin probably has the best chance of actually winning and at least the campaign would be entertaining. Really the best the GOP can hope for is Hilary Clinton Challenging Obama and/or running as a third party candidate. Unfortunately she will end up being the Sec of Defense in 2012 to set herself up for 2016.

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  12. My husband LOVES Chris Christie, but not sure of his foreign policy experience.

    I still have fond feelings for Rudy Guiliani, can't help it : )

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  13. Thanks BDD, I accept your endorsement! However, I will not be running for the GOP! I don't like anyone on that list! And please, Sarah Palin did NOT make her name supporting Tea Party Candidates! Do I really need to go there? can't we just pretend she isn't there and maybe she'll go away?

    My hubby works with Mike Huckabee and says he is a very nice man, but even that won't do.

    That said, there isn't really anyone, in any party that inspires confidence. I took your bait, Jeff ;)

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  14. Oh! Thanks fir the shout and the link!

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  15. Christie, Romney, Huckabee, in that order. I keep waffling though. I love me some Palin, but the woman needs to be shuffled off somewhere far, far away from the GOP contenders.

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