The only really half-sane alternative to Mitt Romney couldn’t convince his wife and kids to take on the burden of the limelight in exchange for seeing their father get an ass-whupping from the Obama-Biden 2012 campaign. Mitch Daniels is out. Here’s what Cillizza has to say:
Of late, there seemed to be a sort of rallying around Daniels from the political establishment with people like House Speaker John Boehner and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie praising his record as governor. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a one-time 2012 aspirant himself, urged Daniels to make the race.
Daniels’ appeal was as a sober voice of reason in a party that had been dominated by sideshows — like the potential candidacy of businessman Donald Trump — in the early days of the 2012 election.
A quick perusal around the righty blogosphere indicates that the alternative to Daniels is either T-Paw (because he’s not Romney) or Herman Cain (because he’d prove they aren’t racist the same way Clarence Thomas did). I note, for the record, that the small but building buzz for Herman Cain that arose after the South Carolina debate has been doused by Charles Krauthammer’s assertion that Cain is just the minstrel portion of the show. Sometimes a little honesty is refreshing. Thanks, Charles.
Which leaves T-Paw. T-Paw and Romney. But with T-Paw endorsing crazy economic policies like the flat-tax and a return to the Gold Standard (a mix of Steve Forbes and Ron Paul, and just as viable with the suits) the Republican Money Establishment is pretty much forced to look to Romney. Here’s the thing about that though; the whole reason everyone coalesced around Mitch Daniels is that they realized that they can’t sell Romney to their base. So, either they double down on Romney and create a real fissure among their activists and within their media machine, or they try to get T-Paw to stop pandering to Ron Paul’s base. Or they hope for a brokered convention where they can pluck some Eisenhower out of thin air to save the day.
Or they hope for a brokered convention where they can pluck some Eisenhower out of thin air to save the day.
Who would that be? There isn’t a sane GOPer these days. Not a one.
Herman Cain (because he’d prove they aren’t racist the same way Clarence Thomas did)
Clarence Thomas was permitted on the SCOTUS only because the confederate faction had accepted that a token black was required and Thomas was obviously the perfect “house n*gger” for them.
There is no way in hell the Republican party will tolerate a black as their candidate for President. Even a resurrected Reagan in blackface would lose badly.
This is yet another example of the schism between the welfare wingnut pundits in the beltway and the blue collar wingnuts who are their base. The wingnut pundits are used to living with diversity and can get excited by someone like Bobby Jindal or Hermann Cain (or with the many closeted gays in their movement) because they deal with people of different backgrounds, races, orientations, religions, etc. all the time. Ironically, except for verbal fealty to the “family values” slogans most of the professional wingnut pundits are actually pretty socially liberal (Cal Thomas is one of a few obvious exceptions).
The base, however, is not. Oh, they’ll acquiesce to the occasional Republican racial minority for lower level positions, like Jindal or Steele, but that’s because they don’t pay much attention to the people who run in those campaigns anyway. But in no way will they accept anyone who is not lily white for President, nor someone with any kind of background that is in any way non-Euro-American.
It’s not yet clear whether they are ready to put a woman into the presidency either. I know, a lot of them voted for Palin as VP, which makes one think that they are ready for that idea, but that was as much of a protest vote as anything, given the context. You’ll note that the only Republican women who are floating the idea of running for President are certified crazy Palinites, however that may be because the competent Republican female politicians are all to some degree pro-choice, which is itself a an automatic disqualifier.
Bachmann and/or Palin are gonna run. And as Biden found out with his debate with Palin, it’s really hard debating with pretty, stupid. But when she/they do run, it’s gonna cost the fundraisers & donors of the GOP big bucks just to stay in the room.
And after Obama’s speech in front of AIPAC this morning, they shouldn’t be counting on any big donations away from him. Had to rank at the top of his speeches and certainly well received.
They will punt. They never had a shot at winning this term, and now it’s just all that much clearer. They will run a True Crazy (TM), probably Bachmann, and hope to rally the base enough to hold the House and take the Senate.
Short term gains despite long term costs, it’s a republican way of life.
Romney is the lesser of two evils, when the other evil is the Islamo-socialist Kenyan usurper.
I don’t think Romney’ll win, but I think he’ll keep it close. Closer than Dole, certainly closer than a Landon, Mondale, or McGovern.
The lesser of two evils has been known to do well enough, sometimes, to even win elections in this country.
If the duplicitous Mr. Folksy is the “sober voice of reason”, I truly fear for us all. At least his bailing out gives us a shot at the down-ticket races here.
How about trying that flat tax thing on the payroll tax? You know, so people making over 100k get to pay it. We can test it out for ten years or so to see how it works.
These Republicans are bunch of asshole cowards. They talk all this smack and they can’t step up to the plate when it counts? Yeah, they’re the manly daddy party all right.
Palin bought a home in Arizona.
His wife’s home wrecking past might have impacted Mitch’s decision.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/05/22/why_mitch_daniels_said_no_109948.html
But she told reporters afterward that the prospect of her marriage being discussed and dissected in the media was giving her pause.
She had reason to be nervous. RealClearPolitics was approached by the ex-wife of the doctor with whom Mrs. Daniels fled to California. The other couple was married at the time, and the woman said in a phone interview that the move “blindsided” her.
While she said she’s over the breakup of her marriage, in an email she characterized Cheri Daniels as “vengeful.”
The doctor’s ex-wife continued: “What I will say is they remarried for political reasons. She didn’t care what she did to her children or mine in 1994. And she doesn’t care about what she does now. Look up ‘narcissist.’ I really question her character, and her motives.”
He left them with huge deficits. On a per-person basis, the highest in the country after CA.
and nothing says REAL MAN than a man who cuts off medical access for hundreds of thousands of poor women which is what Daniels did when he cut the funding for Planned Parenthood.
yeah, nothing says REAL MAN like that. he’ll show all those poor women…since he couldn’t show his wife.
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