GOP 2012 field still wide open on Main Street

Newsmax ran a feature in the May, 2011 issue (print edition), ‘Who Will Be the Strongest GOP Candidate in 2012?’ The article was written by Doug Schoen, an analyst who is a Democrat. Four possible candidates’ photos are on the first page. They are all former governors: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee.

Other potential candidates like Congressman Ron Paul, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump are mentioned in the article; photos of those potentials and others appear at the end of the article.

Oddly Herman Cain is not included. Schoen mentions Sen. Marco Rubio as a possible vice president.

Cain is very interesting because he has held positions at long-standing US companies—he has actually created private sector jobs. Cain has stumped around the country and garnered a lot of praise (and straw poll positives) from grassroots groups

When I see someone mention Rubio as vice-president, my reaction borders on fury. Rubio is easily the standout candidate in the GOP for anything. Why would you waste him on a vice-presidency?

If the GOP comes up with no candidate that can inspire party elders, grassroots groups and libertarians, and youth, Republicans will lose this election.

I’ve mentioned before I am a registered Republican. That wasn’t always the case—I was a Clinton Democrat (first term only). In my youth I was a Democrat who experienced deep angst over the Lyndon B. Johnson era when government went wild and a sizable number of the problems we face today began.

I saw GOP strategist Karl Rove on TV not long ago—he took a dim view of Donald Trump. I’d say on that note Republicans should tread carefully and remember the impact that occurred when Ross Perot—quite possibly the first de facto Tea Party candidate—diluted the Republican sector. I won’t say Perot handed Clinton the presidency, but the entrepreneur most certainly had a negative impact on the GOP political narrative.

The GOP could, with the right candidates, take the White House in 2012. President Barack Obama is an incumbent and while that presents a benefit—the bully pulpit—it also presents a negative. There is a long disappointing track record with this administration and there is also the strange phenomenon we might call the Libyan intervention if we were a politico. Main Street calls it a war because when you bomb people and some die you are conducting a war.

Republicans still remember choices most of us were not happy with: Bush ‘43 or Gore, Bush ’43 or Kerry, McCain or Obama.

If the GOP repeats choices like those in 2012, Obama will be re-elected, barring some unforeseen negative revelation.

For Main Street, 2012 is still wide open. Of one thing I am certain—as yet there is no fire in the belly possibility and there is no legacy candidate I personally believe can return our great Republic to the Promised Land. GOP elders should take note because Main Street is not the brainwashed bloc Democrats can count on to blindly bubble in a name.

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(Commentary by Kay B. Day/April 21, 2011)

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