Romney in for GOP 2012

[Sandy]

Surprised? No.

The mood in the White House must be improving rapidly with each succeeding announcement of potential GOP candidates, or with announcements that certain Republicans aren't running. If you thought the recession brought about by Bush administration policy was bad, just wait and see what happens if Mit Romney is elected. Romney's big announcement today more or less jumped on Obama because he says he's still blaming W for the recession. If he doesn't have a clue about either what caused the recession, or the fact that Obama's policies probably saved us from 18% unemployment and a complete stock market crash, then he doesn't deserve to be elected. And he won't be. I doubt the GOP gives him the nomination.

There's a growing list of GOP candidates, and none of them appears to have the potential to reach the numbers they will need to win in 2012.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

I'm not as optimistic this week about Obama's chances as I was the previous two weeks.

Wall Street tanked the other day. Look for the market to slide again on Friday. The unemployment rate is not budging. People are now talking about a Double Dip again.

If the GOP can get their act together and nominate someone both interesting and viable, they have a chance.

Herman, Sarah, Newt, etc. are all interesting but not viable. Pawlenty and Romney are simply not interesting.

What do you think about Rick Perry, Sandy? He was on the Jon Stewart show a couple months back and he was really great. A smooth guy, good looking, very charismatic. It would seem that all the aforementioned qualities plus his long tenure as Texas Governor would make him a much much more attractive candidate than former Mass. governor and chief flip-flopper Mitt Romney.

I'm not saying Perry can beat Obama. But seriously, he would likely make a much better candidate than almost everyone else.

I do wonder if Mike Huckabee will change his mind, allow himself to be "drafted" now. He's opened the door it seems.

[Dave Roberts]

Is there a "none of the above" category?

[Sandy]

People are impatient now when it comes to the economy. A lot of Republicans lose their credibility and look both stupid and political trumpeting that the country "needs to get back on the right track" when the recovery we've had so far has been miraculous, given the depth of the recession. The stock market lost more of its value than it did during the Great Depression, and if the Republicans had remained in control after the disastrous failures of the Bush administration, and applied their "money first, people later" policy, unemployment would have surpassed Depression-era figures and the financial industry would have completely collapsed, putting the US at serious security risk. That's what you'll have if Romney is elected. It took fourteen years to recover from the Republican depression of 1929. The recovery from this is well along. The current job report and stock market figures are temporary adjustments that any credible economist will tell you are part of the cycle. I expect that unemployment will be hovering around 7% by the time the election rolls around, the stock market conceivably will be above 13,000 and that will be enough to re-elect the President, given the current field, pretty comfortably.

I don't think Perry will play well in Peoria, or anywhere else outside of the state of Texas, except maybe South Carolina or Mississippi (or Arizona). I don't think he'd do well with the media scrutiny, and his Bush connection would doom his chances on the national scope. Go back and read some of the stuff Molly Ivans wrote in the Texas Observer about "Slick Hair." You know the opposition would find that stuff and plaster it all over the place if he decided to make a run.

The one Republican that might have some kind of a chance against President Obama is Rudy Giuliani. The problem with him, though, is that he's generally way too far to the left to have much appeal to the vocal, screeching right wing tea partiers, or the religious right, to gain the nomination.
They'll settle for someone who won't draw too much negative attention in 2012, while they hope to hold on to the House and perhaps see a star rise out of there for 2016.

[Cathy]

I don't believe that Giuliani will play any better this year than four years ago. At least not outside of NYC. In fact I think he doesn't have anymore credibility than Trump does. I also agree that Perry wouldn't play well out of Texas.

I think that the Republicans will continue to be split looking for a candidate that can unite the factions. It is a party that has lost its way. Romney in my opinion is as good a candidate as the Republicans can hope for. If he won the nomination a few Dems might cross over in the general elections.

[Stephen Fox]

In this online poll.

No White guilt on my part. As Chris Rock said: "he ain't your ordinary Negro."

By virtue of David Remnick's political bio The Bridge, and by virtue of new book by Brian Till, Conversations with Power.

Obama has his faults, but something is screwy in the Country. Something is faulty when Food has become another commodity for leverage like Oil.

I don't know who has the Resources to Speak Truth to Power. Fox News or the Seculars of Babylon--not the country but the American money of Las Vegas that deals in licentiousness--will FFFF you over.

Newt Gingrich is part of the disease but so maybe is Reality TV and MTV. Mark Noll may be right about that in his review of God's Own Party.

I can't name too many Frank Johnson or Mark Hatfield Republicans any more and that is sad.

Instead of more polling, serious students of the Republican/Focus on the Family/Ralph Reed/SBC malaise will spend the rest of the summer reading Joe Crespino In Search of Another Country.

[Sandy]

Romney would be an economic policy disaster. His plan is to repeal all corporate income taxes and drop all import tarrifs. It's hard to tell what he would really do, because he's flip flopped so much. But if he sticks to what he says, then your social security and medicare would be placed in the hands of private companies who would scoop their profit off the top and leave you with less than half of what you would get now. You'd see the price of gas exceed $10 a gallon. And why religious social conservatives like Richard Land support him is beyond me, since he has no interest whatsoever in any Christian social issue, except as a bargaining chip to get votes.

[Big Daddy Weaver]

[David Flick]

[Sandy]

Yet another hat in the ring today, Rick Santorum, the former PA senator who was resoundingly defeated by Bob Casey. I don't expect he'll last too long.

Interesting comments from Howard Dean about Sarah Palin. He says the Democrats need to keep their guard up, especially if economic growth continues to be somewhat sluggish into the next year,because that will give the GOP an advantage. If the party extremists wind up nominating someone like Palin, she might have a chance in those circumstances.

I doubt that the GOP will nominate Palin. Too many places for her to put her foot in her mouth between now and the nominating convention. I can't really imagine that they would actually put her up to run, especially if they intend to win.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archi ... al_author/

[Sandy]

Conservatives have dug up plenty on Mit. Lots of reasons not to vote for him.

http://massresistance.org/romney/

[Haruo]

So far it's Obama 86%, Paul 14%. Something's skewed here.