As GOP 2012 Field Firms Up, So Does Discontent Over The GOP 2012 Field

So the word is out! The GOP field for the 2012 nomination is set. And the enthusiasm is pretty much not palpable. But why is that? By my reckoning, the current field includes:

• The Guy Who Invented ObamaCare (Mitt Romney)
• The Guy Who Imploded 48 Hours After Announcing (Newt Gingrich)
• The Guy Who Is The "Secret Progressive" (Jon Huntsman)
• The Pizza Guy (Herman Cain; if you're not satisfied with your pizza, be sure to check out Cain's right of return policy)
• The Guy With The "Google Problem" (Rick Santorum)
• America's Most Beloved Libertarian (Ron Paul)
• America's Most Beloved Libertarian On Weed (Gary Johnson)
• Maybe, America's Top Internet Troll (Sarah Palin)
• Probably, America's Top Michele Bachmann (Michele Bachmann)
• Two Dudes Who The GOP Have Made Into Apostates For Being Anti-Lobbyist and Pro-LGBT Rights, Respectively (Buddy Roemer, Fred Karger)
• And Finally, Ol' What's His Name, The Guy Who's Not Mitch Daniels (Tim Pawlenty)

Hey, that includes three people (Romney, Gingrich, and Huntsman) who have, in the past, supported the individual health insurance mandate that's now a taboo topic in conservative circles.

And so, the National Review's Rich Lowry is wondering, "Is This It?"

How's this for an impressive Republican lineup?

A likable former governor and TV personality; a two-term governor with an unmatched fiscal record; another former governor with the best education-reform credentials in the country; a rising star in the House; and a photogenic senator from the heartland.

They are Mike Huckabee, Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Mike Pence, and John Thune. The Republicans sitting out the 2012 nomination battle would themselves make a formidable field. Indeed, more formidable than the actual entrants. The hottest place to be in Republican politics right now is sitting on the sidelines.

Hope, of course, springs eternal. Lowry's holding out for the possibility that there's a future announcement coming from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. (Why Paul Ryan would run for president remains a mystery to me -- as a member of the House of Representatives, he'll have an easier time simply retaining his seat, from which he's been able to project considerable influence over the grand policy debates. What's the upside in giving that up?)

I suppose then, this is what passes for good news:

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose presidential campaign fizzled in 2008, is leaning toward another race for the White House, according to a close associate. New York Republican Rep. Peter King, who has known Giuliani for more than 40 years, says the former mayor "is very close to saying he's going to run."

"If he were to make the decision today, he would run," says King.

According to King, Giuliani is "quietly lining up support and exploring strategy." He's also apparently taking stock in the mistakes he made in 2008, such as the fact that he waited to compete, and eventually fell "hopelessly behind." Given the fact that he is, at the moment, waiting to compete and falling behind, it's not clear that he's actually taken this lesson to heart.

David Brooks is taking Mitch Daniels' decision to not get into the race so hard that he's basically now writing columns suggesting we just turn Capitol Hill over to the Redcoats, or at least give political power in America to the insular Beltway tribes "who have ... known each other since prep school." (It seems to be lost on Brooks that political power has been consolidated in the hands of those people who now exclusively fund electoral campaigns from their corporate aeries and dispatch their underlings to lobby legislators for favorable treatment.)

For what it's worth, the Obama team seems to be expecting to face a serious challenge, whether folks like Lowry are excited by the field at the moment or not. Marc Ambinder captures the Obama re-elect team as being genuinely relieved that Daniels won't be making a run, but seem to regard Romney and Pawlenty as legit contenders. More importantly, Ambinder suggests that there's an overall acknowledgement that "the sluggish economic recovery" is a "more conspicuous" issue.

But that's looking far ahead. Today, right-leaning pundits feel about the same way they felt about the field last week -- let down and hoping for a white knight to emerge. As Ambinder points out, the vagaries of the GOP nominating process will keep these hopes alive through the fall:

Since the nomination rests on delegate accumulation, a Republican can enter the race as late as November and still be eligible to win them in the big states. A candidate who says "no" today -- even Mitch Daniels -- might be persuaded to become a "yes" by November.

Hey, there's always Thaddeus McCotter!

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Comments

[olerealist]

10:41 AM on 05/26/2011

MITT ROMNEY may be a champion flip flopper. But I have to give him credit. Either he reads the newspapers or has a good “fact checker”.

Having been a big critic of the G. Motors/Chrysler bailout, he now is trying to take credit for Obama’s success

[Tovlogos]

11:41 PM on 05/25/2011

The Two Party System in the West. What a paradox. No matter which way you choose, there's hell to pay.

[MattPatrick]

10:42 PM on 05/25/2011

The field is not quite set yet, Bachmann and Palin will come in late. The nomination is Romney's to lose and he just might. The Republicans have quite a soul searching out ahead of them.

They don't have a good candidate which will ultimately lead to a lower turnout. Besides, you can't successfully win the White House on 'NO'. The tea partiers will rally around Bachmann; the Libertarians will stay with Paul; Palin will not be able to resist and will run as the choice of religious conservatives; Cain is koolaid for all who think the Presidency is a matter of branding and marketing. Huntsman is thinking about 2016. TPaw will be the first to go and Gingrich is this cycle's Guiliani: a guy who thinks he's pegged the right angle to strike the wet match and can't figure out why he didn't catch fire.

Late in the game as a brokered convention looms, the GOP will get behind Romney and save the nomination for him and then get in line for favors from him for doing so.

[RobH413]

03:09 AM on 05/26/2011

The brokered convention always seems like a sexy prediction but the possibility fades pretty quickly. I can only imagine how dysfunctional and splintered the party would be coming off a mid-summer brawl at the convention.

[attl]

09:57 PM on 05/25/2011

The only hurdle for any of the aspirants is the aspiration of the people. It will be facinating to watch how the Republicans will try to reshape voters aspirations with their brand of voodo economics, which hasn't worked, and trim healthcare and education so that the government can lower the taxes for the corporations and wealthy people. In the meantime, they must satisfy the Tea Party yearning to dismantle the Federal Government and let the states rule supreme. Each of those items is worth several 800 lbs. gorillas and it will be a fun juggling act. Oh, they also have to retract a lot of the things that they have espoused in the past, including ex spouses.

[olerealist]

10:48 AM on 05/26/2011

YES INDEED. And wasn’t it Reagan’s chief finance and econ advisor who, as an after thought, called his policy “VOODO ECONOMICS”?

[Jenny Davidson]

08:32 PM on 05/27/2011

I thought that was HW Bush when he ran against Reagan before he ran with him.

[ProgressivesWin]

09:36 PM on 05/25/2011

Did I just read that correctlY? Giuliani wants to run again? Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That's gonna cost SOME group of m*r*ns a lot of money. Hope they enjoy the floor show, with Rudy all dragged up and lookin' mighty fine...

[ProgressivesWin]

09:30 PM on 05/25/2011

You oughtta hear the local AM radio suh-lees-bawls trying to push Pizza King Cain. It's hilarious. They just sp. out any talking point m*nure the GOP sends them via email. The guy pretends it's all coming out of his own pointy li'l head but he's not a good enough reader to get away with it. It's pretty funny, in a disg*sting sort of way...

[Cindy Fogle]

09:20 PM on 05/25/2011

Tilt

[writeon1]

08:38 PM on 05/25/2011

Yeah, the Republicans are certainly grabbing at straws (nominees) and they might have a long wait for the "white knight" they are searching for but I'm more concerned about people on the fence. Their are plenty of voters who are so sick of everything they just want a "change" and they are not too happy with Obama change. These are the people that could vote for any Tom, Dick and Harry that promises jobs and money. It wouldn't matter what party affiliation.

[nacanabuc]

01:18 PM on 06/06/2011

Tom, Dick, Harry and Obama? Yes, they did in 2008.

[Konnie]

08:29 PM on 05/25/2011

they know they don't stand a snowballs chance in ______ of winning against Obama. and no one wants to fall on funeral pyre for the party. until there is a clear headliner, even the LARGE MONEY
donors are waiting to throw away their money for an unwinnable cause. they all know they have
been exposed as frauds and thieves. they know they have lost any credibility. everyone knows
they have no plans, no vision, no goals - stealing from the poor to give to the rich isn't working
for them anymore. they have over played their hand..............buh bye

[nkurland]

07:46 PM on 05/25/2011

The more exposure the GOP candidates get, the more the public realizes the cupboard is bare, from both a ideological and leadership standpoint. Its as simple as that.

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

08:31 PM on 05/25/2011

You can only cover up your lack of ideas (or at least sane ones) with PR for a limited time, which appears to be expiring.

[chance1946]

07:28 PM on 05/25/2011

Bush and his father showed class, GW never criticized Clinton, never, neater did his father it was a code of conduct that neither Carter and Obama have not practiced. President Clinton has also showed the class of the past. Just the facts. Now thinking about I don't believe Johnson or Eisenhower , Regan, did either and we know Truman said the buck stops here. How things have changed.

[turboe4truth]

09:30 PM on 05/25/2011

You might make more sense if you could spell......... Thanks,

[knewsreply]

07:26 PM on 05/25/2011

What "field?"

[GeorgeBurnsWasRight]

08:32 PM on 05/25/2011

The Republican candidates are more like the stuff you find in fields.

[butlercaddie]

05:55 PM on 05/25/2011

How do you get a pundit badge?

[SgtGould]

05:57 PM on 05/25/2011

Write the seven words you're never supposed to say on TV in every one of your comments.

[butlercaddie]

06:03 PM on 05/25/2011

LOL. I said "badge" not "banned." (and don't we wish it was ONLY 7 words here)
F&F for your hilarious help and "white knight" observation.

[rybalaw]

06:47 PM on 05/25/2011

You get the right wingnut pundit badge by being on every am radio station in america that has a 50,000 watt transmitter and an open non-directional stick at night or by being on Fox News after 6:00 PM central

[butlercaddie]

05:49 PM on 05/25/2011

I have the answer for the GOP.

Cancel all the primaries and caucuses. Enter all your potential candidates in season 4 of Ru Paul's Drag Race. As ever in Drag Race, the candidate with the best blend of "charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent" will be selected as the next drag superstar, and Queen of the GOP. Every week, they will face individual and team challenges of talent, creativity and fashion sense. The bottom two will have to "lip sync for your life" and each loser will "sashay away" until...

Mitt Romney wins anyway.

[SgtGould]

05:48 PM on 05/25/2011

"Today, right-leaning pundits feel about the same way they felt about the field last week: let down and hoping for a white knight to emerge."

With a BIG emphasis on the phrase "white knight".