Narrowing the 2012 Presidential Field

There are at least ten Republicans interested in challenging President Obama for the Presidency.


One candidate whom I would endorse, or at least seriously consider, would be New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Yet despite the pleas from many in the Tea Party and throughout the Republican Party, Christie has maintained that he will finish out his term as governor of New Jersey.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is inching closer to a presidential run. I hope he chooses not to.

This man cheated on his first wife with his future second wife, then cheated on his second wife with his current third wife. This man displays no integrity in his personal life. What gives him the idea that he can hold the trust of the United States of America? Furthermore, his botched leadership as Speaker of the House during the 1995 shutdown and the 1998 Congressional Elections all prove that he does not have the skills to be Chief Executive.

Then there's Sarah Palin. A media darling and lightning rod for the Right, she reneged on her commitment to the state of Alaska, resigning as governor not even two years into her term in office. She dotes on her daughter Bristol, an unwed mother who engaged in explicit routines as a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars". As a mother of five children, Palin should never have permitted her daughter to exploit herself like that. Beyond these moral failings, there is Palin's abortive reality TV show and miscalculating endorsements of extreme-right candidates, both of which have done more harm than good to the Republican brand. A hyped-up sell-out who even stooped to spewing crude language during her interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Palin has traded straight talk and credibility for blunt talk and celebrity, a combination which may win ratings but won't win her the Presidency.

I hope that as 2011 progresses, we will witness unfit candidates making way for more effective and influential candidates who do not calculate on winning the nomination with the current crop of potential candidates.