The current field of GOP Presidential candidates is apparently very weak.
Newt Gingrich has more baggage than the moderate maverick John McCain had in 2008.
Mitt Romney has been the pretender to the GOP nomination for 7 years, and the Republican core voters still think of him as only a pretender -- a pretend conservative who changes his views to suit political expediency.
Come to think of it, this is the same charge that many pundits are volleying at Newt Gingrich, the quintessential Washington insider who will sell himself and his ideals to the highest bidder.
Michele Bachmann has attempted to downplay or back-peddle on her religious views. Her integrity was her strongest element, and now that she is waffling and moderating these views, she is less desirable than before.
Governor Rick Perry does not persuade others very well. He has served as the chief executive for Red State Texas these last ten years, so he is out of practice when it comes to appealing to a national electorate.
His softer stances on illegal immigration are simply unacceptable to the GOP voters. That is one position where the future chief executive cannot afford to waffle on.
Jon Huntsman is a Democrat running in a Republican contest - yes, he was a very able governor in Utah -- one of the reddest states in the union. He also served as ambassador to China under President Obama, this turn of allegiance is discomfiting, to say the least.
We need a president who has no trappings of the Obama administration to sully his resume or challenge his expertise. Governor Huntsman has been an also-ran who never should have run in the first place.
Rick Santorum -- he has the social conservative credentials, but not the name or the spotlight. He has been out of the federal government for six years, since he lost is Senate seat by double-digits in 2006 in the wake of GOP corruption and binding alliances to Big Government George W. Bush. He does not have much to tell us -- and a President has to be a story as well as tell a story in order to become a part the great story of Presidential politics.
Herman Cain is gone -- he was never really a serious candidate to begin with. Besides the allegations of serial adultery, which are ultimately irrelevant if they are not true, his economic proposal "9-9-9" was "dead on arrival". His lack of foreign policy experience made Sarah Palin look like Henry Kissinger. His charm was enough to electrify an audience, but this country deserves more than a competent speaker -- we have suffered through the electric display of rhetoric that shorted out as soon as leadership became the defining criterion of being President.
There is still one candidate left, whose integrity, though not agreeable to everyone, still commands respect across the country. In spite of his isolationist-leaning foreign policy, his rock-steady in his libertarian convictions, walking what he talks, practicing what he preaches. He wants less government, more freedom. His war on the War on Drugs is a certainty, one that will win, one that commands the respect of many in this country, even if most are afraid to admit that the United States government is a failure at legislating and prosecuting morality.
This president's seemingly "libertine" views on marriage would enhance the custom, breaking it free from the arbitrary domination of the state. He wants to cut, cut, cut spending, end the Fed, and end the IRS. This political promises are not empty clouds in the sky or castles in the air.
Congressman Ron Paul is the most adept, consistent, and commanding presidential candidate in the field. He has a committed core of conservative voters who favor his sound monetary policies, his sound foreign policies, and his limited government domestic policies.
He has followed a sound program of persuasion, avoiding outrageous questions and hot-button topics that will only take his candidacy off course.
I do not favor all of his positions, but his views, if they are excessive, are in the direction of less government, less intervention, less of Washington in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment