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The Republican Presidential nomination has been wide open for months. Mitt Romney has a smallish base of primary election support that cannot crack the low-20s. Extremist Texas politician Rick Perry has become the liberal in the race, aided along by a kneecapping from Wall Street. The Republican establishment believes that economic circumstances dictate a real opportunity for victory in 2012, but none of the candidates currently in the race are a sure bet to capitalize on it.
Therefore, the entire world is rethinking whether or not they should get into the race late. Sarah Palin had a deadline of today but she’s extending it. Rudy Giuliani snuck up to New Hampshire this week. Chris Christie is said to be “seriously considering” a run after appeals from several Republican mandarins. And now, we learn that Mike Huckabee has been approached to rethink his stance on the race.
Mike Huckabee has been approached by Republican and conservative activists unhappy with the current crop of presidential hopefuls and he is considering entering the fray, two sources who have spoken with Huckabee told Reuters.
The former Arkansas governor, who made a splash by winning the Iowa caucuses as a candidate in 2008, announced last May on his Fox News show that he would not enter the race.
But the conservative Huckabee, who appeals to evangelical Christians and is seen as an effective campaigner, is taking another look at jumping in, said the two sources, who are close to Huckabee. They spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
“He is entertaining the request for conversations about it,” one of the sources said. “I do not think it is a complete 100 percent ‘I’m reconsidering’ but he hasn’t shut the door on it.”
Has someone called Phil Gramm? John Connally? Wendell Wilkie?
Why, if I were Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, John Hunstman and Michele Bachmann, I’d almost be offended that the rest of the Republican base is so desperate for another alternative. To say nothing of Romney and Perry.
I get the feeling that there is no Great Right Hope, no savior that can check the box on every nutty idea demanded by the Tea Party base and also win an election. If Rick Perry is being seen as an amalgam of Howard Dean and George McGovern, clearly there’s nobody pure enough. So we’ll keep seeing this mad scramble for someone, anyone who can carry the conservative flag.
Meanwhile, Florida moved up their primary to January 31 today, which means that the other four early primary states will move as well. And that means there will be almost no time to stand up a national organization before the votes start getting cast.
UPDATE: HuckPAC shoots down the report. What’s interesting here more than the specific individuals is that some band of conservatives are touring the country, hitting up every Republican with the slightest following to see if they’ll think about running for President.
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Today, we see the current crop of potential Republican nominees as the Second Team. And the First Team, supposedly of Jeb Bush and Mitch Daniels, know well that the Cardinal Rule on the Right is that the “Next on the List” is Mitt Romney. And of course, Bush and Daniels know that Obama is perceived as “unbeatable” and therefore none of them will jump into this political theater.
Further, having the patience of five years or 2016, means a far better opportunity, given an “open seat” will be available to everyone. But then, each member of the Second Team knows that if they come in second this time around, he or she will be considered as the candidate for being “next on the list” and starts at the top of the 2016 candidate roster.
And that’s the Republican meme that will be difficult to discard among the Republican Second Team and which has been driving Perry of Texas forward. Either way, he can’t lose given that he was a former Democrat and today’s inveterate opportunist, writ large.
Jaango
They should get one of those wax replicas made of Ronald Reagan, like they have at the wax museum. They could build in a little cassette tape recorder with all of the Gipper’s best lines repeating over and over. He would probably win the next debate easily.
Christie is famous for taking the state helicopter to his kid’s baseball game, I’m surprised the chopper didn’t crash trying to move that guy’s massive body. If Christie was president, he would be a good reminder to the rest of the world that the US is still number one in consumption.
They could roll out Cheney, that guy has some kind of internal hydraulic system, they put it in after his tenth heart attack, he’s indestructable. Only problem with Cheney, is he could get arrested in too many countries, but that would actually be pretty cool to see the president led off of air force one in handcuffs.
And there’s always that darkest of dark horses, the perpetually youthful (even after having gone to his greater reward) Harold Stassen.
Even a wax Reagan replica is too liberal and couldn’t get the nomination.
How many tax hikes did he sign?
How much did he increase deficit spending?
How many military screw ups did he have? (How many of Seal Team Six did Reagan’s spur of the moment invasion of a UK Commonwealth nation died for no good reason?) Would a wax replica of Reagan be more successful getting Qaddafi?
The current Republican Party is like a princess turned into a frog by a curse from a wicked witch (called the Tea Party.) They keep seeking a handsome prince or princess (Oops! no lesbianism implied in this group) to kiss them and make them attractive again.
Unfortunately, the curse is too strong. Each of the saviors who kissed the frog (Romney, Bachmann, Perry, etc., etc.) has also been turned into a frog.
And (we hope) the country will live happily ever after without them.