Just curious - what good Republican is still out there?

With Christie not running, who could step into this race of stiffs and immediately and perhaps permanently take control of the race?

 

Is the answer Jesus?

 

Could or would?

Would? Probably no one... I hear Giuliani mentioned as a possible running mate for Perry if he gets the nomination, but I don't think anyone has to worry about that happening.

I think Christie was the last chance to get someone in there that people could get excited about.

There are others who could probably come in and almost immediately contend, but for whatever reason aren't throwing their hats in. I'm guessing some of those guys may be regretting their decisions not to run, but it's getting late at this point.

 

I thought he was already the sitting president.

 

I'm waiting for Jon Huntsman to jump into the race. I think he'd be a decent candidate.

 

The problem is, any Republican who could step in and have a decent chance to beat Obama would be a social moderate. The base won't allow it to happen - think of how they'd have turned on Christie if they learned he was pro-choice (after he seduced it with his tough stance against unions). Christie sure thought about that.

 

Given the prevailing mess, am a shade surprised Tom Ridge hasn't even moved a muscle.

 

The GOP is so fractured right now, I don't know if there's anybody who could do that. The person thrilling the tea partiers would scare the establishment, and more importantly, their money. The person the establishment finds most electable against Obama can't pass a battery of litmus tests given by the tea partiers.

 

That's part of the problem. Republicans who could potentially fare very well in a general election are scared off by some of the crackpots in their own party.

 

Nobody, I don't think. Mitch Daniels, maybe?

Otherwise, it's time to get used to Mitt Romney and embrace him. He can win the thing, if his own party doesn't sabotage him first.

 

There are plenty of good Republicans out there - but it says something that so many good candidates chose to sit this one out against a President with a below 50 approval rating.
I'm guessing they don't believe they could have run the kind of campaign they thought could win a general and also win the nomination given what passes for GOP orthodoxy these days. Maybe they figured they couldn't run from a position of strength and dictate "to" the base instead of having the base dictate to them.

 

Off topic slightly, but did everyone see the Marco Rubio story the other day? His parents did not flee Fidel's regime after all, which has been a key component of his background story, but rather left years before the revolution. He wrote a Politico piece basically killing the messenger (the Washington Post) and saying the spirit of his story was still true, even if the letter of it was not. Wonder if that comes back to haunt him at all, or if people will prove to have short memories.