I decided to make a quick list of who might vie for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2012 and these are the names of the likely suspects I could come up with off the top of my head:
(in no particular order)
Mitt Romney
Ron Paul
Sarah Palin
Paul Ryan
Newt Gingrich
Mike Huckabee
Tim Pawlenty
I intentionally left Scott Brown off this list because I found it ridiculous that some poll actually showed that people were seriously considering him as a presidential nominee just days after his election in Massachusetts. I understand they were excited that he beat out Martha Coakley to break the Democrats supermajority in the Senate and all but what do we really know about this guy? I've got nothing against the man, I just think we should sit back and see how he governs for a while before considering him for the one of the most important positions on planet Earth.
There's also a couple people on this list that I know virtually nothing about (like Romney, Ryan & Pawlenty) and a couple that I know a lot about (Paul, Palin & Huckabee) so I guess that leaves Newt Gingrich stuck somewhere in the middle.
So, here we go:
Even though he's a Congressman from my home state of Wisconsin, I never really heard of Paul Ryan until his brilliant performance at the Health Care Summit last month. I gotta say, the kid's got moxie! Since I've already posted a blog all about his performance at the summit I won't get into it again here but I will say that I'm a pretty big fan of the guy and I would seriously consider giving him my vote if he decided to throw his hat into the ring. Plus my Mom's met him a couple of times and she says he's a good guy. Like Judge Judy, my Mother is a good judge... of character.
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The person I probably know the most about is also the one whom I'm the most of two minds about.That would be Ron Paul. I strongly believe that with his economic and domestic policies the United States would quickly become the economic superpower it once was. He's a pretty libertarian guy which appeals to me but I don't believe his foreign policies would be a good thing for the U.S., or the world at large, in the age we currently live in.
He's an isolationist who would dramatically scale back our great military in a time of war. I can't believe that the terrorists who live for nothing more than to see America destroyed would stop attacking us if we pulled all our troops out of all the different countries around the world and brought them home. He doesn't just want to pull all the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but Germany, South Korea and Japan as well. Does that seem like sound foreign policy in these turbulent times to you? Yeah, me neither.
It's a shame. If only Ron Paul had the foreign policy ideas of someone like Independent Congressman Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. He'd be damn near perfect, or at least as perfect as a politician can be.
Fun trivia fact about Lieberman: He came very close to being John McCain's running mate in 2008 but the powers that be in the Republican party were having nothing of it.
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Mike Huckabee is a good guy in my opinion. I'm not crazy about his uber-religiousness but he's a proponent of the Fair Tax which gives him extra points in my book. But on the other hand, when he was the Governor of Arkansas he had a thing about pardoning as many criminals as possible. When one of the men he pardoned ended up killing someone his defense was something along the lines of, "So many pardons came across my desk, it's not like I had time to read them all. So-and-so recommended him to be pardoned so I simply blindly followed the suggestion".
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Tim Pawlenty is a real long shot for the nomination but I seriously doubt he's even going to run. If he does, he'll be out after a couple of primaries. The average person doesn't know who he is or what he's all about. I sure as hell don't and I follow politics like a hawk.
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I don't have much to say about Newt Gingrich either. He's been in the game a long time and most of what I know about him stems from his Clinton-era "Contract With America" days. Your average political layman probably doesn't know who he even is and if they do, just like Pawlenty, they don't know exactly what he's about.
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And now me come to the most decisive person on the list. Quite possibly the most decisive figure in politics today. I can't think of anyone currently in politics, save Barack Obama, who is simultaneously loved and reviled by so many people. Of course, I'm talking about Sarah Palin.
She has said in interviews that she has no intention of running but I'm not 100% sure that will be the case as the 2012 elections loom nearer. I think fears of the left-wing media smear machine that kicks into overdrive every time Saracuda steps out her front door has a lot to do with that.
I just want to say that Saracuda isn't in any way a knock at Palin. In High School when Sarah Palin played basketball her nickname was Sarah Barracuda. I use it as a term of endearment (awww) because on really like Sarah Palin on a personal level. It also doesn't hurt that she's a babe but I digress.
As unlikely a proposition it that that Sara Palin will even vie for the GOP nomination in 2012, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities for her to actually win the nomination. Personally, I think she would be better off to take a VP slot on the ticket and build up her credentials before going for the top stop. But VP under who?
Romney/Palin maybe? That's just about the only way I would vote for Romney in 2012 for any reason other than he's not Barack Obama. How about Ryan/Palin? That would be one good looking ticket and, yes, I do mean that literally. Never before would a Prez/VP combo inspire so many people's masturbatory fantasies. Oh, lordy, have we not gone down a deep, dark tangent in my sick, twisted mind here. Anyway...
I think I'll end it on that creep note.
I thank you for your time and apologize for any typos.
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