THIS JUST IN! A favorite has emerged in the existing 2012 Republican nomination field. It’s none of the above.
The GOP’s problem right now is this: it can’t run a candidate in 2012 who is a Donald Trump. And by “a Donald Trump” I don’t mean THE Donald Trump. It needs to find a serious, credible candidate who doesn’t have so much political baggage that TSA getting ready to jump in. It needs a real candidate with gravitas — not a bad comb-over.
Prediction: One may well emerge. The next question is whether if one emerges after the pre-primary and primary process has been going for a while that candidate will have enough time to overtake Barack Obama. But that statement has its own assumptions that could prove faulty because 1)Obama is angering his party base and once more Democrats may decide to “teach our party a lesson” by staying home or putting up a primary challenger, since that kind of lesson had such terrific results for Democrats and libeals results in 2000, 2004, 2010 and also when Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter were President (putting aside Johnson’s many flaws and Carters many incompetencies). And 2) Obama continues to show overall that he is either on his own wavelength or a Velcro rather than a Teflon President — and he doesn’t have a Karl Rove.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.