Posted by
Steve on Friday, June 03, 2011 11:15:49 AM
On KFYI this morning they were talking about the Republicans
running for President. The group agreed that the primary criteria should be is
the person one that could defeat Barack Obama in November 2012. It is not who
is the most ideologically pure. It is not who will send the best message. It is
not who is the most conservative. It is who can win, period.
According to Barry Markson, fill-in host of the Barry Young
show, some Tea Party groups were upset with Mitt Romney and are going to find a
candidate to support. He was surprised at the speed with which the Tea Party
groups threw Mitt Romney overboard. He then brought up some friends of his
would not vote for a “Mormon”. There is some of that with Mitt Romney. There is
a nut job who is actively working against any “Mormon” running for any office
because he believes that Mormons support the Devil. Those people are definitely
in the minority. They can have an influence on others if they are careful how
they say things. Mike Huckabee is definitely in this group of people. He
actively worked against Mitt Romney in 2008 because he was a Mormon, not
because he thought John McCain was a better candidate.
Right now, Sarah Palin is sucking all the air out of the
news media. Her tour is generating so much press that other announced
candidates cannot get any press. Mitt Romney gets his press because he is the
front runner for the nomination. The others get elbowed out of the way because
they are not deemed important enough by the press.
Mike Huckabee announced that he just might get back into the
race. That would be a disaster for the Republicans. As Barry Markson said this
morning, Mike Huckabee holds similar positions to Barack Obama. He just does
not want to go as far as Obama. Mike Huckabee is a Progressive Republican.
Having him as President would mean that Republicans would start to support the
liberal agenda instead of fighting it like they are doing today. The best thing
Obama did for the country was wake up Republicans. Huckabee would put
Republicans back to sleep. Also, Huckabee is a bigot. I cannot support bigots.
I will never support Huckabee for President or any other office. If he is on
the ticket, I will either not vote or will vote to defeat him. I will not say
that for any other Republican.
In evaluating potential candidates you have to look at two
things, can they win the nomination and can they win the Presidency. Most of the
Republicans running have the potential to pull off a victory in the Republican
primaries if everything goes their way. Mitt Romney is the only one who could
withstand things going against him and have a chance to recover. The others are
too narrowly based to have the recovery ability Romney will have. The same
would hold true for a national election for President. For almost any
candidate, except for Romney, everything would have to break their way. I am
not saying it could not happen, I am just saying that right now the chances are
slim for anyone except for Romney to pull off a victory in November 2012. The
main reason for this is Romney has lots of money and broad support. But, just
like the Platte River Romney’s support is a mile wide and an inch deep. The
other candidates have much deeper support, but also much narrower support. The primary
season should clear away the clutter that we have at this time. We need to get
down to one or two candidates before we can adequately judge whether they have
a good chance in November 2012.