Which Republican has white stones to create a path back?

[saltpoint]

Hansel dropped white stones to create a path back for himself and his sister after their idiot father left them in the woods on the instructions of their stepmother.

I'm not seeing any Republicans whose pockets have white stones. And they are deep in the wilderness.

I don't see Jindal in ascent. Ditto the hapless Palin. Romney is rich but creepy. Huck is folksy but perhaps too folksy. Pawlenty is a cardboard figure. Jeb's family name is expired currency. Gingrich is fussy and disconnected. Schwartzenegger is Constitutionally blocked. McCain's a goner.

It may come down to Susan Collins. I think she'll run if Obama looks beatable. I don't think he is beatable in 2012 but she might have the best shot at the GOP nomination.

[Raven]

1. I thought Hansel dropped bread crumbs. That's about what theRepublicans are prepared to give us.

[saltpoint]

2. He did. When the two younguns followed the white stones he brought

the first time back home, the stepmother ordered their dad to take them back into the woods, only far deeper into the wilderness this time, and there wasn't time for Hansel to gather stones. All he had the second time was bread crumbs and of course they were gobbled up swiftly by birds and squirrels and other of the forest critters, erasing their path back.

I think you're exactly right on the Republicans offering crumbs. They're a real pathetic bunch of folks these days.

[nsd]

3. Susan Collins?

In the Republican party, she's what passes for liberal. Not only did she vote for the stimulus bill, she's strongly pro-choice and, in fact, voted against a ban on partial-birth abortions. Hell would freeze over before the national Republican party would nominate her.

[saltpoint]

4. Agree, in most years. Right now, though, the Pukes got nothin'.

I could see her winning Iowa, over Huck and Willard, and certainly over PBJ and Caribou Barbie.

If she wins there she wins in New Hampshire. She would become the Republican "Renaissance" candidate -- no, I don't think she's deserving of the title or anywhere close -- but the media would hail her as the healer of the Party's deep fever.

She'd have headlines for weeks, at a minimum.

She'd arrive at their convention very likely with a majority, and possibly a first-ballot majority, or at the very least, the difference between Romney and Huckabee.

Susan Collins.

[nsd]

5. The Republican party would self-destruct.

There is no way the religious right would ever accept Collins. They would destroy the party first. If somehow Collins or anyone as pro-choice as her was the nominee, there would definitely be a third-party challenge. The one thing you have to give the religious right is that they have the courage of their convictions; I think there's no question they'd be willing to wander the political wilderness for decades rather than compromise on abortion.

[saltpoint]

6. It would delight me if the GOP did self-destruct. They're doing a

pretty good job of that already even without a Collins candidacy.

I agree with you that the Far Right "social values" nutbags would throw a fit of major proportions, threaten to stay home, or nominate their own candidate and run as the Ten Commandments Hellfire Party for America, or some such psychotic thing or other as that.

But I don't think they can outperform a Collins run in Iowa if she wins there, plus awin in New Hampshire, if she wins in Iowa. I think she will not run the board but will eventually shove out everyone else, with only herself and say, Huck or Romney left.

I think Republican voters will migrate to Collins over Romney, despite his big bucks. and Huck will be reduced to his folksy, regional self. Huckabee defeated an even more-Right candidate, Brownback, in Iowa last time, but only by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin.

The fundie nutbags candidate will pull in 14% or so of a caucus or primary in a given state, with Collins topping Romney and Huck to go on to win the nomination.