Bachman, Trump, Palin are all sideshows. They have zip to do with who

[cali]

the real repuke nominee will be. Who is that? Someone like Pawlenty or Romney. The repug party is very top down- despite all the tea party noise. no way are they going to let trump etc be the party's nominee.

[Sherman A1]

1. Precisely

They are part of the smoke & mirrors noise machine. Let them attack and look a little goofy so that the real candidate looks reasonable.

[Mz Pip]

3. True.

Pawlenty or Mitwit appear sane compared to that crew. It's one of the reasons Ann Coulter remains popular. She makes the rest of the wingnuts look tolerable.

Pawlenty is the dark horse in this mix. He manages to keep his crazy well hidden, though his speeches to the base are not those of a moderate Republican.

[Sherman A1]

5. I think that 2012 is a set up for the next one

I don't believe that the GOP intends to win as I don't think they intended to try real hard in 08 (they knew that things had turned to doo-doo and best to let the other guys try to fix the mess).

This is a throw away year for them, my guess is that this is a dry run for the next one.

Sure they will run a candidate because the other side could fall on their face, but they know that beating an incumbent is not the easiest thing in the world.

[Mz Pip]

12. I think so too

I've been thinking that the GOP will put up a sacrificial lamb in 2012. It's hard for me to believe that the PTB in the GOP really would even consider supporting Trump or Palin for that matter. Maybe it will take them 4 more years to convince Jeb to run and that much time for the country to forget the memories the name Bush brings up. It will easily take them that long to get the Tea Party under control.

At least this is what I think. Maybe they would go with someone like Trump or Palin if they had a more broad base of support but that hasn't happened yet. I suppose it could and if it does :puke:

[patrice]

2. KICK!

[applegrove]

4. It will be a trainwreck!

[Fuddnik]

6. They'll draft Jeb.

They're trying to rehabilitate the Bush brand.

Jeb is the smarter, more evil one.

Jeb was a supposedly "popular" Governor. Not really, but that's the legend.

The convention is in Tampa.

Jeb will reluctantly accept his role as Savior of the Republican Party.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Jeb will run in 2016.

No way would he be willing to be the sacrificial lamb this time out, against Obama.

[Paradoxical]

11. If Jeb Bush is elected president, I will leave the United States and never look back.

[inna]

7. Pawlenty or Romney or (even worse) Gingrich or Jeb bush. or maybe even

Paul Ryan?... :scared:

Trump is actually less of an impossibility than either Palin or Bachman.

[Hannah Bell]

8. kr. sick of the scarecrow show.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Whomever It Is Better Get Movin'...

They're gonna need to bag a billion dollars if they're going to make it through the primaries and the general. Short of a Koch self financing, there aren't many who have the access to that kind of coin.

Running against an incumbent is another "problem". No matter how people here feel about this President, he will be heavily favored for re-election and any rushpublican who wants to jump in takes a big gamble. The upside is they pull off the big upset and become the next Raygun...the more likely scenario is they fail miserably and are banished as a losers (Goldwater, Dole).

The rushpublicans are like a minor league that doesn't have any big hitters but a lot of little pissers. Their corrupt party is so splintered anyone who wins the nomination will do so by default not by strength. Mittens won't get the teabaggers and fundies on his side, Hucklenutz is no favorite of the teabaggers either. Whomever "wins" will have to mend a lot of fences first and the further right they go the more detached they become from independents.

I could care less who they nominate...all of their candidates are flawed and there's no one waiting in the wings to step in. 2016 is another story.

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. Banished as losers...

It's a good way for the rebubbalickin PTB to make "troublesome" party members irrelevant. Let 'em run for President; let 'em lose. People like Newtie, soon to be the next spokesman for Viagra (or anything made by Georgia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Kook Industries).

[geardaddy]

14. You may be right.

Timmy the Tool is seen as "nice" by people outside of MN. He's a complete douche and would sell his grandmother to get ahead.

[blindpig]

15. Yep

I greatly doubt that anybody that won't stay on page will be allowed anywhere near the candidacy. The deep pockets value continuity above all, where we are at this moment resounding proof of that.

[rbixby]

16. In my mind, the best thing that could happen

would be for one of those wild eyed crazies like Trump or Bachmann or Palin to run on a third party ticket. I'm sure the PTB are deathly afraid of something like that happening though and will do everything they can to prevent it.

[PurityOfEssence]

17. Absolutely.

These three are certainly circuitry-challenged, but the guys in Republican Leadership aren't dumb, and even if the final nominee isn't the smartest kid on the block, it's certainly not going to be one of these imbeciles. They're also so fringy that they don't even belong on the midway.

Self-congratulatory leftism likes to dismiss conservatism as homogeneous stupidity, but there are many, many very intelligent and gifted strategists in the ranks. They simply couldn't even get close to power without great marketing: their policies don't benefit anywhere near enough people to ever take an election.

We should not waste too much time and vocal energy on these gadflies. It's best at this time to save one's ammunition and let them make their mistakes without correcting them. If hit too hard too early, they may correct momentary tactical mistakes, whereas if we let them thrash on as they must to satisfy the righteous primitives of the base, they may very well repeatedly say some very self-damaging things.