The GOP Presidential Grab Bag

February 16, 2012
GOP politics has been anything but sane lately. The conversations and campaign rhetoric have gone wild and silly that it’s hard to imagine how a true Independent voter could actually vote Republican this November.
Rather than talk about their specific solutions to the country’s problems, like revitalizing the economy, reducing the budget deficit, creating jobs, regulating the financial market, stopping/solving home foreclosures, providing affordable health care, etc. Gingrich, Santorum, Paul and Romney spend so much time validating their claim about being a Conservative or not being Conservative enough, as if the label was all that mattered in winning the primary.
On second thought, maybe it does matter. Look at how the social values- campaign talking candidate and avowed Conservative Rick Santorum is now leading the polls. The self-proclaimed “severely” Conservative Mitt Romney is suddenly trailing the GOP flavor of the week, Santorum, by a few points and the polls keep rolling to the latter’s favor.
There, too, is Sarah Palin, the Tea Party darling throwing her weight around as a Conservative power broker. Why won’t she? At the CPAC convention, Palin’s speech drew the most applause, cheers and screams especially when she yelled anti-Obama slogans. Referring to a comment Obama made in the last election, Palin shouted, “The president says small Americans, small-town Americans — we bitterly cling to our religion and our guns. “You say, I say, we say — keep your change. We’ll keep our God. We’ll keep our guns.” Her excited audience rose and cheered; Palin must be in cloud 9.
Sarah Palin sure knows how to push their buttons. She says exactly the things they want to hear and in a fashion that makes them want to. They are crazy about her. Is it any wonder why she is now inserting the idea of a brokered convention? Waiting and watching on the sidelines, as Romney slipped up and down the primaries, she must have thought this could be her chance. And what could be a better proof of her stellar appeal than the rousing reception she just got at CPAC?
So, who could the final nominee be? Perry, Caine, Gingrich and now Santorum each took turns at dominating the polls with Romney managing to climb back up each time he is knocked Down. Pundits claim Santorum is the real deal and that Romney’s campaign is in real trouble. Yet there are talks about a brokered convention and having Jeb Bush and Chris Christie (with Sarah no longer lurking in the dark) throwing themselves into the race.
The GOP presidential grab bag has one other remaining candidate who has not had the luck of riding the merry go round of poll top-notchers. Who knows? Next week or the week after next could be Ron Paul’s lucky day? Again, the way this GOP primary has been going, who’s to tell with absolute certainty who will win the nomination?
It’s still a grab bag for these candidates who have been fighting since even before the first scheduled presidential debate in May 2011. And the Republican voters and leaders continue to show their ambivalence toward Romney, the on and off presumptive nominee. In addition, the brokered convention looms large in the heads of some people like Sarah Palin.
Meanwhile, the rest of America is watching, the rest of American voters outside of the Conservative and Republican fold and who are Liberals, Moderates and Independents. Pandering to the Conservative voters might win Romney or Santorum or even Gingrich or Paul the nomination but their Conservative views on women’s health, gay marriage, labor and economic policies, etc. are not going to fetch votes beyond the Conservative zone.