2012 is almost upon us, and all signs point to a really interesting year, as in the old Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”. The Mayan calendar is on record as foretelling some cataclysmic changes come Dec. 21, 2012. Tie that in with the presidential elections that officially get started with the Iowa caucuses to be held just three days into the New Year, and we could find that, as Thomas Paine once observed, these will indeed be times that try our souls.
The only thing that bothers me about the Mayan prediction is the date, Dec. 21. It’s one thing to see the world possibly come to an end; it’s quite another thing to have to go through the aggravation of presidential elections first.
Well, it’s not like the presidential election has been completely devoid of humor. Take some would-be candidates. Two who come to mind are the Apprentice, Donald Trump, and former half-term Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Both were very coquettish as they teased the voters. But after imagining the electorate was salivating at the very thought of them on the ticket, they both demurred, as many of us thought they would. They were, after all, only in it for… Come to think of it, it’d be really hard to say why they were in it, or more properly, pretending to be in it.
The reception these two got motivated at least one other candidate to throw his hat in the ring. Yes, the disappointed voters left in the lurch by the Donald and Palin were rarin’ to see another Texan get into the fray. And Rick Perry, Dub’ya’s successor, obliged them, by declaring for the GOP nomination. The trouble started when he actually began to talk. I’m sure people in Texas are now scratching their heads and asking themselves “We actually elected him, twice? What were we thinkin’”
Herman Cain was the next promising conservative. He came along with his Tax Plan 999 from Outer Space, and was on top until he too ran into some technical difficulties. The weird thing is, he saw them coming, but was still unprepared when they popped up. But thanks to them, he was saved from actually having to talk about anything a President might have to know in order to do the job before he bowed out.
In the end, there are really been only two choices for the GOP; Mitt Romney, and anybody but Romney. Romney, being favored by the party apparatchiks, will likely get the nomination, but there has been a real effort by party conservatives to get another candidate in the race.
Romney is simply too liberal for a party that has seen its center shift significantly to the right since Dub’ya and Dick ran the country. The more conservative from his party consider Romney to be a RINO (Republican in name only).
That’s why first one, then another candidate, each seemingly with more solid conservative credentials, overtook Romney in the polls. Gingrich is but the latest, and he is fading like the rest.
Of course, Romney accepts that, and that is why he’s been backpedaling from positions or statements he’s taken or made to build up support with these disaffected voters.
And while the GOP conservative base may forget, it’s a pretty good bet President Obama won’t.
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