If the current crop of declared GOP presidential contenders is the party’s field of dreams for 2012, we’re in real trouble. Reviewing the line up thus far, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, the group has the charisma factor of a ball of wax. Let’s face it charisma is more than 50% of presidential candidates appeal and for the most part this group is just plain dullsville when stacked up against Obama.So far, Republicans’ quest for the White House in 2012 is looking more like a bad reality show at best, giving team Obama ample room for confidence the president will win a second term. Comb over, business titan Donald Trump’s flirtation with running for president was truly embarrassing. This week, just when we thought he couldn’t top his ridiculous press conference, taking credit for forcing Obama to reveal his birth certificate, Trump declared he wouldn\’t run for president but “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and, ultimately , the general election.” Hardly, Americans won’t elect a birther as president.
Then Newt Gingrich decided to launch his GOP presidential campaign by slamming House Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare overhaul plan. The professorial Gingrich appeared on Meet the Press this past Sunday and exclaimed to David Gregory Ryan’s Medicare plan “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don’t think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.”
What’s so radical about Ryan’s plan to cut Medicare costs by privatizing it, making it competitive and based on quality of care? Medicare needs to end as we’ve known it for 40 plus years because it’s no longer working.
Beside the fact Gingrich has been married three times, the Wall Street Journal summed up Gingrich’s troubled campaign, “The episode reveals the Georgian’s weakness as a candidate, and especially as a potential President –to wit, his odd combination of partisan, divisive rhetoric and poll-driven policy timidity.” Making matters worse, Gingrich now is recanting what he said as inaccurate. Charlie Sheen might call this “losing.”
While Romney may be able to out fund raise his competitors, his fatal flaw is Romneycare, Massachusetts state run healthcare program, which he started as governor. As a Republican, I don’t know how he can explain this away as anything but a stepping stone to government run Obamacare. If Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann dive in the race, it will make the crowded field of 2012 GOP presidential candidates look even more doubtful. At this point, Republicans should pray and hope there is a dark horse waiting in the wings because so far 2012 is shaping up to look like 1996 when Bill Clinton faced off against an anemic Bob Dole. And the rest is history.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, DC. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. She’s contemplating moving back to her home state of Virginia, where her vote would count for something. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website www.conservativeblackchick.com . Crystal earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgetown University and holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University
1 comment:
It's good that Paul Ryan is still attacking Gingrich. It's a sign of the times that there are internecin¬e battles within the GOP, even as far as the candidates are concerned. This is an example of standing aside as they slash each other. They might not defeat one another, yet the time consumed, the money used, the political capital wasted and the spectacle created are all victories for the Democrats in the country.
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