The Washington Post has released a poll detailing the divided nature of the Republican Party as we move closer to selecting our 2012 Nominee. Three candidates are statistically tied at the top: Huckabee (21%), Palin (19%) and Romney (17%), while ten other candidates pull in another 30% of the vote.
The Republican Party cannot afford another unsupported Nominee at the top. John McCain was unable to reach 50% of the Primary vote in 2008, even though his main competition in the final months was Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. This cost us dearly: millions of Republican voters did not come out to support their Nominee on election day.
If the leaders of Conservative organizations and high ranking Republican officials do not engage one another before candidates file for the 2012 Nomination, it would be impossible to imagine a victor with more than 35% of the vote, or without the convention intervening. We cannot win if we're this divided.
Look at the 1912 Presidential election - William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt received over seven million combined votes, while Woodrow Wilson received little more than six million. We're looking at another Republican fracture in 2012 - this time in the Primary - unless we can select our Nominee before the primaries.
Conservatives, Republicans and Tea Partiers must forfeit their right to participate in a Primary so we can all unite behind one candidate to defeat Barack Obama in November. Who would our Nominee be? I know it wont be a Conservative like Sarah Palin, or a Centrist like Mitt Romney. Perhaps a second-tier/underlooked candidate would receive the nod.
What say you?
Great post Mr. K. There is no way the disparate groups will unify begin either of the candidates you mentioned. Kevin Dujon at Hillbuzz refers to them as soggy cucumber sandwiches. There are a long list of potential candidates eying 2012. None of which are terribly exciting, with a few exceptions.
ReplyDeleteI really like what I see from Herman Cain. He is a very interesting candidate to consider. He is a TEA party favorite. He has fiscal conservatives wetting their pants and still give social conservatives what they need in a candidate. See my recent post, Who Said This? Unknown at this time is his foreign policy positions, although he is an ardent supporter of Isreal.
We need to get the STATE Legislatures to pass laws REQUIRING PROOF of BIRTH before its Electoral Votes can be awarded. Five or six states do this and Obama is TOAST.
ReplyDeleteThe 1912 election reference both misses and proves the point:
ReplyDeleteTeddy Roosevelt ran as the first registered Progressive Party candidate (the term "Bull Moose Party" was a nickname given it by reporters.) Wilson ran as a Democrat but was actually the real candidate of the progressives.
The backstory is the key: Roosevelt had, in his first two terms, been so "progressive" that the republicans declined to run him for a (then legal) third term - which is why Taft was the incumbent in 1912. Roosevelt may have been running for revenge as much as for election.
To put it in current context, think of Roosevelt as that era's "RINO" candidate.
Our republic faces three possible futures:
1. Sudden death under Progressive Democrats.
2. Slow death under Progressive Republicans.(RINOs)
3. Recovery under constitutional Republicans.