Meet The Candidates: 2012 GOP Thread

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

You're missing the point. In your previous post you said Obama had a poor record to run on. In your second you diminished some of the successes in our effort to fight terrorism under this Administration.

Basically you're falling into the same trap Republican candidates will find themselves in come next Fall when they debate the President. On one hand Obama deserves no credit for progress, but on the other hand where results are obvious it's in spite of Obama.

Yeah. For all his failings (and I believe them to be numerous), and despite my philosophical difference with his method of gov., I just don't see anyone being discussed by the Republicans as someone who will garner enough support to beat him.

I see a second trap for non-incumbents created by the "Apathy of the Center" - On one hand the majority of people are moderate (slightly left and right of center and philosophically tied to traditional liberal democracy - little "l", little "d") but are tired of the same old, same old. As a result, they don't want candidates representing the more extreme elements of the Reps or Dems (think Tea Party/OWS; Libertarian/Socialist) but view other centerist candidates as just "Obama in Red". As a result, any candidate from the right differentiating themselves from Obama is faced with the risk of differentiating too much and being seen as representative of the fringe OR not differentiating enough and being seen as just more of the same but in Red.

Obama's approval rating may be low, but I don't see anyone from the Rep. Party stepping out as someone who won't be viewed by the center as "same sh**, just in Red instead of Blue". Ultimately, I see it as an election of "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't".

For better or (more likely) for worse, I see four more years of Mr. Obama.