Meet The Candidates: 2012 GOP Thread

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

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.

Truth is we like the devil we know when it comes to our elected officials. An even harder truth is we don't like too much change all at once. So by default, and at the end of the day, we feel more comfortable with the same old, same old. Most voters view candidates as radical or status quo, and we tend to like the latter.

Although Obama's poll numbers are starting to trend upwards over the past 30 days, I think it's immaterial right now considering the GOP has yet to choose their candidate. But what's troubling, if I'm a Republican voter, is that I've yet to hear a compelling reason why I should elect any of these guys to become president. Repealing Obamacare and kill the EPA just doesn't fly with most voters with all the other problems we're facing.