2012 Republican Candidate for President

[JonLP24]

Poll question: 2012 Republican Candidate for President

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_423.pdf <--This inspired me to do this poll.

I based the top 4 candidates based on the above poll from popularity which only listed 4. The other 5 are somewhat well known republicans. I'm not really sure who is going to run so it could be none of these guys which is why I left an 'other' option.

[Optical.Catalyst]

1. Please let it be Sarah Palin

It would make my day to see the Republican blow up doll deflated once and for all

[DontTreadOnMe]

2. Palin / Bachmann 2012!

Pretty Please!

[Strelnikov_]

13. aka "The Dream Team" n/t

[monmouth]

3. No more Bobby Jindahl??? Has he been banished??....n/t

[DarthDem]

4. Exorcized!!

:-)

[DarthDem]

9. Or even "Exorcised"

Because when you're talking about important people like Bobby Jindal, SPELLING COUNTS!!!!!!

[JonLP24]

5. I honestly didn't think of him

I didn't even know who he was til he did that Republican response to Obama's address to congress and then SNL spoofing him afterwards. I suppose it is to late to add him in the poll. :shrug:

[monmouth]

8. Doesn't matter really, I doubt he would have many votes..LOL...n/t

[dynasaw]

6. IF and a big if

they were smart and IF the Repugs want to take back their party from the loony right and the bunch of stupid old white men, they'd run John Huntsman and Olympia Snow.

I think Obama and smart Dems already know that Hunstman could be a challenge. . . the sort of Republican who could pull back those who crossed over to Obama as well as some right leaning Democrats. Smart move sending Huntsman to China as ambassador.

[armyowalgreens]

7. Palin is going to be a forgotten word by 2012.

She will exist only in the history books. And that's if she's lucky.

[peace frog]

10. Mittens

is the blandest, least controversial and most generic white male candidate the GOP could come up with in 2012. His Mormonism won't be much of an issue as the base out of sheer desperation will grasp at whatever straws the GOP leadership offer. They could round out the ticket nicely by pairing up "Whiteman" with a female VP or a man of color - Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal. And they will lose to incumbent Obama, naturally.

[marmar]

11. The Green Party will be the No. 2 party by then....

...... Repugs will be just slightly ahead of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party in status.

[ThomWV]

12. None of those fools Above - The next Republican has the potential to win

I am certain that the next Republican Candidate's name is not on that list and I will absolutely guarantee you that the Republican's approval rating and indeed the portion of the populace that calls itself Republican will increase greatly between now and the next Presidential election cycle.

I am certain that a well though out Republican campaign with a fitting person has the potential to be very effective - and I'm not talking about the clowns you have on that list either.

[trotsky]

15. I completely agree.

And I think that candidate will be my very own smarmy ass governor: Tim Pawlenty.

[DarthDem]

16. I Seriously Doubt It

Of course it's ridiculously early, and yes, by the corresponding times in the 1992 and 2008 cycles, few people knew who B. Clinton and Obama (respectively) were either.

However, the Rethuglicans don't work like the Democrats do. Their entire system, their entire party machine suppresses outsiders and "surprise" candidates and makes predicting their nominees amazingly easy, cycle after cycle (most recently: Dole, Dubya, and McCain). Pawlenty, as the poster who replied first to you suggested? Hardly a stealth candidate. Meteoric rises liike Barack Obama's, with that sort of speed, just don't happen in the oligarchic Republican Party of today. So I do believe we can guess the name of their 2012 sacrifical lamb. And don't think a moderate is going to emerge - - the lesson of 2008 in the minds of Gooper elders is, ironically, not to jump into bed with someone who doesn't fully embrace your platform. There won't be another "maverick" run anytime soon.

I also don't believe that the GOP's popularity will have increased much by the time the 2012 primary season opens. They are simply too bereft of ideas.

[ThomWV]

18. Then we disagree on some things and agree on others

Yes, it is ridiculously early.

Their entire system does indeed work that way these days but today that system is broken. Republicans know it (yes, there are smart Republicans who can see the signs) and only the very foolish ones (the fools on that list) believe they can continue to work within that broken system. Its like trying to take a broken down car to work - you'll never get there.

However were we disagree is that their popularity won't have increased or that they are bereft of ideas. Indeed the Republican Party has a very long history of ideas - some of them very good and some very bad. What you are doing, and indeed what the list is doing, is focusing on the recent past. I would suggest to you that the Republican Party of 2012 will resemble the Party of 1954 and 1970 a lot more than it will the party of 1999, 2003, or the present.

You want my guess who it will be? Well, I don't have a good guess - as you said, its ridiculously early - but I'd lean a long way toward a David Petraeus sort. I'm serious, I think their next move is to once again become the Party of Ike with a good dose of Nixon-like social (and racial exploitation) policy, and if they do they will regain recently lost ground all over the country, and then the cycle can begin all over again.

[DarthDem]

20. I Think That's Interesting

Great reply. The suggestion of Petraeus, and the concept of a return, for the Goopers, to an Ike-like era with that sort of candidacy are both fascinating.

The problem is that there would need to be a fundamdental demographic shift in order for that to happen because of the constant need for culture wars among today's Repukes (Exhibit A: Palin's 2008 VP nod). Sort of like Nixon's Southern Strategy all over again - - but this time, aimed at broadening the GOP's appeal beyond its increasingly shrunken geographic and demographic base. That base, as of mid-2009, is basically the old Confederacy and the Plains states, and even some of those states (like Texas) threaten to erode as Rethuglican strongholds because the party really has zero appeal to Hispanics.

I'm sure you're right that there are some smart Republicans out there. However, none of them seem to be in leadership positions in the party. Right now, the (usually) Southern, white, middle-aged male bigot is firmly in control. And I just don't see the whole party throwing that element of itself overboard by 2012. What, or who would be left besides Olympia Snowe? Colin Powell? (And speaking of former military officers as candidates, look how they handled him!)

It's a lot more likely that long term, we'll return to what we used to see back in Ike's era - - two relatively centrist parties, with one more progressive than the other, but neither built on religious zealotry or racial bigotry. The alternative is the functional extinction of the GOP. Fine with me. :-)

[JonLP24]

22. I have no idea myself

I have yet to vote in this poll. I didn't like the choice of Jeb Bush that I added, I nearly put Pawlenty in that slot but I don't feel like he is going to win the nom. I do think some of these people have a good chance at the nomination. I'm leaning towards Huckabee or Romney myself.

[C_U_L8R]

14. A cryogenically preserved Ronnie

Raygun

[BolivarianHero]

17. Palin...

They're Republicans, so I'll assume they're stupid enough to run her again.

[kentuck]

19. It will be the most "moderate" person they can find.

It will not be Sarah Palin.

[michreject]

21. Sarah Palin nt

[iamthebandfanman]

23. if they have any intelligence left, romney.

but that would require all the christian purists in the party to not care hes a mormon.


a lot of christians, in a lot of different places around the US, view the mormon religion as a cult.

[sledgehammer]

24. If they see that 2012 is a losing battle...

...they'll just nominate Romney and get it over with. They don't want to have a potential 2016 candidate lose badly in 2012.

If they think they have a real shot, then they may look at others as well.

[Stuckinthebush]

25. Palin has no chance

Her soap opera life will continue for the next three years and she will be toxic.

Too bad for us. What an easy target she is.

[saltpoint]

26. I'm not sure what the 2012 GOP nomination is going to be worth.

I think Obama is a 2-termer.

Romney is the most slobberingly ambitious of the bunch.

Huckabee is perhaps the most personable. For a Republican, I mean.

Newt Gingrich is braying like a jackass in every media outlet he can find.

But I think the Republicans know they are in no position to mount a persuasive national challenge to an effective, popular incumbent President Obama, especially with nothing better than who they have to mount it and with the nutbag fundies hung around their necks like an albatross.