While the Democratic Party has already begun rallying its volunteer base to reelect Barack Obama, Republican nominees are now beginning to surface for the 2012 presidential election. Some familiar faces from the previous election have already declared their candidacy, such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Some newcomers to the list are Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty. This is not to mention the very likely nominations of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.
And then there is Donald Trump.
There is about a year before the Iowa Caucus, the first step for any presidential nominee, but the fear mongering, mud slinging, and general insanity of the elections has already begun. While it is obvious that some nominees, such as Romney and Huckabee, which are taking the next step in their political career, some candidates, namely Trump and perspective candidates Palin and Bachmann, seem more concerned with attacking Obama on fringe issues (such as gay rights and his birth certificate) than on presenting viable plans for this country's well-being on a larger scale. While I understand the need for a variety of candidates early on in the race, I feel the Republican Party needs to step up and end this farce before it causes harm to legitimate candidates.
The law allows anyone to run for president, provided they have the money and the signatures. Donald Trump will have few barriers to his meeting these requirements. However, his insistence on bringing back the issue of Barack Obama's birth certificate, an issue that respectable politicians have long put to rest, is embarrassing to the real candidates in this race and should be considered an unacceptable publicity stunt. Every time the increasingly ridiculous political media gives Trump an interview (and candidates like Mike Huckabee respond), they are giving legitimacy to his attempt to become the leader of our country. If Republicans want to "take back the White House" from Barack Obama, they need to respect their own party a little more and make sure it is Romney (a more moderate candidate, whose Massachusetts health care program could attract even more liberal independent voters) or Huckabee (a religiously conservative but not reactionary candidate) who are the ones getting interviewed and sharing their plans for the country.
In reading your take on the Republican party's presidential prospects for the 2012 election, I am envisioning Donald Trump's run at the Republican ballot as comparable to the recently televised public mayhem surrounding Charlie Sheen. Celebrity plus money plus high ratings equals media saturation. You are right to be concerned that Donald Trump's antics are hurting the party he is running under. The media will extensively cover the absurd, because it is America's guilty pleasure and we will watch. While I must admit that I do not support the Republican party, I would hate to see the 2012 race taken over by frivolous issues that distract from what is relevant.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see a worthy opponent rise out of the Republican party, and that would not be Donald Trump, and it certainly would not be Sarah Palin. Palin has shot herself in the foot repeatedly when she did allow the media to approach her, showing her lack of knowledge to put it kindly. Now she hides from the media, utilizing a strategy in which she carefully exposes the image she wants to convey to the public through limited and controlled interactions with the media. Could you imagine putting this person in a room with another world leader, allowing outrageous, un-vetted remarks to potentially harm our foreign relations? Think Blood Libel...
While Romney and Huckabee do bring the issues that Americans are concerned with to the presidential platform, I would like to see a new, unexpected Republican candidate surface. The current candidates are just too partisan in their approaches, and the country is already deeply divided. I think Obama has it in him to be great; his first term has been a slow start, dealing with the tremendous debt created in the Bush era and a woefully divided Congress. If we could get two candidates in the ring that would make eliminating partisan divisiveness their top priority, 2012 could be an intellectually stimulating election year.
Things would be really interesting if a strong minor party candidate emerges, but now I feel like I'm really dreaming...
Ian, I join you in your dismay. I am a life-long Democrat and steadfast supporter of President Obama. Nonetheless I long for a credible and responsible Republican candidate for President in the 2012 elections. The problems we face as a nation are very serious and the divisions between us are disheartening. We don’t have time for the circus anymore. We need to see the best that both parties can offer.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Radical Right and Progressive Left have little appetite for the kind of compromise and cooperation that are essential to good governance, most Americans just want pragmatic solutions to our very real problems. Whatever one thinks of President Obama’s job as president, he is sober, thoughtful and intelligent. He is steeped in the details of our current crises. We need someone of the same stature from the Republican side to propose alternative solutions to those promoted by President Obama and the Democrats. Let the American people see an intelligent debate, free of the hysterical and unhinged attacks on Obama that we currently hear from all the Republican candidates before us now.
I believe the current crop of Republicans hopefuls are just a side show and that we will see a more serious candidate emerge in the fourth quarter of this year. Even though everything I see from GOP elected officials, both at the national and state level, appears narrowly targeted at a radical base, I’m convinced that behind the scenes the Republican power structure is searching for a candidate who can seriously challenge President Obama from the political center. They have to know that there is no one currently running who qualifies as that candidate.
The mid-term election success of extremely conservative Republicans around the country has moved the Democrats ever more sharply to the center in American politics. I continue to hope for a Republican presidential candidate that can pull the GOP from their cliff’s edge as well. Please join the rest of us Americans here in the middle just trying to make it through these dark times. Talk to us like adults. Give us a real choice. Trust us with the truth.