GOP Presidential Candidates - Managers and Populists

[itsbeenfun2000]

It doesn't matter who the Republicans run if they continue to alienate our moderate center. When people ask as a republican how I can not support the republican candidates I look at them and steal a quote "i never left the Republican party, it left me." We have not had what I would call a moderate republican base run for offices since the early 90's. As long as this continues to  happen I would not expect a Republican to win a presidential office any time soon.

Oboma's approval rating as of today is 53%. Perhaps the far right of the party will realize they should find someone more central to run against him but I doubt that will happen.

[Callie Del Noire]

It doesn't matter who the Republicans run if they continue to alienate our moderate center. When people ask as a republican how I can not support the republican candidates I look at them and steal a quote "i never left the Republican party, it left me." We have not had what I would call a moderate republican base run for offices since the early 90's. As long as this continues to  happen I would not expect a Republican to win a presidential office any time soon.

Oboma's approval rating as of today is 53%. Perhaps the far right of the party will realize they should find someone more central to run against him but I doubt that will happen.

I agree. I don't see the conservatives in charge of the national party are going to give up control to a moderate, or even back one.

[Zeitgeist]

I think you all are dreaming, personally. Unless the economy improves significantly (I hope it does!), Obama is a one-pump-chump.

[Callie Del Noire]

I think you all are dreaming, personally. Unless the economy improves significantly (I hope it does!), Obama is a one-pump-chump.

I'm not dreaming. I've seen what the GOP does to their young. I KNOW 1st Lady Obama can plan for another inaugural in a year. Without a moderate team builder they are done and the media doesn't want one. 

[Remiel]

I think you all are dreaming, personally. Unless the economy improves significantly (I hope it does!), Obama is a one-pump-chump.

I think you are giving the GOP far too much credit.  Unless the Repubs produce a candidate who has intelligence, executive experience, AND charisma,  Obama is practically guaranteed a second term.

I agree with Callie and itsbeenfun here -- nominating a Palin or Huckabee will be a recipe for failure.   We need a moderate whose primary plank is the restructuring of the economy and the paying down of the the national debt.  Quite frankly, if we had someone who could manage to get America back on track for economic recovery, I could not care less what his social policies were.

[Callie Del Noire]

I think you are giving the GOP far too much credit.  Unless the Repubs produce a candidate who has intelligence, executive experience, AND charisma,  Obama is practically guaranteed a second term.

I agree with Callie and itsbeenfun here -- nominating a Palin or Huckabee will be a recipe for failure.   We need a moderate whose primary plank is the restructuring of the economy and the paying down of the the national debt.  Quite frankly, if we had someone who could manage to get America back on track for economic recovery, I could not care less what his social policies were.

Nominate someone that is 'business as usual' and part of the 'old boy network' and I can PROMISE you, baring a shard of Skylab dropping from the sky and killing President Obama in the rose garden, he will be re-elected.  The folks in control, at least on the national level, of the GOP need to realize that while the Conservative/Religious groups are the loudest..they are NOT the party in it's entirety. Not that the Democrats aren't marginalizing the rural/workers and setting themselves up for an epic fail years down the line.

If they put someone like Huckabee and/or Palin (shudder) as the candidate of the GOP, I can promise that they will see a shift in party members that hasn't happened since the 'Dixiecrats' came over to the GOP.

[HockeyGod]

I think you all are dreaming, personally. Unless the economy improves significantly (I hope it does!), Obama is a one-pump-chump.

President Bush had the lowest approval ratings during his re-election and won.

Personally I think a stalwart Libertarian for 8 years would do this country some good.

This scares me.

[Callie Del Noire]

This scares me.

Do you honestly think a Libertarian in the White House could do more damage than 8 years of Bush 2.0? I honestly doubt it. Not to mention to get anything at ALL done, he (or she) would have to work to build a consensus in Congress. Which, in my opinion, would be a lot more healthy for the country at large. Less partisanship would have to be good for us all.

[Vekseid]

At least Bush 2.0 would keep the military industrial complex going. An FDR equivalent would shift it to a renewed space and aviation program. A libertarian would shut it all down, and the cash flow multiplier would decrease immediately as a result.

The greatest period of economic growth in US history was government driven.

We need another FDR, or better.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I notice a LACK of enthusiasm about taking the hard choices in a lot of folks I talking with. Reforming the process takes time, money and effort. One of the things that I really DESPISE about the talking heads is barely 2 years into a presidency there is a lot of complaint of progress. The President is not the total authority, he has to work with Congress and the voters to get things done. That takes time.

You're talking like the real bosses of America want "reform" or see a "problem" with the way things are now.

The rich are getting richer.  That's all that matters to America's true masters.  The reason why nothing is changing is because TPTB don't want things to change.  They're doing fine with things as they are today.  Everything's fine at the yacht club, the country club and Wall Street.  So who needs "change?"

[Callie Del Noire]

At least Bush 2.0 would keep the military industrial complex going. An FDR equivalent would shift it to a renewed space and aviation program. A libertarian would shut it all down, and the cash flow multiplier would decrease immediately as a result.

The greatest period of economic growth in US history was government driven.

We need another FDR, or better.

Bush 2.0 did a GREAT job of spending cash on the military but not much came of it. Donald Rumsfeld did more to cripple our manpower and planning for a long time to come.

I think Bush 1.0 or Regan is a better example of what could be done right with military development.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Bush 2.0 did a GREAT job of spending cash on the military but not much came of it. Donald Rumsfeld did more to cripple our manpower and planning for a long time to come.

I think Bush 1.0 or Regan is a better example of what could be done right with military development.

We already spend too much on the military.

If we're interested in keeping the lights on past 2020 or so, we need a Manhattan Project-level R&D effort into thermonuclear fusion for electricity.  A ginormous military won't be of much use when oil hits $200/bbl and we can't afford to move it around.

[Callie Del Noire]

We already spend too much on the military.

If we're interested in keeping the lights on past 2020 or so, we need a Manhattan Project-level R&D effort into thermonuclear fusion for electricity.  A ginormous military won't be of much use when oil hits $200/bbl and we can't afford to move it around.

Okay..let's do a quick check. Who started the move towards miniaturization of transistors. The ginormous military along with NASA. Ditto for the development of a lot of medical technology. Metallurgy. Ditto. While Wired likes to point out the huge and sometimes silly things that the DOD research wing has ongoing a LOT of them have paid off in the past. Synthetic clothing, new methods of treating medical issues, smaller electronics, more efficient batteries, and on and on.

[Vekseid]

Bush 2.0 did a GREAT job of spending cash on the military but not much came of it. Donald Rumsfeld did more to cripple our manpower and planning for a long time to come.

I think Bush 1.0 or Regan is a better example of what could be done right with military development.

Right - but that's the idea. The libertarian cuts the budget by $800 billion or whatever (congrats!) but most of that money is redistributed from a few hundred thousand people who don't typically spend that money to about fifteen million people who do. So the savings rate goes up, overall economic activity goes down, and the unemployment rate is now at Great Depression levels.

Not that we'd know that since the Department of Labor, Bureau of Economic Analysis, etc. have been eliminated.

The guy wouldn't get elected to a second term, of course.

We already spend too much on the military.

If we're interested in keeping the lights on past 2020 or so, we need a Manhattan Project-level R&D effort into thermonuclear fusion for electricity.  A ginormous military won't be of much use when oil hits $200/bbl and we can't afford to move it around.

Fusion won't help our problem, fusion isn't relevant to our problem. We have an obscene amount of coal, shale, etc. to burn for that.

We need one or more oil replacements.

[Callie Del Noire]

Right - but that's the idea. The libertarian cuts the budget by $800 billion or whatever (congrats!) but most of that money is redistributed from a few hundred thousand people who don't typically spend that money to about fifteen million people who do. So the savings rate goes up, overall economic activity goes down, and the unemployment rate is now at Great Depression levels.

Not that we'd know that since the Department of Labor, Bureau of Economic Analysis, etc. have been eliminated.

The guy wouldn't get elected to a second term, of course.

Fusion won't help our problem, fusion isn't relevant to our problem. We have an obscene amount of coal, shale, etc. to burn for that.

We need one or more oil replacements.

Thing is.. how many Libertarian reps in Congress? Not many, without a clear base a Libertarian President will have to work to build a concensus. I doubt a STRONGLY Libertarian president would get elected anyway.  A 'mild' version might.

We need to work on cleaner/better options. We got wind/tidal power, I recall the late Ted Kennedy killing one wind farm because it could be seen from the Kennedy Compound.