So far 2010 has seen Sarah Palin, newly elected Scott Brown and Mitt Romney endorsed John McCain a man who now claims he was duped into voting for the massively corrupt bailout of financial institutions. Perhaps he and Hillary Clinton, who like many other Democrats claimed she was duped into voting for the Iraq War, can gather together and whine about it over wine. Yesterday Scott Brown voted for a “Jobs Bill” loaded with the same terrible spending and useless solutions as the stimulus he campaigned against. What is different? This bill has “Jobs” in the title, so you can undoubtedly cue the “I was duped” argument for Brown sometime later this year. “It had jobs in the title, what was I to do?”
If all that isn’t enough for you, this weekend Mike Huckabee attacked the Conservative Political Action Conference and the big government hating libertarians who gathered there. Meanwhile Newt Gingrich declared Republicans need to work with Democrats to pass The Health Care reform that was basically created, loved, and now awkwardly distanced from by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts just a few short years ago. How exactly do you spot a RINO? I just gave you a nice list of examples.
The media and pundits routinely pontificate over the question of how the Republican Party can join together for electoral victory. The answer? They can not do what they have been doing.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele is a bit too busy to pay much attention to the mood of the country, he has a book to promote afterall. Still, at least one leading Republican should get it, the public doesn’t want what they have been selling. I fear 2012 could be a John Kerry year for the Republican Party. A time when a small band of party elites decides to pick a “consensus” candidate without consulting with the consensus. It would be a massive blow, especially considering we already did that in 2008.
In a time when every Republican, conservative, and independent is screaming for something different, we keep getting handed the same. I know some call me a stick in the middle over Brown and Palin endorsing McCain, but we should all be outraged. Yes McCain did them a political favor, most of us agree though that repaying favors over principal is a major part of the problem. Brown and Palin’s appeal was that they were two candidates without a long history of favors to repay. How quickly that has and will change!
The Republican Party gave McCain, a progressive who has failed said Party in almost everything but defense, the nomination as almost a return of favor. He put in his time, he sacrificed large for his country and did the bare minimum for the Party. Then he almost seemed to give up for awhile there in 2008, he even suspended his campaign in a confusing and embarrassing moment of supposed national crisis. How did he spend that suspended time? He sat in an office and went along with every bad choice handed to him then passed it off as leadership. Now he seems like he wants to run again. Cannot wait for that!
Sorry, but courtesy or not, McCain owes more to Republicans than we owe to him. Yes he chose Palin as a running mate and launched her career, but without her he would have been crushed by an even larger loss. His staff repaid her by doing all they could to tarnish her name in tabloids and ruin her credibility with an already demented media. Where is the need to lend what seem like conservative credentials to a man who is still fighting for a progressive cause?
So far our list of realistic candidates are Romney, Huckabee, Palin and Newt. Then we have a bush league of governors that has been almost destroyed by personal scandal. Those who haven’t been rocked by adultery seem absent. Has anyone even heard from Bobby Jindal lately? Does anyone care what he is up to? The few actual “leaders” in our Party left are busy spending stimulus money and shrugging their shoulders.
I like many still hold out hope for some of these people but I have been let down too often by too many politicians on both sides to really believe. We have a class full of clowns but sadly, none of them are even funny or interesting. I long ago gave up on expecting to find the next Ronald Reagan in our current crop, sadly I am just hoping for a candidate capable of reaching Walter Mondale heights of glory. We need a better class of clowns and we need it fast.
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