Presumed Republican front runner Mitt Romney has now sunk to 2nd place in national polls. President Obama’s national approval rating has now crossed above 50%. In a head-to-head general election match up, new polls predict President Obama would beat each of the 4 Republican presidential candidates by 4-6 percentage points. Republican operatives are openly seeking an alternative candidate for the nomination, but are running into a plethora of difficult hurdles. This is not at all good news for the Grand Ol’ Party!
It might not be time for the Republican party to push the nuclear button, but they surely should be getting the codes ready. Their 4 year plan to be the “Party of NO!” and to defeat President Obama at all costs have gone terribly awry.
Let’s review the facts: Barack Obama is the incumbent president, with the power of the Oval Office and title of Commander-in-Chief as his propulsion. He is unopposed in his bid for reelection, meaning he can just be president instead of worrying about defending his record in a divisive Democratic primary. He has an enormous war chest of campaign funds at his disposal that has been barely touched. He also has the luxury of sitting back and watching Republicans slay each other, while his hands never get dirty in the trenches. The harsh reality most Republicans are beginning to realize is, this will be incredibly difficult to beat.
Republicans are also beginning to realize a rather inconvenient truth: Romney is too weak against Barack Obama; Rick Santorum is too conservative and his evangelical positions just don’t resonate with the all important Independent voter; Newt Gingrich is a toxic time bomb who is seen as a hypocritical womanizer; and Ron Paul is a fringe candidate who is not taken seriously.
So are Republican desires to reclaim the White House on an unavoidable collision course to crash and burn? Sadly for them, yes! The up and down leads in the primary combined with low polling numbers and extremely low voter turn out percentages are proof of the impending distress. With little more than 5 months to go before the Republican convention, Mitt Romney’s ability to put his GOP competition away speaks volumes on how he might fare against the powerful Obama machine. And with little more than 5 months to go before the convention, it’s a near numeric nightmare for the GOP to attempt to throw some unknown candidate into the race in hopes of them seizing the nomination.
The dates to get a candidate on most state ballots have long since expired. Any candidate entering the race now could only appear on 13 state ballots. Even if that unnamed candidate won each of those 13 states (unlikely), that would only give them just over 500 total delegates, far short of the needed 1144 to secure the nomination. Plus, donors and supporters of the remaining 4 candidates would likely stage an all out nuclear war at the August convention if the party tried to supercede their man.
Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and other Republicans who are being begged to reconsider, are smart politicians. They realize any entry into the race at this point would be a suicide mission. Which leaves the Republican Party with a ton of questions and a very likely brokered convention. Stay tuned!
<span>"A Broken GOP". Oh come now DJ….you're being much too kind in your assessment. It is a DYING Grand Ole Party..and for good reason. Never have I seen a major political party work so hard, over the past 40-50 yrs, to KILL itself. The past 15 years in particular_and especially the last 3 and 1/2 yrs_have really been a nightmarish sight to behold. Paraphrasing Joe Scarborough this morning: "The Republican Party, My party, is not just shooting itself in the foot. It's looking around for weapons to put in it's mouth." For visual effect, Scarborough then positioned both of his hands in his mouth, as if they were guns he then pulled the trigger. He then went on to use a phrases I've OFTEN used over the past several years to describe the current state of the GOP. "TOXIC waste." "Lethal." "DANGEROUS." Forget Dem women being afraid of Repub leaders *WAR on Women* and Womens Rights…. Scarborough and Meghan McCain reported that NOW even Conservative Repub WOMEN are scared to… Read more »