Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has come out with a list of the “10 Republicans to keep an eye on over the coming months and years.” The list is not of potential presidential candidates in 2012, though some on the list may run. And of particular note, the list doesn’t include Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who Cillizza said is “very lightly regarded by many of the opinion leaders and establishment types within the GOP, making it tougher for her to command a leading role.” The Top 10:
10. Steve Poizner, California insurance commissioner and expected GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2010.
9. Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor.
8. Jon Huntsman Jr., Utah governor.
7. Eric Cantor, Virginia congressman and new House minority whip.
6. Mark Sanford, South Carolina governor and newly elected chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
5. Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s attorney general.
4. Mitch Daniels, Indiana governor.
3. Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor.
2. John Thune, South Dakota senator.
1. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor.
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53 Comments
Judging these fellows by their party’s actions over the last couple of decades, we should be watching them….very closely.
NOT for the reasons of leadership, but rather the rampnt crime, corruption, and pederasty.
Not sure what John Thune has, but it is something. Tom Daschle spent millions in his last re-election campaign, was a known force, well respected Senator from South Dakota. Thune spent about $500,000 and won.
I agree, they all need to be watched as carefully as possible.
If they are anything like their recently-deposed, colleagues, they should be watched for corruption, cronyism, breaches of the Constitution, lying to start wars and ruining the world economy.
What are they gonna run for? Office in Kansas, Idaho, or some other blighted red region?
As a national party, the GOP is finished and rightly so.
bj..didn’t you also claim that gas would shoot up to $5 a gallon the day after the elections? I believe your crystal ball needs a little work. People claimed the Democratic Party was “finished” in decades past. It is a natural pedulum swing that can be seen going back many, many years.
the 2 party system is far from perfect, but don’t count it dead based on one election.
There is only a few I have an opinion on:
Haley Barbour, Mississippi governor: He is once again finding a voice due to the raise of the party in the South. Somewhat more a Dixie-crat and is known within the party.
Eric Cantor, Virginia congressman and new House minority whip.: A raising star in deed and somewhat flip of the coin. Sometimes sounds to be aware and thinking and others to fall in lock step. Of late has been sounding like he has a true glimpse of where the party went wrong and could be a force to lead it back. But still not a horse I would hitch my wagon to at this time.
Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor.: I can see more of what people attributes to Palin in Jindal. Smart and so what well spoken he is the one in the whole field that maybe the face of the new party. Still a unknown quantity but may have the stuff to contend with Obama.
“I don’t remember predicting anything as to gas prices and the election there Raptor.
Aint no crystal ball to it.
I like what Leanord Pitts had to say about it yesterday. The cons have been stuck the last 40 years trying to make the 60’s go away and bring back the 50’s. He was right and I don’t see that changing in the near future. What positive message DOES the GOP have? They are all about fear and “it’s all your fault!”
Sorry…must have been someone else claiming that about gas prices.
Anyway…do you really think Leonard Pitts has a clue what will happen in the future, either? Parties change, people move in different directions, and policies evolve. The previous messages obviously haven’t worked and a new “platform” (for lack of a better word) will emerge.
Democrats will make some mistakes and will wind up losing some seats in the mid term elections–that is a time honored “tradition”.
“Parties change”
Not the Republican party. Right now, the party is splintered about 3 ways.
The loudest of them are the ones claiming they lost because they weren’t big ENOUGH jerks.
An interesting group. With the exception of Romney all fresh faces with perhaps some new ideas. Until the fiasco with GWB the governors have generally made fairly decent presidents.
They should add independents and RINOs to the list like Jesse “the Body” Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I wonder how many will be in prison by 2012?
I wonder why Tim Pawlenty isnt on the list? WTF?
And why isnt LIEberman on the list? He’s a better republican than most of those guys. And notice, they are ALL white guys except for Jindal, and he acts and sounds like the cracker he is.
Hee hee hee. And now brownback, or anyone one from the uber red kansas? Heheheh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The party will either continue to be the hard core few and remain margin blotter paper.
Or finally come to grips with the error of its drift and come back to being a party of reality base solutions. Ever so often someone is whispering in the shouting about what the party should do. So there are those whom have a clue and maybe their voices will slowly be heard.
Newt is not one of them as he is still preaching that the answer is a flashy new ad campaign. The bright shiny object approach as if the people are still asleep and only need a different way of being fooled.
But Raptor is right the party is not going to die a quiet death nor go away. The hard core is banking on there is no need to change. All they have to do is wait and let the Democrats screw up the chance they have again. Leaving them once again in as the alternative. Us common man is not so bright and will turn to the worst if the best is worst.
The lesser of two evil voting campaign.
Still there is the hope that the party will finally quit riding on the old me-me that we are the party of small government, lower taxes and the like. Something that has been shown we are not and it was a distraction from the real answers. We will kick out the ideologists and Big Government Republicans. Or at least marginalize them till they are the whispers and not the shouting.
A warning my Democratic friends we inherited the Neoconservatives from you once they felt they no longer had a home with you. And it is you whom they will want to return to.
William Kristol can threaten to the day ends that they will form their own party of the Neo-Liberals. But they need the shield and strength of one or the other party to enact their plans.
I notice matt blount isnt on the list either?
Cilizza should stick to writing fairy tales…er, columns. As far a predictions go?
He’s a great columnist…
This just gets funnier the more I think about it. By gop standards, mike huckabee is a pretty young guy, and he isnt on the list either.
WTF?
I like the Dell Customer Service guy.
Sarah Who?
They should add independents and RINOs to the list like Jesse “the Body” Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Regular, I am not sure exactly what Ventura is he is not an Independent sounds more a sixty radical with a taste of populist. But if they are still around I would say he is a member of the anarchist party.
Schwarzenegger is a reflection of what the Republicans will be like in twenty years. He may or may not have a future on the national scene. He will never be President as something’s will stay solely American made. The Rinos gained power over the party and Schwarzenegger at least puts thing in the right prospective that it is the welfare of the people that is the concern of Government not the party line.
The three factions of the Republic party — the militarists, the businessists, and the moralists — need someone who can out-Reagan Reagan to come together again and be a viable national political force.
I don’t see anyone on the above list who has that potential.
The Republic Party coalition has always been a shotgun marriage of what really are three 3rd parties.
There might be a chance to switch out one or more of those factions with, say, the libertarians. They’d have to lose the militarists or moralists.
Big Bidness has the money, so it’ll be the core. And the alternatives to the moralists might turn out to be the isolationists and racists and the whole immigration issue will get dicier.
An embrace of the Republic Party’s Policeman-of-the-World mentality could spur business and be cloaked in some kind of patriotic spread-democracy-around-the-world jingoism.
No matter how you look at policy, one of the three elements of the Republic Party cannot get traction when tied to the other two.
Regardless of the CONs’ gripes and spipes about specific tangential issues, we liberals have a coherent approach to public policy. We recognize that climate change relates to energy policy which relates to international relations. Even the most liberal among us understand when the fat cats of Detroit each took their private jets to Washington to plea poverty, the Wichita economy benefited from all those private jets flying.
You gotta know when they’re dealing in small talk, those CEOs are mentioning how a Citation has more room than a Learjet but the Learjet is faster. And the guy with a Gulfstream is talking about who he nailed last night 30,000 feet above Muncie.
We’ll see how Bobby Jindal works out. Forgive me but I think he’s not ready for prime time; that he’s the Republic Party fat cats’ version of “our brown guy!”
After the Democrats complete the crashing of our economy that they started with CRA, destroy the military, lose the war against terror (as they keep losing the war against poverty), and overall prove their “worth,” the conservatives in the GOP will rise to the challenge and we’ll have a Republican government again.
What is the current definition of the word conservative as it relates to political philosophy?
“Mom_of_5″ –
That’s certainly an interesting outlook on things.
Bats#hit insane, mind you, but interesting.
It is in my opinion, silly to discuss this. 2012 is 4 years away. Our Pres. Elect isn’t even in office yet.
We all know how much can change in 4 years.
I want to rephrase my question. In my opinion the answer to this question is needed before those who may take a leading role in the party could be determined.
What is the Republican-accepted definition of the word conservative as it relates to political philosophy?
What is the Republican-accepted definition of the word conservative as it relates to political philosophy?
=================
I am afraid that definition is quite different than the Conservative definition of a well, Conservative.
I agree, Anti. Before the party left me I knew what the accepted definition was. I don’t any longer. I wonder if there is ONE?
I wonder if there is ONE?
=============
Well when someone like McCain compares himself to Reagan and calls his (McCain’s) views Conservative…The definition is lost.
I my opinion.
MOM OF 5
THAT’S FUNNY !!!!
THANKS
Linda, It’s kinda like a mule parading around calling himself and Appaloosa.
That makes my BS meter register ’sludge’.
“lindainks55″ –
I think it comes back to the basic evil of the Republic Party.
If the polling came out that strangling tiny kittens was the new national pastime, Fox News would put it on prime time.
The Republic Party isn’t conservative any more that it’s moral or patriotic. They’ll say anything and embrace any argument they perceive might work on election day.
What the McPalin campaign revealed was the Republic Party has no principles, no goal, no reason to be except to be in power.
We’ve had 8 years of George WMD Bush as (The Big) Dick Cheney’s puppet; which got a lot of Halliburton stockholders rich and more than 4,500 American kids dead.
Take that particular segment of the Republic Party coalition and they’ve got nothin’.
The Carter administration was a disaster.
LBJ’s adminstration was a disaster.
Last two Democratic Presidents with Democratic House and Senates.
What does it mean to be a conservative?
1) Small government? Not any more.
2) Low taxes? For rich people, yes.
3) Fiscal responsibility? Except when you are borrowing and spending the government’s money.
What defines conservatism is being against liberalism. The Republic Party’s downfall is that they don’t have any idea what they are for. Until they can find a campaign slogan that is different from “fear them and vote for me!” they will be in the wilderness. They may be lost for a long time…
LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin “lie”. 36,387 dead American soldiers from 1964 to 1968. Enough said.
I remember LBJ’s war. I remember Carter’s administration. I remember Newt’s Contract With America. I Hope I will see a successful Obama era.
I am politically realistic enough to know that like the weather things change everyday. People with unrealistic expectations won’t see those met with Obama. Impatient voters won’t think the dems are moving fast enough. Out of work voters will see the republicans as the best job creators. Voters who watch the deficit bloom will want someone who at least claims to be fiscal conservatives.
This is the nature of politics so I’ll just be patient. I won’t call doom and gloom for either party. We will always be a two party – maybe three – country. And this is a good thing.
Hang onto your seats it’s going to be a rough ride.
Out of work voters will see the republicans as the best job creators.
And then they’ll turn straw into gold.
I would briefly note the liberal and Democratic aren’t necessarily the same thing. But, moving on. . .
The Republican party may well sucessfully re-invent iteelf (the way, to a large degree, the Dems had to do when the racists starting jumping ship in the 60s). But, even taking into account notoriously short memories, the past 8 years will prove to be a heavy burden.
If you’re a Republican, Steven Davis had laid out the brutal reality for you above. It was too kind of him to give you that advice.
I am reminded that the public elected a Hollywood actor, and handed Congress to the Republicans for the first time in 25 years, a mere 6 years after a president of same party left the Oval Office via the fire escape. But Watergate was merely a scandal.
This is much worse.
The Republican party will only salvage itself if they can prove in the next 4 years that they can put country first, and by that I mean the people…ALL the people. What happens in the next 4 years will determine a lot of things. Will we see an economic turnaround? Will people have jobs? Will our country once again be respected around the globe? The Republicans can help make that happen. Can they put aside politics and do it?
The last Republicans and Democrats worked together for the greater good, we got civil rights and the War on Poverty.
We also got a dumb, bloody war, which, along with the aforementioned racists objecting, further fractured the Democratic Party.
Being that we’re currently mired in a dumb, unnecessary war (and another that was arguably unnecessary), the lesson should not “Democrats gave us Vietnam” (not exactly true, though LBJ was a bastard).
The lesson should be a more general one about good governance, and that should include working together, but pay attention, and always be skeptical of politicians.
Don’t have time to watch these Republicans. Gotta keep my eyes on those shifty Democrats.
Rage like it or not – the reality is that people with money will be the job creators. Whether they be democrat or republican is up for grabs. Government cannot create enough jobs to grow us out of the economic situation we are currently in. The work programs only worked for a while in the 40’s and then the risk takers had to step up to create job outside the government.
You have a vicious circle when you expect tax dollars to pay for the expansion in jobs we need. Private money has to come into the mix.
Obama has at least indicated that he won’t go in right away and start taxing the job creators. This would be a step in the right direction.
Rage….the old idea of the Democrats giving us Vietnam is interesting, but I am not sure it is accurate. I checked the New York Times for my birthday in 1952 (yes, I am an old poop) and read, among other things, that “US Planes Bomb VietMinh”. Eisenhower was into his first term, it was France’s war at that time, but the US was involved way back then.
(Another interesting headline I remember was how a Soviet Scientist ‘proved’ Eistein’s Theory of Relativity was incorrect.)
raptor – you are correct. Eisenhour (and VP Nixon) began the upward spiral with ‘advisors’ in Nam. Then JFK continued the escalation on bahalf of the minority catholic Diem regime. Then LBJ massively introduced troops based on the fake Tonkin ‘incident’.
Military deaths in Viet Nam prior to LBJ
1956-1960 9 Eisenhower R
1961 16 Kennedy D
1962 52 Kennedy D
1963 118 Kennedy D
Monkeyhawk, there you go again spewing hatred. I’m not a big fan of Bush, but your hatred is unending. I would give anything to kick your pansy A$$.
BlueJay, I don’t know who the F*** you are, and I have never met you. And I don’t EVER want to meet you A$$HOLE. NEVER. You suck.
ICT etc.:
I think it’s fair to say NO ONE wants to meet you.
MH occasionally gets a little “sharper” in his approach than I’d like. I do that sometimes myself, quite frankly.
You, on the other hand, seem to be nothing but insults and threats.
Glad that you don’t like Bush. It’s a start.
Pay for your own damned plane ticket, but I’ll meet you anywhere in Tucson, Arizona. If that sounds ridiculous, well, yeah, it is.
But if you actually show up, I’ll buy you lunch.
“ICTisInferior” fantasizes –
“I would give anything to kick your pansy A$$.”
Anything?
Whatcha got?
My pansy ass can take a kicking if the price is right?
Rage, I hear Tuscon is a nice place. Although your U.S. Representative, Ed Pastor, is far, far to the left. But I don’t have any plans to go anytime soon.
Read my post on the Tiller shooter asking for a pardon. You’ll see I’m not that far out there. I can’t stand Tiller, but those who resort to violence are just as pitiful.
Monkeyhawk, I shouldn’t have said what I did. I don’t believe in violence. I’ve never been in a fight. You’d beat me within five seconds.
I’m pi$$ed as hell about Obama being elected. But what worries me more is the left-wing kooks in the House.
Alcohol and testosterone..the two chemicals that keep ERs in business…I’ll bet you have one hell of a hangover this morning, ICT. LOL
“ICTisInferior” gets contrite –
“Monkeyhawk, I shouldn’t have said what I did. I don’t believe in violence….”</i
Another keyboard blowhard.
Heh Monkeyhawk. Probably, more likely, the remorse of a hungover drunk at dawn.
Posting while drunk. And bitter. There oughta be a law….
Although your U.S. Representative, Ed Pastor, is far, far to the left.
I know about Ed, but his district doesn’t come near Tucson. Tucson is cut in half, the northern part going to Gabrielle Giffords (my rep), and the southern part going to presumed Interior Secretary nominee Raul Grijalva.