Of course, the best of the neglected candidates waiting in the wings is former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. He has an outstanding record in office and some of the best ideas, including being the only advocate for the FairTax. He's also been the whipping boy for the media and the party establishment. He's been overlooked and excluded from debates and press coverage and left out of the polls, and he's sufficiently disgruntled he's even considered jumping ship to the Libertarian party. But despite all that he's still in the race and if Cain's departure opens a spot in the primary field then Johnson is the one who ought to be brought in to fill it. There's no one more deserving and no one who could do more with another opportunity.
While the partisan press continues to prattle on about Romney and Gingrich, two candidates who no one really wants, one a replay of 2008 and the other a replay of 1994, there's a real field of candidates out there that Republicans could truly be proud of. After all the disappointments and missteps of party leaders, a primary field led by Paul, Huntsman and Johnson might restore confidence in a party which is on the brink of failure and has broken faith with its own base too many times.
My Republican Party isn't represented by the Newts and Mitts of the world. It's not a party of tired old hacks and used care salesman smiles. It's a party of smart ideas and responsible government and refreshing honesty. It's a party which can celebrate candidates like Paul, Huntsman and Johnson, embrace them and let them show us what a real election with serious candidates can be like. They are the tonic for the disease which grips the party. They are the serious contenders to counter the damage done by flirtation with faux candidates like Cain.
Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party its first national victory with a "team of rivals" bringing the best his party had to offer to Washington. Paul, Huntsman and Johnson could be that winning team for a new era of Republican politics if we can discard the baggage of our old mistakes and believe in the brighter future which they represent.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Glenn Contrarian
Dave -
As I've said before, the one and only candidate that Obama need fear is Huntsman...because he could draw enough independents and disgruntled Democrats that he might win...
...and that was a side benefit (other than his command of Mandarin) of his being picked as an ambassador to China, the hope that he would be rejected by Republicans in the future because he worked for the Obama administration.
Fortunately for us Democrats, it looks more likely that it will be Romney or Gingrich.
2 - Jeff
Anyone is better than Obama. Point-set-match.
3 - Dave Nalle
Glenn, you can rarely go wrong betting ont he stupidity of the GOP party leadership.
Dave
4 - jamminsue
As a liberal, I find people like Gingrich, Bachman and Cain execrable. I am less than pleased with Obama; he needs to go back to being a professor. However, I would like to see a chance for a push for renewable energy, and cease using coal/oil for most energy needs. Alt energy programs need to be area-specific, such as hot water where there are hot springs, wind and sun when appropriate. One thing needed to make it all work is battery technology, which I imagine will be a big thing if ever we get the political will to do this. Another thing is the fear the county is moving closer to an oligarchy, which has never been a good form of government, with a permanent underclass with NO CHANCE of advancement, as higher education becomes increasingly expensive. I have not found a Republican who would adopt these ideas, so am stuck with Obama, who hopefully won’t do some of the stupid things he proposed, like nuclear power plants. And, we should leave our oil reserves where they are, in the ground. Europe already has a burgeoning alternate energy industry, are we going to lose out?
5 - Cannonshop
Shame about Cain-he was always going to lose, but he was, at least, interesting to watch.
6 - Clavos
I am less than pleased with Obama; he needs to go back to being a professor.
I agree, jamminsue. A small (but important) point of fact here: Obama was never a Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Law, he was a Senior Lecturer, which is a lesser rank than Professor.
He did, however, refer to himself as a Professor more than once during his campaign and afterwards.
7 - Dan(Miller)
Clav, re #6 -- Methinks he may have resorted to hyperbole at least a few more times than that.
8 - roger nowosielski
If the hyperbole he resorted to had to do with the teaching method, I wouldn't hold it against him. But somehow, I think his use of it was far more extensive than that -- your meaning!
9 - Dan(Miller)
Roger, re #8 -- Far be it from me to offer the slightest hint that even a fleeting notion at any time considered the remote possibility of suggesting to me that President Obama ever uttered a mendacious word, let alone phrase. My absolut confidence in his total candor is far beyond belief.
10 - roger nowosielski
That's what I thought you meant, although Stolichnaya is my vodka of choice, the part Ukrainian in me.
11 - Glenn Contrarian
(sigh)
Dan (Miller) - Yeah, I've defended Obama many, many times on this blog...but I've also written at least two full articles about where I think he screwed up. Please stop confusing defense for worship.
12 - roger nowosielski
Worship runs contrary to human nature. We're either too flawed or too proud.
In any case, even if I made it to heaven, I doubt if my relationship to God would be one of worship. Appreciation, no doubt, but worship ... That seems to reduce a human to an animal, a thoughtless slave.
We're supposed to have been made in His image, a replica.
I can't help but sense a contradiction in this theology.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Clav (@ #6):
Although Obama was never a tenured faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School, it was and is school custom to refer to senior lecturers as "Professor". It's an honorific.
So although I would agree that he has resorted to hyperbole on numerous occasions (a key presidenting skill), this isn't one of them.
14 - Dr Dreadful
Worship runs contrary to human nature.
Considering the entirety of human history, Roger, that's an extraordinary claim to make.
15 - Clavos
Doc,
If others of the faculty chose to follow custom and bestow upon him an "honorific," that's their prerogative.
When he referred to himself as a professor, he knew it to be untrue; that it was only an honorific.
It was a lie.
But not unusual in a narcissist.
16 - Dr Dreadful
Clav,
So if a guy volunteers to help out in little league, and over the years starts contributing more and more, like helping the kids out with their skills and techniques, washing the uniforms, oiling the bats, organizing refreshments, keeping score, cheering from the sidelines, acting as a mentor etc, and the kids, parents and everyone else start calling him "Coach" even though he's not an official member of the coaching staff, does that make him a liar if, years later, he tells people he used to coach little league?
Maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. At worst, it's an exaggeration, which is a natural human tendency and not a psychosis. It's a highly petty basis on which to attack someone's character.
17 - One American's Rant
I don't think that Johnson has much of a chance, but I have to root for him a little, since I live in New Mexico - I think it's a state law.
18 - Clavos
Doc,
I don't buy your analogy. A little league coach lives and operates in a significantly more limited world than POTUS. What the coach says and does rarely has any effect whatever on anyone outside his personal circle of contacts, and let's face it, he's not held to the same standard as POTUS is.
Nor should he be.
19 - Dr Dreadful
Clav,
Explain how Obama calling himself a professor (especially when that's what everyone else called him) has any effect whatever on anything.
20 - Igor
I remember some Obama supporters referring to him as a professor of constitutional studies, but I don't remember Obama referring to himself as anything other than a teacher of the constitution.
Can someone refresh my memory with a citation? The context may be important.
21 - roger nowosielski
@14
Only if superstition be said to comprise the entirety of human history.
22 - Clavos
Doc, the judgment on whether or not calling himself a professor is deceitful is just a matter of opinion; I accept that you don't consider it deceitful.
Politifact indicates that thus far, he's made 41 statements that are "mostly false" (their words), 51 that were "false," and 4 "pants on fire" lies. Not exceptional for a politician, but clearly he's been known to,be deceitful fairly regularly. I count "professor" in the false group.
I'm old enough to remember back to Truman; I've never seen a president I thought was slimier than this creep; not even GWB, and he left a trail like a slug's everywhere he went.
23 - Clavos
Here, Igor, from Factcheck:
Sen. Obama, who has taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago, has regularly referred to himself as "a constitutional law professor," most famously at a March 30, 2007, fundraiser when he said, "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution."
24 - REMF(MCH)
@ 22;
I agree, a far worse claim than Gingrich's $1.6 million gig as Fannie Mae's "historian"...
25 - REMF(MCH)
"What the coach says and does rarely has any effect whatever on anyone outside his personal circle of contacts..."
Tell that to Jerry Sandusky...