Who's going to win the Repuke nom? The Money candidate or the Crazy candidate?

[NightWatcher]

The Money learned that the Tea Baggers cannot be controlled last year and now have backed away from the Frankenstein Monster that they created.

So who wrestles control of the Repuke party?

Obama wins as long as these two factions within the Repuke party don't join together. I personally hope the teabaggers start their own party.

[SheilaT]

1. Even though the conventional wisdom is

that the nomination can only be won by someone already in the race, given how unenthusiastic the Republicans are overall about most of the candidates, I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone else jumps in by the end of the year and then wins it. Mind you, I'm not predicting that will happen, just that I wouldn't be at all surprised if it did.

There really are quite sensible people who believe in good old-fashioned Republican values and who stay in the party, continue to identify as Republicans and vote for them, because they cannot completely believe that the extremists are as extreme as they are. If the Democratic side can present itself as a sufficiently sensible alternative, those people might vote for a Democrat.

Perhaps the bigger danger is that all the disaffected Republicans and all the disaffected Democrats will stay home in 2012, in which case Obama's re-election will be in doubt.

As a psych prof at my junior college said on election day in 1976, "Remember, a low voter turnout favors Republicans, so if you're a Republican, DON'T VOTE."

[monmouth]

5. I'm a Sheila also...Anyway, that old adage "Don't change horses

mid-stream" may resonate with regular Repubs if the economy starts to level and unemployment drops.

[gratuitous]

2. 2012 will be a replay of 2008 and 1996 for the GOP

They're just selecting the person they know is going to get munched in the general election. If there was an anointed candidate, the money would already be flowing to that person. Nobody's clearly winning the money primary, which means that the party power-brokers haven't settled on their candidate, and at this point, they may be willing to forego 2012 for 2016. Keep their powder dry, as it were. Besides, the Koch brothers have seen their net worth spike upwards during the regime of the MuslimKenyanSocialist, so they may be content to make a shitload of money for another four years before trying to install their puppet.

[MADem]

3. I keep thinking it'll be The OTHER Mormon--the one with the

youthful "Kennedyesque" looks who rides that motorcycle.

No one knows shit about Huntsman, he has no record, so they can plaster their hopes, dreams and beliefs all over the guy and likely not encounter much in the way of contradiction.

The few things I have heard him say give me the creeps, but I think he'll shake out the winner IF this contest drags on all the way to the convention, with no clear winner and no one willing to budge. He'll be regarded as the compromise candidate, the best of the second-tier lot.

Of course, if Fat Bastard does decide to throw his porkpie hat in the ring, all bets are off. He's the man....! Hell, he's two and a half men!

In a way, Fat Bastard as the candidate might be a blessing. He claims to be calm and reasonable, but he flies off the handle, and after a while people perceive that kind of behavior as sheer meanness and they don't like it. Obama could noodge the shit out of him in debates. Also, the visuals would be PRICELESS. Thin/black vs. morbidly obese/white; blowhard vs. constitutional scholar....it could get interesting.

[AlinPA]

9. Huntsman does not look crazy enough for the republican base. He's out.

[MADem]

12. If Mittsy, Michelle and Lil Ricky all get to the convention with insufficient electoral votes to win

the nomination, and they employ a Mutually Assured Destruction policy out of sheer enmity and hubris, refusing to budge, I would not be surprised if the convention, after deadlock, started looking at the 2nd tier. Huntsman is the top dog in that bunch.

[AlinPA]

18. Pls see post #11. Huntsman believes in science. That does not compute in the republican party.

[MADem]

21. I understand that, but so did McCain, and he got the nomination last round.

The "Crazy" slot went to Palin, the VP.

The Teabaggers do not have sufficient critical mass to run the show. They have enough clout, like the old Moral Majority did, to make trouble and get a prime seat at the table. They can't out-and-out dictate, they can only make a lot of noise, over, and over, and over.

The thing about conventions is this--they have a limited amount of time to get stuff done. If (and this is a big IF, I am not predicting it with any certainty) there is a deadlock at the convention, pragmatic heads WILL prevail, because they've got the Big Money, and they will pick someone who "looks reasonable" and can garner votes across party lines as the Lead Dog, and perhaps a crazyass Teabagging type as the 2nd Row Ass Sniffer.

They'll stick their ideology where the sun doesn't shine to pick a winner; then they'll demand, and get, their tribute after the inauguration. That's what the fundie nuts did with GWB.

[AlinPA]

22. OK. Finding "pragmatic heads" in the republican party nowadays is a big

challenge. Nearly all them have been pushed out by the teabaggers, anti-government types and bible-wavers.

[MADem]

23. The pragmatists are the ones who want POWER. They'd nominate

Bozo the Friken Clown if he would dance to their tune, do their bidding, and be able to win.

This teabagging shit is just "motivate the base" crap. It's icing on the GOP cake. Don't be distracted by it. The real power brokers will put up whoever they want, and that person will throw the odd bone to the baggers. The baggers in office will bend to the will of the powerbrokers, if they want to keep their seats--they're not stupid...it beats working, after all.

[hifiguy]

11. In a normal Repig party or election year Huntsman would be

formidable indeed. He has professed his belief in science which, in the current climate of Repiglican politics, is tantamount to admitting that he's a satanist. His recent pandering to the economic full mooners aside, he's not crazy. But the Repig primary electorate is brass-plated, four-door batshit insane.

[MADem]

13. Quite true, but at the end of the day, they don't pick the nominee--they pick the

clowns who go to the convention to pick the nominee.

Tis many a slip tween the cup and the lip, and all that!

[AlinPA]

17. His belief in science is why he has no chance in the republican party.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Huntsman believes in evolution & global warming.

The kooks & godbags will never allow it.

[MADem]

16. They might. If they understand that they can only have a crazy in the VP slot,

in order to have a shot at the prize, they'll take it.

They have some clout, but they don't have ALL the clout. Some well-moneyed lardass string-pullers will make that very clear to them, and they'll compromise.

People forget that GWB looked fairly reasonable at the outset. He got crazier AFTER he was nominated, and Cheney made him look halfway sane.

Of course, if Fat Bastard gets into the mix, who knows what will happen. He likes science, too.

[Warren DeMontague]

19. GWB only looked 'fairly reasonable' to the people who weren't paying attention.

And hard as it may be to believe, the GOP has only gotten MORE crazy since then.

[MADem]

20. Most of the electorate falls into that inattentive camp.

Only about ten percent from each team pay any real attention--the rest of the mushy middle go with the soundbites and bullshit they hear on the commercials.

[Evasporque]

4. the money crazy candidate...nt

[Proud Public Servant]

6. It'll be Dukakis

Um, I mean Romney. But in a last-man-standing scenario rather than as a result of any enthusiasm, just like the Dems in '88.

[teddy51]

7. I maintain the fear that someone like a Jeb Bush would jump in at the last minute.

Not sure how he would be viewed by the Repubs and TeaPartiers, but kinda scary none the less.

[AlinPA]

8. Crazy wins it this time, and the teabaggers rule. Perry is a bit less crazy than Bachman, Palin,

Paul, Santorum and Cain but the teabaggers, anti-government and Christian fundamentalists will go for him because he has the Bush-like swagger and comes across as celebrating ignorance like a jackass more than the others. Plus he is not a Mormon.

[Ohio Joe]

10. There is a repug candidate that is not crazy?

Which one?

[TeamsterDem]

14. Um, they're all crazy and will all get the money from the other crazies. nt

There's no difference in the Republican Party between the money and the crazy.

[PeaceNikki]

24. The two are not mutually exclusive.