I think Mitt's going to regret pissing off Gingrich

[wonky]

@Exapno_Mapcase

I’ve been watching presidential races since 1968 and nothing comes within hundreds of miles of the current crop, most of whom have been considered actual leading contenders at one point or another. This election will be in every history book as the outlier of all outliers.

It really is a bad field. 2008 had the ridiculous, nutty Tancredo and his ilk. Every election has those. But the final six by RCP standards were McCain, Huckabee, Romney, Paul, Giuliani, and Thompson. Not a great field, but only one nut. Giuliani had the lead until the campaigning started, then Huckabee briefly, and then McCain took off. There’s nothing horrifying in that. I’m no fan of any of those men, but they are all respectable and (mostly) sane. The only similarity is you did see Thompson get touted pretty highly, then he entered the race and took a fairly quick nosedive (Perry-esque but without Perry’s ludicrous incompetence). Thompson simply seemed to be uninterested in doing the work.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Marley23

Math? What are you, some kind of snob who went to college?

Word problems start at about third grade. Is that over the limit imposed on mods?

[Voyager]

@handsomeharry

Sure, but that still leaves Romney and, like him or not, he’s not the inert clown that McCain was. Not to mention, McCain was 150 years old. A good spin can put it into the ground. Many of the candidates being fringe used to mean something, but, I think that anything is possible with a fringe group and elections nowadays. See Jesse Ventura. Also, Cain may/may not be a joke, but I don’t think that he should be considered anything other than an outlier, so I wouldn’t put him in the crowd. Whole point being, with John McCain in the 2008 elections, it’ll be another 100 years before the Republicans reach that low into the barrel again.

Why the hate for McCain? Was he too far to the left or too far to the right? He would have lost anyway, but his sin was selling out to the right by selecting Palin. If he had been the candidate he was in 2000 he would have done a lot better.
I don’t think you’re going to see any scandals with Romney, besides him driving to Canada with his dog strapped to the roof of his car, of course. But he’d be a much more reasonable, if weak candidate if he wasn’t desperately trying to sound as nutty as the rest of them. And failing. McCain got some heat because his wife was rich, but Romney has no idea of what it is like to not be rich, and it shows. And he doesn’t lie very well. The rest of them wouldn’t have lasted past South Carolina in a normal election year. There have always been candidates who are idiots and who think they are a lot better than they are - but this is the first year many of them have taken the lead.
The real question is, when will the Republican electorate become sane?

[BigAppleBucky]

@Marley23

The candidates in 2008 were not great, although McCain could’ve been a formidable general election candidate if he’d connected with the party base better and been nominated earlier. But yes, this group is worse. In another year Gingrich wouldn’t have gotten a look - he’s way past his sell-by date and left Congress in disgrace a decade ago, and in a cycle with a credible religious conservative nobody would have given serious consideration to Santorum either. Nevermind that for a brief period, people were seriously talking about nominating Herman Cain.

McCain lost me when he named Palin. Horrible choice.

Still a war hero with a great personal story, but I’m glad he didn’t win.

If Gingrich is past his sell by date, then Christie is still green on the tree. If he hasn’t died of a heart attack and has had some success in New Jersey, he might be a decent nominee in 2016.

[Measure_for_Measure]

@handsomeharry

I think the Republicans were just as bad in 80, and in 88. Can’t remember a lot, but, Bush the father came out pretty virulently against Reagan, and everybody was pretty nasty. Again, same in 88.

No. The 1980 Republican primary had men of stature and experience such as Congressman John Anderson, Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker, George Bush and Bob Dole. Before the primaries started Lowell Weiker ran as well.

In 1988 we had George Bush, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole and former Governor Pete du Pont of Delaware. Also, I would put Al Haig in the serious category-- and the fact that he was laughed off stage only shows that they had higher standards back then. Admittedly we also had Jack Kemp and teleevangelist Pat Robertson. So while the crazy was in emergence, it did not dominate the proceedings.