# Is there currently any sane, intellectual leadership in the Republican party? If so, who? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768 "2010-03-25T17:23:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/141 "2010-03-29T11:31:02Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Got the years rather mixed up. Ok. In that case you should be aware that he managed to give George H. W. Bush a surprisingly stiff challenge in 1992 even though Bush was the incumbent - not that Buchanan ever got close to winning. > [@](#): > > That’s probably due to JD Hayworth I’m sure it is, but so what? The question is whether or not he’s providing any kind of sane intellectual leadership at this point, and while he’s not the worst of it, I’d say the answer is no. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/142 "2010-03-29T12:45:52Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > George HW Bush picked Dan Quayle who is as intellectual as Palin. Quayle was at least a Senator and compared to Palin, he’s Churchill. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/143 "2010-03-29T13:43:23Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Quayle was at least a Senator And served a full term, too. In any case **Curtis LeMay** was apparently defending her as a VP pick by saying she’s as intellectual as a previous VP who was widely perceived as being an unqualified idiot, and no worse than someone who might have been a Communist. Speaks volumes, really. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/144 "2010-03-29T14:26:53Z")
> [@Milossarian](#): > > At a time when the left was endlessly drumming the meme that Republicans have no ideas (much like their current, easy-to-see-through, “OMG! It’s a hate crime epidemic!” meme), Ryan presented [common-sense ideas on health care](http://www.house.gov/ryan/issuepapers/healthcareissuepaper.html)that are much more in line with the approach a majority of Americans wanted taken. From your link [QUOTE=Rep. Paul Ryan] My bill, the Patients’ Choice Act, would… \ …restore fairness in the tax code and give every American, regardless of employment status, the ability to purchase health insurance by: \ Allowing preventative services to be covered by High Deductible Health Plans [/QUOTE] High Deductible Health Plans are already allowed to cover preventive medical care, and generally do so outside the deductible structure. One wonders what else Ryan doesn’t understand about the health insurance system he’s trying to reform. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/145 "2010-03-29T15:41:03Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Right now, these are the people that have to be considered the most likely candidates: > > \ > > **Bobby Jindal** > He’s been touted as the best of the new generation of Republicans, but he did real damage to his cause with that lackluster speech he gave a couple of years ago, which made him look either like a kid or a deer in the headlights. Still, he’s very smart, fairly young, and could still be a player. Jindal is a technocrat - coldly competent - and his style will do nothing to energize the Republican base. As you note, he’s also not much of a speaker. He’s a paper tiger, really - a man who can run a country, but not one who can win an election. I’m in two minds; on the one hand, he’s effective, but on the other, he’s batshit insane. > [@](#): > > **Jeb Bush** > The smart Bush. The one his entire family thought would be president one day. The conventional wisdom is that his career aspirations were seriously damaged by ‘Bush fatigue’, and that the last thing the country wants is another Bush. But time has a way of changing things, and he shouldn’t be counted out. Bush is astonishingly unlike his brother, and though he’s a bit of a panderer (see the Terry Schiavo nonsense) he also knows where the line is drawn (see the Schiavo nonsense). He also speaks excellent Spanish - he often gave gubernatorial addresses in both English and Spanish - and by the time 2012 rolls around, I think the nation will have cooled off on his brother enough to make him a plausible candidate. > [@](#): > > But my bet is on none of the above. I think you’ll see someone come out of the woodwork this time - perhaps some heavy hitter from the business sector like Fred Smith, Jack Welch, TJ Rogers, or perhaps one of the new breed of internet entrepreneurs with a billion dollars in cash to spend. > > There are no doubt a number of people in the House and Senate who will be thinking about a run - maybe someone like Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan, or an up-and-coming hotshot like Marco Rubio (who’s still too young - but watch out for 2016 if Obama is elected again). Jack Welch is 75 years old - that is, even older than John McCain. Rogers has never held elected office at any level. Smith might be a plausible choice but he has minimal name recognition, and can you really see “the FedEx guy” as President? Cantor is a joke. The qualities that make for a good legislative whip do not translate well to the Presidency; Cantor would be horribly divisive. Rubio is far too conservative socially, especially assuming your claims about the real base of the GOP are true. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/146 "2010-03-29T16:58:04Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Wasn’t Hillary Clinton saying pretty much exactly the same thing 'round about 2006 or so? Not so unequivocally. She was saying stuff like “I have no plans to run,” which in Politico-ese means, “I have plans to run.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/147 "2010-03-29T17:01:45Z")
Looks like we can now move Eric Cantor from the list of lying, headline seeking political hacks to the list of [paranoid but with reason](http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/man-charged-with-threatening-eric-cantor.php)political hacks. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/148 "2010-03-29T17:07:16Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Not so unequivocally. She was saying stuff like “I have no plans to run,” which in Politico-ese means, “I have plans to run.” Some of us fell for it, though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/149 "2010-03-29T17:08:53Z")
Jeb is a good candidate for a fairly sane and intelligent leader who already has a reasonable degree of trust from the teabaggers, but doesn’t scare the shit out of centrists right out of the gate. I think people also are generally aware that he’s nothing like W in terms of intellect, so i don’t think they’d see him as a Shrub 2.0. I think he’d be a pretty plausible candidate – more or less a return to non-batshit conservatism, but no one would call him a leftist. He’s been really quiet, though. If he’s been making any effort to scale back the hysteria, I haven’t seen it. I’m also not aware of him expressing any interest in running, but I think he’d be a pretty strong challeneger both for the GOP nomination and in the General Election if he did run (Hey, you know Florida would be in the bag). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/150 "2010-03-29T17:20:44Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Looks like we can now move Eric Cantor from the list of lying, headline seeking political hacks to the list of [paranoid but with reason](http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/man-charged-with-threatening-eric-cantor.php)political hacks. Reading the investigator’s affidavit it looks like the suspect could just as easily be a far-right whackjob as a far-left one. Cantor is Jewish, remember. > [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Jeb is a good candidate for a fairly sane and intelligent leader who already has a reasonable degree of trust from the teabaggers, but doesn’t scare the shit out of centrists right out of the gate. > > \ > > I’m also not aware of him expressing any interest in running, but I think he’d be a pretty strong challeneger both for the GOP nomination and in the General Election if he did run (Hey, you know Florida would be in the bag). Not so fast. We did go for Obama last time around, you know. If there’s a knock on Bush, it’s that he shares his brother’s foreign policy outlook; he’s a card carrying New American Century type, and he’s likely to be just as gung ho about military adventurism as W. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/151 "2010-03-29T17:25:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Reading the investigator’s affidavit it looks like the suspect could just as easily be a far-right whackjob as a far-left one. Cantor is Jewish, remember. Or just a spittle-flecked lunatic. In any case, I don’t expect Nancy Pelosi to accuse Cantor of politicizing the threat. So there’s one good thing you can say about her, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/152 "2010-03-29T17:29:58Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Looks like we can now move Eric Cantor from the list of lying, headline seeking political hacks to the list of [paranoid but with reason](http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/man-charged-with-threatening-eric-cantor.php)political hacks. Interesting. Sounds like it was some antisemitic crank. He also called himself “a son of Enoch,” whatever he thinks that means. It could be a reference to a host of things, from Talmudic, Islamic, Apocryphal or even LDS traditions, or it could be something else entirely. Nutcase. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/153 "2010-03-29T18:51:17Z")
Glen Beck and Sarah Palin are the intellectual leadership of the Republican Party. Rush Limbaugh is the head of the non-intellectual wing. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/154 "2010-03-29T20:03:54Z")
If I wasn’t bushed out, I might vote for Jeb as well. Thing is, we’ve _had_ two. This ain’t a monarchy. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/155 "2010-03-29T20:07:39Z")
When he left the FL governorship, Jeb told a Spanish-language reporter “No tengo futuro.” He was right. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/156 "2010-03-31T07:00:04Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Please cite when Democrats were quite this obstructionist for the sake of being obstructionist. Confirming Bork. Ummmm . . . some guy for UN ambassador. OK, you got me there. I think this would be a brilliant strategy for the Reps in September/October but to be the party of no for 11 months is not going to win in November. With the movement to Federalism happening in the states right now over UHC, the Reps should start pandering for a Constitutional amendment to restrict the ICC and rewriting the 14th Amendment to outlaw anchor babies. It’s never going to pass but at least it’ll put the Dems on the defense rather than the trench warfare mentality currently on the right side of the aisle. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/157 "2010-03-31T13:26:09Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Ummmm . . . some guy for UN ambassador. You’re thinking of John Bolton, although some Republicans were opposed to him, too. His nomination was filibustered in April 2005 and he was appointed in August 2005. He gave up at the end of 2006 after it appeared the Senate was never going to confirm him. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/158 "2010-03-31T13:43:46Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > He gave up at the end of 2006 after it appeared the Senate was never going to confirm him. However, he’s still with us in spirit, bless his tiny little heart: [Bolton Suggests Nuclear Treaty Threatens American Sovereignty](http://washingtonindependent.com/80937/bolton-says-nuclear-treaty-threatens-american-sovereignty) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/159 "2010-03-31T14:03:17Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Confirming Bork. > > Ummmm . . . some guy for UN ambassador. Neither was “for the sake of obstructionism”, but for keeping dangerous whackjobs out of positions where they could cause actual damage. Both Bork and Bolton have shown, in their public statements since, those decisions to have been wise. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768/160 "2010-03-31T18:58:47Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > **Sarah Palin** > I suspect her role for the next election will be more as kingmaker - using her popularity and PAC money to help people get elected. She’s going to be badly damaged in that regard if Hayworth beats McCain in the primary – maybe she can raise money, but her influence will be revealed as a paper tiger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-currently-any-sane-intellectual-leadership-in-the-republican-party-if-so-who/533768.md?page=9)