Jindal’s not a pandering candidate. The Indian-American community is relatively tiny, votes overwhelmingly for Democrats, and won’t vote for Jindal because he’s Catholic (and as such seen as as panderer himself) anyway.
Token, maybe- but he’s also got a track record of high achievement. He just happens to be batshit insane.
This idea scares the crap out of me. Perry is crooked as a country road, when he can be bothered to do any damn thing at all. He is, however, excellent at padding his friends’ bank accounts. If he doesn’t think much of you, you are screwed.
I don’t see Perry being a viable candidate. I don’t think the country is ready to elect another Texas governor. This guy, by the way, has been governor since Bush resigned.
Has the kid outta nowhere appeared yet?
It’ll take a fresh face, a political neophyte taking the GOP by storm, to unseat Obama.
I’ve just not seen any sign of such a phenom, and 2008 retreads, failed Speakers, or Gov’s who’ve been semi-candidates for years aren’t going to cut the mustard come 2012. There simply aren’t enough GOPers left to elect a president without seriously energizing the independents.
Are there any states Obama won with Republican governors? Or at least, any who wouldn’t require a constitutional amendment to be eligible?
And I don’t think Kucinich would challenge Obama. True, he does enjoy tilting at windmills, but he’s still smart enough to see when a windmill is on his side.
I guarantee you there will be plenty of — OHHHH, you said RETREADS. Nevermind.
Not necessarily a neophyte, but certainly a smart politician who can talk a fresh game - Mike Pence (IN). (Sorry to keep bringing up Hoosiers.) He has GOP leadership experience and has been talking quite a bit with the tea partiers.
Heh, I see you’re a Texan too. Perry is VERY popular with a certain group of people, and he does tend to reward his friends. Personally, I don’t see why he’s so very popular, as I think that he’s grossly incompetent and not too bright.
I’ve never understood why he is so popular, either. All I can figure is that he’s good looking on TV. There was even a column in the American-Statesman the other day about how Perry looks good in a cowboy hat while Bill White looks dorky. I can see why he is popular with the people he rewards. If I got to dip into the public trough like his cronies can, I might like him better. As it is, he has zero respect for my profession (teacher) and industry (public education), so I get nothing from him. Amazingly, there are even teachers who think he’s great. Boggles the mind.
Is his $10000/month rental mansion getting much play up in the Metroplex. It’s a bit of an issue down here, but can’t get any traction for some reason.
Gingrich has too much undisclosed baggage drifting around to win anything, especially meaning sex scandals.
At least he never had anyone carry his baggage. That ought to play a bit better with the hyper-traditional moral crowd.
Indeed. Never get caught with a dead girl or a live baggage-handler.
He has substantially the same accent & almost precisely the same default vocal pitch as W Bush. Anyone outside the Southwest may find that too eerie.
I don’t really hear it.
Charles Krauthammer had a column with the same theme: we can blame environmentalists for the Gulf spill, because they won’t let the poor ol’ oil companies drill anywhere else.
So Palin isn’t originally wacko; she borrows wacko.
Why is it that you only need to change the name in the second sentence and you describe the last governor of Texas as well?
I thought she was the something shiny.
That’s an interesting question. [Note to self: bug Nate Silver to post here.] Circa 2008, I think the answers are California, Florida, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Nevada, Connecticut, and Minnesota. To get up to date, you’d have to take out Florida and add Virginia and New Jersey.
Like you said, the governor of California is… well, I’ll translate it into his language:
[puts on shades and leather jacket, pulls out gun]
You ah INELAJABUL!
The governor of Minnesota is Tim Pawlenty, who was McCain’s second choice for VP. Most of the others are newbs or probably have very limited appeal. I think we can all agree that Crist, who is leaving office anyway, is not going to be the guy.
For whatever it’s worth I think Kucinich’s presidential days are over. He didn’t run in 2008 because someone ran a semi-challenging campaign against him that year saying he was not representing his district adequately because he was spending all his time mounting futile campaigns for president.
Yeah, sure, that will happen. Finishing his book, setting up the new deal with the NY Times, and oh yeah, keeping up posting on his own blog. I am positive he will have lots of spare time to hang around over here. 
Hey, when I bug people I really bug people.
Perry said on TV earlier this evening that he was not going to run for president nor would he accept the nomination.
Yeah, right. Maybe if he ran for president, people would poke around Texas more and expose his misdeeds as governor. Better to run for governor again and keep lining his and his friend’s pockets for as long as possible.