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My A-team for 2012 candidates

By: paint_it_red (Diary)  |  November 11th, 2010 at 08:29 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The first primaries are some 14 months away, and over the next six months, many heavyweights, dark horses, and others will announce they are running for President of the United States. I am at this stage by no means committed to favoring any particular candidate, but I think the GOP frontrunners as posited by the media are way off base.

It’s not going to be Palin, Romney, Fred Thompson, or Huckabee.

It’s definitely not going to be Gingrich, Giuliani, Pataki, Santorum, Bloomberg, Dobbs, Tommy Thompson, or Paul.

Most, and perhaps all, of those dozen mentioned may run for POTUS. But for various reasons, I don’t see them as viable candidates for that particular office. All great conservatives (except Bloomberg), but not our strongest POTUS material, at least at this time.

My criteria are having a positive record to run on, strong conservative social and fiscal values, a credible figure on economic growth and job creation, gravitas persona, ability to bring in all major elements of the GOP coalition, and no major drawbacks. So without further ado, here is my list of potentials:

1. Governor Bob McDonnell, VA
2. Governor Mitch Daniels, IN
3. Ambassador to China, and ex-Governor John Huntsman, UT
4. ex-Governor Tim Pawlenty, MN
5. Governor Bobby Jindal, LA
6. Rep. Paul Ryan, WI

And for the VP ticket mate I would add:

1. Senator Marco Rubio, FL
2. Governor Chris Christie, NJ (but for his lack of a strong stance against abortion and his declaration he will not run for President, I would put him on the top of the list)
3. Rep. Mike Pence, IN
4. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, MN
5. Senator Rob Portman, OH
Or One of the 6 above listed for POTUS

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  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    on the ticket talk. My God, the man is too green.

    • pilgrim

      Two former Governors with successful records. Johanns has additional Washington experience as Sec’y of Agriculture and US Senator.

    • JSobieski

      nt

      • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
      • pilgrim

        Steele has some executive experience as a former Lt. Governor of Maryland. Biden has no executive experience whatsoever.

        • JSobieski

          But you are right—Steele is someone that you would trust to actually run something, while Biden is a dolt. However, in media positions, they both have foot in mouth disease.

  • roguebeaver

    Is the ticket to victory. While Jindal is my favorite he has to serve out 2 full terms in LA first. (Then run in 2016) Both check all the boxes, Jindal is our healthcare expert- he has his own plan and turned around Medicare in LA 15 years ago. Jindal brings some fire and charisma to the dish soap-dull Pawlenty.

    McDonnell lacks experience, Daniels, though a good candidate, cannot get any traction due to VAT and social truce, Huntsman is a serving Amb. and now is tied to the Admin. Ryan needs to be elected to Kohl’s seat first, and he has zero personality.

    Rubio: too inexperienced. MSM will hit him as an ID politics pick like they would have Jindal in ’08. Unfair but I want to see his accomplishments first rather than going gaga over a flavor of the month.

    Christie: inexperienced. He’s squishy on the 2nd and federal funding of healthcare.

    Pence: is running for governor. There’s a reason no congressman has been on the ticket since ’96, or ’64.

    Bachmann: absolutely not. She has given too many rhetorical hostages to fortune over the years, and is only a congresswoman.

    Portman: for Treasury.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • roguebeaver

    MGV: Blackwell’s a nonentity who lost 2-1 in 2006 and who no one’s ever heard of. As for Steele, the man has to go as head of the RNC. He’s our version of Joe Biden with all the idiotic gaffes on Afghanistan, “slum love” to Jindal, and the spat with Rush. There’s a reason Barbour, Rove and Gillespie had to step in: the RNC had totally dropped the ball on Steele’s watch. His only elected post was a single term as Ehrlich’s LG in MD. Agreed on Rubio

  • Doc Holliday

    but I want to hear and see more from Pawlenty. Of course we have time to hear from them all.

    McDonnell/Rubio would not be bad, but I am not sure about pulling Rubio out of the Senate so soon after such a great win.

  • traversecityconservative

    Herman Cain will be the nominee. Palin will be a front runner for a while but will pull out to endorse Cain. She truly means it that she doesn’t want to be president if there is a more suitable candidate (i.e. a Conservative who won’t screw us). Mark my words. November 11, 2010 – 10:29 p.m. EST.

  • harpsichord

    But I’m LISTENING to the Dems, and they are still most afraid of Palin. I trust their fear.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    Trust me, you’ll get that a lot.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    move to GA from SC, but…and I know this is easy and I certainly admire your boldness..he will not be the nominee, but

    Has he suggested he might run? Has he been to an Iowa Godfather’s Pizza recently?

  • roguebeaver

    To the contrary, they’re praying that Palin is the nominee because they know that it guarantees Obama a repeat of 2008. She has every right to run, but given that the candidate she created has been repudiated on her home turf by her archnemesis, a Palin run is highly unlikely. Besides, she’s in the ideal spot right now.

  • harpsichord

    Did you read the comment I replied to?

    Dems? obsession with Palin is as palpable as ever. Their “prayers” for her to run are protestistic too much methinks.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    given the King Lear-like exposure and poor performance of Obama, I doubt Obama could defeat any Repub without a live girl/dead boy (or vice versa) problem.. Obama is toast, period.

  • http://conservativestateproject.blogspot.com/ SE-779

    nt

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    this social-con, neo-con, religious right gamecock has heard enough from Tim to be comfortable with him.

    Now, much of your months-ago diatribe against gamecock football was true and proved more so by our performances after the Alabama win, BUT, for the first time, we can win the east with one win in The Swamp tomorrow.

    smile

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    He is the guy who can get people motivated.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    where he is. I think he is too liberal on some non-fiscal issues to be a good President. more later if he runs

  • http://electionsanalysis.blog.com paint_it_red

    I agree Christy is currently too liberal on fiscal issues, but I’m not giving up on him yet. He defunded PP in his state, which gives him major props. If he can come out against Roe v. Wade, commit to appointing strict constructionist justices who’d overturn Roe, and make it clear he could be trusted to follow through, he’d be more than acceptable to social conservatives, by and large.

    As for Rubio, he’s pretty green, and probably not ripe yet for 2012, but he should be some part of the equation, at the minimum a major speaking spot at the convention. We have got to, got to, got to do a much better job of reaching out to Hispanic voters, which starts in my mind by running more Hispanic candidates. A Hispanic on the GOP ticket could throw a lot of states firmly into the GOP camp – FL, AZ, CO, NV, NM, and maybe even CA. These are states that are our base, that we are losing, maybe to the point of even losing TX if we do not get our party’s standing with Hispanics turned around. We simply have to.