Ezra Klein: The Cyclops Will Complain

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April 08, 2007

The Cyclops Will Complain

After fundraising week, it's interesting to see whom the Hotline picks as the leader of the race for the GOP nomination. If you're trying to come up with a top-tier candidate whom the base trusts, well... that's who you're looking at. (He's also likely to beat Edwards in the general election.)

April 8, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

After eight years of Bush's botching maybe they'll decide to sit this one out.

Posted by: AJ | Apr 8, 2007 6:48:12 PM

I've been thinking lately that Edwards might have a shot at making Texas competitive, especially if he picks Richardson as a running mate, and the Republicans don't run a Southerner and go with Romney. Even if we can't win it, it would be sweet to force them to have to defend their biggest electoral prize.

Posted by: Greg | Apr 8, 2007 7:02:22 PM

As long as it's not Giuliani, who has the real potential to be even worse than Bush. Maybe Gingrich too, I guess, but he'd probably be too distracted by manned missions to Saturn to get his real fascist freak on.

Posted by: Michael | Apr 8, 2007 7:17:42 PM

So Hotline has 'no one' as the leader. Sounds good to me, except maybe these 'winners':

Jeb! Jeb! Jeb!
Condi! Condi! Condi!
Cheney! Cheney! Cheney!

How about Reagan Exhumed and Nancy (playing the role of Woodrow Wilson's wife, running the government)?

All of them (maybe except Red October Rear Admiral Painter-Fred Dalton Law and Order Arthur Branch Thompson) are very scary - for different reasons. Guliani most of all (Mr. Totalitarian).

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Apr 8, 2007 7:18:07 PM

"I've been thinking lately that Edwards might have a shot at making Texas competitive"

So crooked and corrupt and crazy that it can be taken for granted, like Dems can take California for granted, despite some diversity in demographics. If nothing else, Edward's labor positions would kill him in Texas.
The rim states, even OK, are what could be in play. We need about a generation, and much local organizing.

Bsh & Rove & DeLay have done some heavy work in Texas, like defunding education. Maybe the last state to go purple.

Now I think we can see why it really wasn't name recognition that got the Shrub the nomination. Republicans need the "11th commandment" They dissolve into irreconcilable factions without the authoritarian leader. As they did during the Civil War, since Jefferson Davis wasn't strong enough, and Lee didn't play politics.

Posted by: bob mcmanus | Apr 8, 2007 7:58:53 PM

I'm really curious about what a Romney-Edwards map would look like. Edwards beats Romney 55-29 in the latest Rasmussen poll, but I don't imagine the final margin would be quite that big.

Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Apr 8, 2007 8:02:03 PM

I smell an opening for George Allen. And I do mean smell.

Posted by: calling all toasters | Apr 8, 2007 8:03:11 PM

Republicans need the "11th commandment" They dissolve into irreconcilable factions without the authoritarian leader. As they did during the Civil War, since Jefferson Davis wasn't strong enough, and Lee didn't play politics.

I take you consider the GOP to be the "Dixiecrat" party now?

Posted by: W.B. Reeves | Apr 8, 2007 11:09:46 PM

This should give a good opening for HuckaBack. One of them (preferably Huckabee in my view) should cut a deal with Tom Tancredo for VP and use seize this opportunity.

On Romney-Edwards. I suspect Romney could potentially be very competitive once he gets the nomination. I see him as a Bill Clinton-figure of the right (though to some extent so was Bush policy-wise in 2000) if he can only get his act together.

That said, this just reminds of the talk in 1991 (or 2003) of second-tier candidates who would never catch on. It's nice and all to see it happen to the GOP for a change, but I don't for a second dismiss neither Giuliani, McCain nor Romney in a general election (in fact, I would even wager Brownback and Huckabee might have surprising broad appeal should they get the nomination.)

Posted by: Hustveit | Apr 9, 2007 7:44:54 AM

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