I don't think we've seen the person who will be the rethug nominee yet.

[cherokeeprogressive]

Oh, we may have seen him/her, but not in the context of competing for the nomination.

I think the rethugs are waiting until those who are actively seeking the nomination at the moment have exhausted their propensity for looking stupid. Then, the person they REALLY want to be nominated will hit the stage looking that much better than all the rest.

The rethugs don't have a "star" yet. None of the current crop are capable of rising to that level.

[secondwind]

1. You mean Granny Palin will jump into the race next week?

[cherokeeprogressive]

3. Of course not. Palin has absolutely no chance of being nominated, or even being on the ticket.

I'll say this though: at her age she has something like 6 election cycles before she's considered too old.

As much as we may hate her, she isn't going away any time soon.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Hate is not the right word

but hey if they do it, why not us?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. You may well be right...

Time will reveal it...

:hi:

[murielm99]

5. I alternate between agreeing with you and thinking that

it will be Mittens.

[Chipper Chat]

6. It's going to be.............

JEB

[Hardrada]

7. They are getting something ready in a laboratory.

[BeHereNow]

8. A clone of Cheney perhaps?

LOL!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
BHN

[treestar]

25. LOL!

No doubt! :rofl:

[BeHereNow]

9. You may be right-

I mean, look at the current crop!
It's ludicrous to even imagine any of them as POTUS!
God or Dog help us if it's the Bonehead or his friend from KY.
Time to leave the country if they stand a chance.
BHN

[liberal N proud]

10. It is very possible that they pulls someone out late in the game to avoid the scrutiny

That did not work so well with Palin as VP though.

[treestar]

26. Yep. It's still tempting to believe they have some sneaky

trick like that in planning, though. Just like with Palin, who did give them a poll boost for a bit.

[reformist2]

11. Oh no. Not Chris Christie? :/

[NNN0LHI]

12. Nope. What you see is what you get

It appears that Romney will be the GOP nominee.

Perry was brought in to get Bachmann out of the race and he may not be smart enough to even do that.

Don

[HereSince1628]

13. WYSIWYG is certainly the parsimonious

position. I'm not sure about your read of Perry.

Based on his participation in their indoctrination programs, Perry appears to be a Koch Industries republican. After their trick-or-treat like romp collecting goodies via state houses across the country, I believe the Koch's have developed an appetite to have one of their puppets in the White House.

[NNN0LHI]

16. You don't think Romney is a Koch Industries republican?

[HereSince1628]

20. Romney has indeed attended AFP forums

and while there he actually made his lynching statement that Obama should be hung on high oil prices. So I am not going to say that Romney does not pander to the Koch's and their peers. They do seem to have an attraction to governors who are capable prevaricators that can follow the pro-corporate AFP script.

In short, what I think is that the Koch bros want to have many entries in the race.

WYSIWYG remains the most parsimonious way of looking at the current republican nomination process (which isn't to say that we all don't suspect a scheming clique of puppeteers are working behind the scenes).

I am open to the idea that Perry was drawn into the race by Bachmann's early success. But I'm not sure that the motivation for Perry's entry was to knock her out. I think it was just obvious that with Bachmann having demonstrated that the threshold for entry was so low, he could simply step over her and a handful of the other candidates.

While I don't think it's impossible to argue Perry's role is as a spoiler sent in to thin the field for Romney I don't think it's the simplest explanation. IMO a more parsimonious position is that he is really in it to win it. Which is a plenty scary statement about the location of the mode of the sentiments within the republican party and their perception of the appetites of American voters.

[cali]

19. I think you're right. I hope you're wrong.

I'd much rather see Perry as the nominee.

[Riley18]

14. Jeb wants it and may not want to wait until 2016.

[MoonRiver]

15. Of course he wants it.

But no one named Bush is going to get the presidency or even nomination any time soon. Personally, I think 2016 will be too soon.

[TBF]

18. I think so too. nt

[flamingdem]

22. +1 might be Jeb

[cali]

17. nonsense. that's simply not how the process works.

[bobbieinok]

21. Newt?? n/t

[Demonaut]

23. Huntsman....he'll lose though

[rhett o rick]

24. There are powers involved higher than the Repug Party. It's totally up to our Overlords.

In 2008 they manipulated the Repug Party into running a couple of losers. McCain/Palin was a losing ticket from the get-go. Our overlords knew the masses were restless and decided to give them a taste of ineffectual Democratic rule. They then set the Repug Party to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. The masses are questioning their decision to put a Democrat in the presidency.

IMHO, our Overlords want to run Jeb but are deciding if he can win in 2012 against incumbent Obama. If they think Jeb might lose, they will save him until 2016 and give the masses 4 more years of obstructed Democratic control. In this case, the Repug Party will go with a nitwit ticket like in 2008. Perry/Bachmann would be a loser for sure.