Wild, wacky and white
Two bow out after Iowa, but GOP race still up in air
Comments (...)It has been and continues to be a wild, wacky race for the Republican presidential nomination, but it will produce a familiar product — a white, male candidate.
Part of the fallout from Tuesday’s Iowa Caucus — from which Michele Bachmann received a mere 5 percent of the vote — was her announcement Wednesday that she would suspend her campaign. That leaves the field without an actively running female member. Herman Cain, the one non-Caucasian Republican who made a serious push to be president, suspended his campaign a month and a day before Bachmann.
As has been true for no less than seven candidates, Bachmann and Cain were each GOP flavors of the week at one point in time. Now they’re campaigns are, for all intents and purposes, history. Rick Perry is hanging on by a very thin thread after garnering 10.3 percent of the Iowa vote. Newt Gingrich, who only yesterday, it seems, was dominating the polls, finished fourth in Iowa ... and was closer in the vote to Perry than to third-place finisher Ron Paul.
One thing that amazes me is that someone as radical as Paul has had more staying power in this race than a former Speaker of the House (Gingrich) and two candidates that would at least give the GOP a chance at more minority votes (Bachmann and Cain).
A former Libertarian Party presidential candidate, Paul wants the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and from NATO, would like to abolish many federal agencies (including the federal reserve) and is a staunch supporter of the constitution. He’d rather tax and spend less than almost anyone in the GOP, and of course that’s saying something.
Yet there was Paul — who’s never really been the “it” candidate for the GOP but has always kinda, sorta been a viable candidate in the race — garnering 21.4 percent of the vote at Tuesday’s Caucus. He may not be female or black, but Paul would be something very much out of the ordinary nonetheless — and that’s why he can’t be written off. He is not Mitt Romney, and that’s going to continue to endear him to a significant part of the GOP voting pool.
Romney did win Iowa ... but it was hardly the decisive, statement-making victory some had envisioned with Gingrich, Bachmann and Perry all struggling. Romney received 24.6 percent of the vote, edging Rick Santorum by eight votes (30,015 to 30,007). Paul was less than 4,000 votes off of Romney’s pace.
Santorum is the one candidate I can’t figure out. Throughout much of the campaign, he’s been a non-factor. He was the “who is this guy, and why are they even letting him speak?” participant to much of the viewing public in early debates.
Initially my thought is to write Santorum off as the latest flavor of the week in a GOP race that, to date, has been filled with them. But the more I think about it, the more I think that Santorum may have staying power, and it’s not necessarily because of anything being particularly appealing about him or his stances.
Romney, to me, is just too unpopular with too large a faction of the Republican party for another candidate or two not to remain viable for the foreseeable future. I don’t see Paul going away, but his ideas are so far out there that he’ll turn many off Republicans — even those seeking a Romney alternative. Someone more mainstream has to stay in the race. Bachmann is finished, and Perry looks cooked, so unless Gingrich rebounds, I think Santorum will stay a serious contender almost by default.
Then again, it’s tough to predict anything in a race as steeped in wild wackiness as this one. Isn’t Jon Huntsman — he of the 0.6 percent of the Iowa vote — due his turn in the spotlight? Where is Sarah Palin these days? Can Donald Trump change his mind on leaving the party?
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Who cares? Just a bunch of TEA party Republicans out to ruin the middle class. |
