Lately, the GOP has been turning to any new face to be the savior to the Republican Party. In the beginning it was Romney, with his savvy business skills and presidential smile. Then came Bachmann with a win in the Ames straw poll. After that came Perry, who was a late addition to the race but who stampeded to the front in record time. These days, Republicans don’t know who to turn to. Some say Herman Cain, especially considering his victory in the Florida straw poll. Others say Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor who still insists that he’s not committed to running. But who really is the GOP savior? For a group of people so dedicated to the cause of making Obama a one term president, Republicans and the tea party alike have done themselves no favors with this flavor of the week nonsense.
Romney still seems like the smart money in this race, but that’s only if Christie keeps his word and steers clear of this mess. The two of them would clash all over the East Coast while Perry could clean up in central and western America, thereby winning the nomination. Christie also doesn’t fit in well with this current group of GOP hopefuls. He believes that “climate change is real” and “human activity plays a role in these changes.” He also nominated a Muslim to be a judge, one who defended 9/11 terror suspects (who were later cleared) and simply said he “tired of dealing with the crazies” and that “this Sharia law business is crap.” Not your typical dialogue for a GOP savior.
Perry meanwhile has suffered a small series of setbacks. After have convinced the American people that he has what it takes to run this country, he was beaten like a dog during a televised debate. Whereas candidates like Romney and Cain presented actual economic plans for their hypothetical presidencies, Perry has simply pointed fingers and claimed that he wasn’t as gifted a smooth talker as Romney. All that he has proposed is “low taxes” with no actual plan (which is still better than Bachmann’s “no taxes” plan, if you could call it that). Perry still has a lot of work to do before he can call himself the savior.
Bachmann has apparently lost momentum just as soon as she gained it. She’s been suspiciously quiet these past few weeks, aside from her comments on taxes (and retraction, saying that people would have to give something back to keep the government running). Perhaps her lack of Constitutional knowledge caught up with her. Maybe it’s all the stupid things she says in general. Or maybe she’s just hunkered down and licking her wounds, watching and waiting to come out swinging for real when the Primaries start.
Romney has a long history as a chronic flip-flopper, most notably with his stance on healthcare. He was also once a supporter of abortion rights and gay rights, two things that most GOP contenders have been getting very hot and bothered about. But he has the strongest rhetoric to keep his head above water.
Regardless, there is no clear Republican savior for this race simply because there is no savior to the Republican Party. They are a tired group of people who have split into factions: the tea party, the Fox News conspiracy theorists and the unclaimed. Each faction has their own idea of what a savior is and what that savior should look like, but none of those versions match up. They’re all too drastically different, and no one is willing to compromise. And if they can’t, they’re not only doomed in this race. They’re doomed forever.
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