Searching For The Great White Hope

The triumph of Herman Cain in the Florida Straw Poll and Mitt Romney's in Michigan has triggered a frantic search among Republican donors to find the perfect Great White Hope. Time is running out and conservatives and the base are in a meltdown that they might have to accept Willard Romney as the nominee.

The latest name being put forth is New Jersey's governor Chris Christie who has a 50/50 split in approval/ disapproval ratings. Over the weekend, mysterious TV ads started showing up in the New York metro area in support of Christie. The New York Post editorialized that he should run and Fox News' own Roger Ailes has been pressing Christie for about a year to run. His aides again said yesterday that he wasn't running but former Governor Tom Kean claimed he was seriously thinking about it. Incredibly wealthy donors are now coming out of the closet to say they will financially back Christie.

Rumors have been circulating galore for the past few days. A speech at the Reagan Library on real American Exceptionalism is supposed to be some indicator of intent. Christie's travel calender to Missouri is another.

The fact of the matter is that it is getting down to the wire for Christie, Palin, Daniels to make up their mind. Just as a warning to these folks is Rick Perry's late entry and the immediate problems he faces before he can get his sea-legs. You have to have an organization, a huge war chest and the stamina to run. Perry's fatigue in the debates is now seen as a result of back surgery this summer. So what happens to an obese candidate with serious asthma problems? Chris Christie is a heart attack waiting to happen.

It's not like Chris Christie is going to last as the darling of conservatives, despite his bullying manner and his support from the Tea Party crowd. Even the Freepers are saying that he's just another Christy Whitman with a sex change.

The real problem for Republicans is the notion that Willard "Mitt" Romney would be the "leader" of the Republican Party let alone the President of the United States. Rick Perry was sort of right that the loser of the Florida Straw Poll was Mitt Romney, who has built an organization in Florida for five years and been campaigning there as long and after a strong debate came in third.

It is almost dizzying to consider the shape shifting techniques of Romney over the last few days. Someone will have to be designated the Romney watcher to mark down his various incarnations, let alone policy positions. So here is a candidate with two graduate degrees from Harvard, sons who graduated from Harvard and someone who accepts large donations from Harvard's faculty attacking President Obama for "laying about the Harvard faculty lounge", wherever that is. It's phony. Also Romney watcher Steve Benen of www.washingtonmonthly.com has noted that Republicans successfully attacked John Kerry in 2004 for speaking French but haven't attacked Romney for being fluent in French from his missionary days. And then we have Romney tweeting all the things he loves like Subway, Quiznos and Southwest airlines as if he is just a regular guy. After his pitch as just a conservative businessman flopped, he had to pull out his wife Ann in a display of family pancake making for breakfast. Even his poaching former Obama Wall Street donors only reinforces for Republicans that he is Obama-lite.

I thought the heckler attacking Obama as the Anti-Christ now opens the gate for attacks on Romney's religion and its peculiar stance on Lucifer.

But you know what? After several debates, no one really cares about the Republican candidates. This should be the most alarming thing for the GOP. Herman Cain gets publicity but has as much chance of getting the nomination as Harold Stassen. The lower string of candidates are now along for the ride over the next several months and will only muddy the waters more. The anti-gay folks on the Religious Right are all up in arms over the Google search for Rick Santorum, who also shouldn't be competing. We are going to go through this for months with a dwindling television audience.

By all objective political standards, President Obama is the underdog going into 2012. But as he is rallying the base with eloquent and strong speeches, there is nothing of substance coming from the Republicans. All polls show the public hates Congress, hates the media, hates businessmen, hates Republicans in Congress and has a lower but not completely irrelevant approval rating for the President. If the American people continue to hate everything by 2012, it's anybody's election.