A couple of interesting articles this morning I found this morning, one via Twitter and one via my home-page.
Paul gears up for long primary slog
Paul stuck through for the entire process in 2008, although his impact was minimal at the end of the day. However, this time around he's got more money and the recent economic crisis will have bolstered his credibility. I heard some talk radio host last night who said it was possible Paul could win Iowa, which leads into my next article...
Paul strength may help Romney in Iowa
This could be a problem in the long run, since if all the people in the GOP who don't want a Romney nomination split between too many candidates, Romney will win the nomination by default. On the other hand, Romney losing a state to a candidate many Republicans deride as having no chance would be a major black mark on his record.
It'd be really interesting if nobody wins a majority of delegates and we get a brokered Republican convention. According to the Wikipedia, there hasn't been a brokered convention in decades.
Who knows? Maybe that'll be Huntsman's chance to shine, since although he's been trying to run to Romney's left, his actual governing bona fides are downright Reaganite in economics, which the Republican Party as a whole is likely go for, while his more socially-liberal views will make him more acceptable to the American electorate as a whole.
(Those who disagree should check out The Emerging Democratic Majority and Whistling Past Dixie: How The Democrats Can Win Without the South. Really hard-core social conservatism is not going to be a winning issue in the long run, at least on the national level.)
Plus Paul might get some of his more useful views incorporated into the GOP platform. I doubt it'd be anything radical like the gold standard, but stronger opposition to pork, a more restrained foreign policy, etc. might be doable.
487: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997)
9 hours ago
This election is also different in that many more of the races are not 'winner takes all'. Even if Paul doesn't win any states, he could end up with a lot of delegates. Likewise, it will be hard for Gingrich to knock Romney out of the race, especially given the disparity in organization between the two.
ReplyDeleteHuntsman followed a bad strategy for too long, and it's probably too late for him. Given his attacks on Romney, he's probably going for Gingrich's VP or SecState.