Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been trying not to pay close attention to the 2012 race for the presidency until… well… 2012. But from time to time he finds himself paying half-attention to the Republicans who hope to replace President Obama in the Oval Office.
Your Maximum Leader chanced on the Washington Post website and saw a big headline: “Defining Two Wings of the Republican Party.” The small subtitle indicated that the piece was going to be contrasting the differences between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. As it turns out, the article didn’t contain anything significant your Maximum Leader didn’t already know about the two men. (There were a few items about Perry’s family and youth that were new and vaguely noteworthy, but not much else.) Other than pointing out the oh-so-obvious Romney is an “establishment” guy and Perry is an “outsider” guy the article isn’t good for much.
So why bring it up here?
Well… As it stands now, one of those two men is poised to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. And if the election were held soon (say this November rather than next - which it is not of course) there is a good chance that either of those men would become the next President of the United States.
Your Maximum Leader isn’t carrying the banner of Romney or Perry. If he had to choose now (which thankfully he doesn’t), he would tend towards Romney. It is Romney’s turn afterall…
Of course, the election is a long way away yet. And there are many miles to go before we sleep. (So to speak.) No telling what will happen between now and then.
Recognizing we are a long way off, your Maximum Leader can say with confidence than almost any Republican will be an improvement over President Obama. Your Maximum Leader didn’t have high expectations when Mr. Obama became President. Your Maximum Leader believed that Obama was a “European Social Democrat” type of guy. This is to say a left-center politician with a proclivity to like big activist government. While he’ll stand by that characterization still, what your Maximum Leader didn’t expect was that President Obama would be so inept a politician. The man had to jump through so many hoops to become President one would think he’d be a little more savvy. Sadly for our nation, he’s turned out to be a left-center politician who likes big activist government and a professorially-minded executive. Which is to say he is no executive at all. Your Maximum Leader firmly believes that the President would be an ineffective department chairman at a mid-level university. So he is an particularly ineffective President. At this stage your Maximum Leader will give more credit for passing “Obamacare” to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi than to the President.
The most surprising failing of the President has been his oratory. You know something… Your Maximum Leader didn’t think that the President would lose his gift for empty (yet soaring) oratory once in office. Your Maximum Leader sort of suspected that the President would have lots of soaring oratory with little to show for it once he was inaugurated. But in fact the President has had little soaring oratory with even less to show for it.
Your Maximum Leader discounts all the “Obama has upset his base” talk. The liberal base of the Democratic party has no where else to go. They could stay home, but they will not. The President has his base… The question is does he have any more than the base supporting him. Right now he does not. And all in all that is a good thing for all of us. It will spur the eventual Republican candidate to work harder, and it will make the President work harder to avoid the appellation of a failed one-termer. Neither of those items can hurt the rest of us.
Carry on.
