reply to post by DaRAGE
What's so great about him?
::crickets::crickets::
The only reason people are voting for him is because the guys he's up against are even worse candidates. The truth is, though, the numbers of people
voting are pretty far down below the norm. None of these candidates are exciting large portions of the Republican base, so you can't really say
it's such a big, popular turn-out for him. It's just of those who vote no matter what, he's getting the most (in some states) because there
aren't any better.
I'm a Democrat, anyway, so I'm not voting for any Republicans, but reading the race as a political junkie as dispassionately as I can, that's how
I'm seeing it. There have been in the past Republican candidates who do excite passions of the base, who do bring out the big crowds, but that's
not happening so much this year.
My rundown of the faults of the different candidates, why none of them are eliciting much interest:
Romney -- majorly turns off the working class parts of the Republican electorate since he's got the slimy business-man countenance thing, and also
turns off the more right wing elements because of his very moderate record as a Governor in Massachusetts. He also turns off many Christian
Conservatives simply because he's a Mormon. Many Christian Conservatives would be far more comfortable with a Jewish candidate than a Mormon. His
support comes from the business interests in the party and from within the party. If it were up to most of the power players in the Republican party
I think they'd just anoint him their candidate and move on.
Gingrich -- Has no support within the party, everyone who ever worked with him when he was in Washington can't stand him now and won't back him.
He's also got a lot of shady business practices in his past, and the way he treated not one but TWO of his ex-wives, cheating on them and then
divorcing them (one while she was very ill) doesn't go over well. Last, he ultimately lost to Clinton in a BIG way during his showdown against him
back when he was Speaker of the House. Oh, and then there's those pesky ethics violations and being publicly censured by his House colleagues when
he was in Congress.
Santorum -- he lost his last Senate bid so he has the sink of "damaged goods" about him. Had he not lost and still been in the Senate, I think
he'd be a much more viable candidate now, but he's just not. Personally, he scares me, I get a really negative vibe from him, like a creepy vibe,
but then I am a Democrat. I don't know if many Republicans get that same vibe or not, but something about him is very off putting to anyone who
isn't Conservative, that much I know from talking to many other Liberal friends I know. It's an opinion they all share about him specifically.
You'll have to ask a Conservative if they feel the same way.
Paul -- he's pretty fringe for a lot in the party and a lot of the policies he's about aren't popular with the party power players, so he's got a
major up-hill battle there. Like Gingrich, he's not well liked within the party, though it seems to be much more about ideology and policies in his
case than personal dislike as in Gingrich's case, near as I can tell.
