2012: Our real GOP rival is John Thune, not Jindal or Palin or even Romney

[SuperTrouper]

A true conservative by GOP standards, charismatic and telegenic. If he is re-elected comfortably in South Dakota in 2010 (he toppled our current HHS Secretary Tom Daschle in 2004) then he will be the front-runner for the Republicans unless he wants to wait until 2016 at the end of his second Senate term. Any thoughts?

[Thrill]

1. His voting record will doom him. One of the biggest Bush enablers

[SuperTrouper]

2. he is also a Creationist like Palin, but the GOP has been hijacked by these people

[WI_DEM]

8. that won't hurt in the republican primaries.

[Thrill]

11. It will in the GE. And thats all that matters to us

He also voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Bill and he voted against SCHIP last time and likely to do it again today.

So it just keeps getting better if he is the nominee

[BOSSHOG]

3. I see rough sledding ahead

for both Palin and Jindal as governors attempting to inflict conservative values on today's economic problems. Jindal is as slimy as they get and his star should be tarnished when the time to run for president comes around. palin's just plain stupid but that makes her quite attractive to conservatives, until she starts hurting them. Hopefully Daschle still has some fire in his belly for Thune. He'd be a great behind the scenes operative if Thune emerges.

[blueclown]

4. I would really like to see him nominated.

Especially if Obama has a successful term.

It would put a dagger in conservatism on the national level.

[traxster]

5. The republican base will not tolerate anyone who is not extremely conservative...

Seriously, they thought the reason McCain lost is because he wasn't conservative enough. The republican base will not tolerate anyone who is not the the extreme right, like Sarah Palin. That is the only type of person that will get nominated even though the intellectual right knows that type of person would never win a general election. So there are two things at play...the people that the republicans will nominate versus the person that would have a chance in hell of beating Obama. Those two are not one in the same.

[LynneSin]

6. 2010 preliminary polls shoes that South Dakota is extremely vulnerable

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

He doesn't even have an opponent and he's only at 51%

[SheilaT]

7. It is much too soon to be

worried about who the GOP nominee will be more than three years from now. The one thing I'd say, however, is that it's not likely to be any one of the Usual Suspects (Palin, Romney, Jindal) but more likely someone no one is even thinking of right now.

Four years ago who would have dreamed Barack Obama would even run for President? And very late into the recent election cycle a lot of people were still pushing for Gore or Kerry. And so it will be on the Republican side next time around. Someone with an R after his or her name will pop up and wow the media and the Repubs and get the nomination. And, I sincerely hope, lose big time to Obama.

[blue_onyx]

9. 2012 will be Palin vs. Romney

Huckabee may have a chance too but I think the primary will mainly be between Palin and Romney. Palin will get the social values people and Romney will get the fiscal conservatives. It will be an interesting primary. I bet Romney wins and picks Huckabee as VP to bring the socially conservative voters on board (which may be difficult because of his religion).

[traxster]

14. Palin doesn't have a chance

I say that because the republicans are as nasty to their own as they are during the general. I watched every republican primary debate (I'm a glutton for punishment) and I don't see them taking it easy on her. She had the entire republican party on her side because they were against Obama. That will be a different story when they are all trying to get power. I think that the republican leadership knows they have no chance at all with Palin and I think they will destroy her before they let her get the nomination. I hope for her sake, she realizes that.

She had it easy this time around, as Obama was not going to attack her. The bad treatment she gets in a "real" election will be from her own.

[blue_onyx]

15. She feeds off of that

The more Palin is attacked, the stronger her supporters feel about her. You have to remember the voters they're trying to win over. Even after her embarrassing performance during this election, most Republicans still want her to run. Palin will do particularly well in closed primaries. Talking about things like being a maverick and a Washington outsider is enough for many GOP voters. After the 2008 election, most people know about Palin's flaws so there's not much that could be revealed in the 2012 primaries that would change people's opinions of her.

Palin will not realize her chances of winning are not good. She is a very confident person and I don't think she realizes how poor of a candidate she really is. I remember reading that she felt one of McCain's mistakes was not using her enough. That shows you how aware she is of her standing with the country.

I do think Palin's lack of knowledge will hurt her enough to give Romney the win. Although I hope Palin can get the nomination because she would be the easiest to beat.

[On the Road]

10. Thune is a Real Possibility

None of the 2008 candidates or names floated last year have much stature or electibility IMO. I think it's going to be "none of the above."

The GOP is going to nominate somebody in 2012. Thune is telegenic. Why not?

[Thrill]

12. Telegenic. But his voting record is gold for the Democrats to run against. Pure Gold

[AlinPA]

18. Is he holy (creationism, gay-bashing, anti-science, all that) enough?

[WinkyDink]

13. We should live so long.

[zulchzulu]

16. He's a homophobic, anti-science, anti-choice theocrat

Just what the Repigs got their ass kicked up on in 2008... Thune/Palin! A sure landslide for Obama!

[apnu]

17. I think it will be Jindal.

Early predictors are very unreliable. Remember Hillary's "Inevitability"? Or the Rice for Prez trial balloon?

Jindal has everything to make a sersious go at Obama. He is young and charismatic, and most importantly, not an old white man. The GOP needs something like that. I think Jindal has the basic goods to make a serious run for President. Much of Jindal's success then will depend on Obama now. If Obama maintains his popularity, makes good on 1/2 of his promises, and starts turning the Financial boat around, Jindal (and anybody else opposed to Obama) will be toast.

[Occam Bandage]

19. I think he's too traditional. I think the Republicans

are going to run someone who appears forward-looking, and not another two-bit cookie-cutter conservative. After all, they're going to have to do better than a red-state, rural-appeal, party-line, ultra-Christian white dude if they want to survive. Thune would just dig them deeper into their demographic hole. The Freepers want exactly that, of course--but the Freepers wanted that in '08, and they ended up having to rally around their much-despised Captain Maverick.

[PBS Poll-435]

20. Stephanie Herseth (Sandlin) has talked of running for the Senate

If she runs, Thune is done.