Eugene Robinson: "an odd assortment of the uninspiring and the unelectable"

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/job_protection_2012-style_20110228/

Job Protection, 2012 Style
Posted on Mar 1, 2011
By Eugene Robinson



For all their bluster about making Barack Obama a one-term president, Republicans are assembling what looks like a remarkably weak field of candidates for the 2012 election—an odd assortment of the uninspiring and the unelectable.

In part, this reflects a healthy respect for Obama’s formidable political skills. If Obama is likely to win anyway, some contenders reason, why spend all the time and effort of a campaign just to end up delivering a concession speech? Why not wait until 2016, when prospects might look brighter?

Still, it’s not yet clear what the political and economic landscape will look like next year. The recovery could stall, unemployment could remain unacceptably high, and recent elections prove that the electorate is nothing if not volatile. You’d think that a Republican with credentials and star power could give Obama a run for his money.

If such a Republican could be found.

snip//

It says a lot about the Republican field that the winner of the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll was Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who envisions reducing the federal government to a few clerks writing with quill pens on sheets of parchment. It says even more that the most electric appearance at CPAC was by Donald Trump, whose flirtation with national politics seems more like a special episode of “The Apprentice.”

Obama would be foolish to take anything for granted. Circumstances may change; a formidable opponent may emerge. But at this point, one imagines the president is not exactly quaking in his boots.

[Arkana]

1. Paul won the straw poll in 2007, did he not?

Republicans have nothing but a bunch of second-raters and if they can't find a first-tier candidate in time they are screwed.

[LiberalFighter]

2. There should be an ad comparing beginning days of American history

to present day showing the number of workers needed to run the government. With and without computers and machines.