Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard handicaps 2012 and says it's still so far off compared to the exciting new crop of GOP legislators such as Marco Rubio who are rightly stealing the thunder of the old party bulls.

QuoteWhy do the potential Republican presidential candidates (with one exception) seem so old, dull, and uninteresting? There are a few simple answers. Most of the candidates are a generation older than most of the new Republican luminaries, compared with whom they are indeed duller and less interesting. At the moment they're not where the political action is either. They're not quite irrelevant, but close.

Ask yourself these questions: Would it be more illuminating to talk to Mitt Romney, age 63, or Representative Paul Ryan, 40, about cutting spending and reforming entitlements? Would it be more interesting to chat with Haley Barbour, 63, or Bobby Jindal, 39, about maximizing the power of states? Would it be more stimulating to meet with Marco Rubio, 39, than with any of the presidential candidates?

The answers are obvious. In 2010, Ryan, Jindal, and Rubio emerged as Republican stars. Ryan updated the Roadmap for saving America from fiscal and economic collapse that he'd introduced in 2008. It not only survived Democratic attacks in the midterm elections but now is gathering bipartisan support—parts of it are, anyway. Jindal went toe-to-toe with President Obama during the Gulf oil spill and came out well ahead. And after defeating Florida governor Charlie Crist, Rubio arrives in Washington as the most exciting new senator since John F. Kennedy in 1952.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/not-yet-great-race_519583.html

The opinion has great points. My particular focus was relating to Mitt Romney. I would never vote for him because he has the baggage of being the Governor of Massachusetts. Massachusetts has the reputation of being the home of Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barney Frank and an assortment of other liberals. Their most recent contribution to the DC legislature hasn't exactly impressed me. Scott Brown is slowly exposing his RINO credentials.

I like Mitt in a  lot of ways, especially his business background, but he is the definition of a RINO.  Until this last election (in Maine in particular, where a Republican governor and both houses of the legislature went Republican), in Massachusetts and Maine and Vermont, unless you are a RINO you have a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected dog catcher.  Hence the reason why Maine has two RINO U.S. Senators (Snowe and Collins) and Massachusetts now has one (Brown).

I wouldn't say dull, or uninteresting, I'd just say no one is interested in what RINO have to say.
As far as the Base is concerned, the RINO are now relegated to the janitors closet.

What I think is especially exciting about the "young Turks" and their eclipse of the old guard is what it means in the larger scheme of things.

The old guard, much friendlier to RINOs and more lefty ideas, didn't get that way by accident, disease or the dark workings of a evil conspiracy. Make no mistake about it, we wanted them. Not the "we" that inhabits this forum but the larger scale, American "we". The electorate in aggregate.

So if the old guard is losing it's influence it's happening because that "electorate in aggregate" is swinging away from an attraction to left wing ideas which is what that old guard rode to electoral success.

I think "we" have been doing moving away from the left for quite a while but the move has been lost in the noisy atmosphere of politics. But the old guard being edged out of power by the young Turks means that change is no longer easily ignored or easily mistaken.

QuoteIn Palin's case, the media treat her every wink and nod as newsworthy. Reporters and columnists are obsessed with her. And some Republicans fear she could lead their party to defeat in 2012. What this assumes is amazing: that she can sail through the primaries and win the nomination. That's quite an assumption.

I never thought of it that way...

Quote from: arpad on November 29, 2010, 10:53:52 AM
What I think is especially exciting about the "young Turks" and their eclipse of the old guard is what it means in the larger scheme of things.

The old guard, much friendlier to RINOs and more lefty ideas, didn't get that way by accident, disease or the dark workings of a evil conspiracy. Make no mistake about it, we wanted them. Not the "we" that inhabits this forum but the larger scale, American "we". The electorate in aggregate.

So if the old guard is losing it's influence it's happening because that "electorate in aggregate" is swinging away from an attraction to left wing ideas which is what that old guard rode to electoral success.

I think "we" have been doing moving away from the left for quite a while but the move has been lost in the noisy atmosphere of politics. But the old guard being edged out of power by the young Turks means that change is no longer easily ignored or easily mistaken.

I agree. It was inevitable that a crop of essentially-same-aged bulls would eventually give way to somebody, but entirely the bulls' fault they ignored the winds of change on voter sentiment. To gain the future of America, the GOP had damn well better start learning and speaking and thinking in Spanish. Otherwise the Donks will sew them up as they did to blacks.

Any lack of coverage of these wind-changes was purely coincidental, unintended by a media intent on finding any crack in the GOP after such a thoroughgoing beat-down. The noisy atmosphere was also directed at the various Democratic scandals like Rangel and ACORN and so on.

The media may have had a momentary lapse in its biased reporting. IMO they are regrouping for the 2012 election. Don't underestimate the sleazy tactics of the MSM or Soros or SEIU.

In defense of some of those old bulls, they were successful. They got elected and in politics if you don't get elected you can have all the opinions you want but they're not going to get turned into law. So when times changed those old bulls could point to their successes, past successes I agree but successes nontheless, and say "this to shall pass".

They were wrong and now they're paying the price.

As for 2012, I think the Democrats are in for a long, messy bout of indigestion.

The 2010 midterm was a very clear message to the left, not that incumbent Democratic lefties are interested in the message any more then successful Republican RINOish politicians were interested in the message they. Tough. When you're out on your ass you can come up with all sorts of silly reasons why your butt hurts but the basic fact doesn't change, you're out.

That means there's going to be a whole, new crop of Democrats running in 2012. Will they be dyed-in-the-wool, Nancy-Pelosi-lovin' lefties? I have my doubts.

Sure there'll be plenty of lefty extremists but what matters is the direction the party's being pulled and I think the same force that's driving the RINOs out of the Republican party will start to drive the Mao wing of the Democratic party out into the cold. Some will hang on of course. Berkeley, California's still in the U.S. But those "Blue Dog" Democrats will be back and they'll come back knowing that the likes of Nancy Pelosi are the people who cost their predecessors their seats. I doubt there'll be a lot of group hugs.

What in the Hell is a Turk?

Quote from: Solar on November 29, 2010, 07:47:06 PM
What in the Hell is a Turk?

A young radical who agitates for reform. The term usually referred to a group of young Turkish army officers that rebelled against the Ottoman form of government.

Quote from: surfer_squirrel on November 29, 2010, 07:59:33 PM
A young radical who agitates for reform. The term usually referred to a group of young Turkish army officers that rebelled against the Ottoman form of government.

I thought maybe it was a reference to "Thanksgiving"  :)) :)) :)) :)) :))

Quote from: surfer_squirrel on November 29, 2010, 07:59:33 PM
A young radical who agitates for reform. The term usually referred to a group of young Turkish army officers that rebelled against the Ottoman form of government.

Thanks SS.
The only young turks I know of is a Marxist web site, though, they claim to be progressive liberals. ::) :))

Quote from: Solars Toy on November 29, 2010, 08:07:25 PM
I thought maybe it was a reference to "Thanksgiving"  :)) :)) :)) :)) :))

No ST. That would be a Turkee.  ;D