I think John Thune is making a big mistake here. He won’t be the prettiest boy on the prairie forever.
South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune has decided not to run for president in 2012, citing his desire to remain in the Senate to fight for conservative principles.
shortstop
Do people really think this guy is good-looking? I’m not getting it.
mistermix a.k.a. mastermix
One weakling down, a half dozen more to go.
Jason Bylinowski
If skulls could tan instead of bleach in the sun, that would explain John Thune’s looks. I don’t see what’s attractive about him at all.
TooManyJens
For what, now?
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
Thune’s about as pretty as Iggy Pop, appropriately enough.
Sentient Puddle
Christ, at this rate, Obama is going to run unopposed.
A Commenter at Balloon Juice (formerlyThe Grand Panjandrum)
Conservative principles sounds like it belongs in a George Carlin skit.
agrippa
The GOP will have problems getting someone to run in 2012.
Alex S.
I think that Huckabee isn’t going to run either which means that Palin has got a big chance to win Iowa.
Violet
@agrippa:
I’m sure Sarah Palin will be happy to step in “if she’s needed, if no one else will run.”
eemom
dude, you should’ve gone with “Young and beautiful, someday your looks will be gone…”
ed
Thune may be angling for the Veep spot on the ticket so’s he can boost his recognition and perhaps fall into the It’s His Turn slot in 2016. A Romney-Thune ticket would be as wooden and white as humanly possible.
Tonybrown74
@shortstop:
Seconded. I think the man is ass-ugly.
He looks like he was plucked from the set of Thriller.
jacy
@TooManyJens:
Next he will be fighting for jumbo shrimp.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
To be fair, you can’t very well expect him to come out and SAY he doesn’t want his ass whupped by the black dude with the funny name.
@shortstop: Same here. I mean, if everyone else on the planet looked like John McCain, sure.
matoko_chan
he is not runnin cuz he cant win.
but fortunately he can run in 2016 an not be post-menopausal like Sarah Palin will be.
Now Palin, its now or never for her.
Dennis SGMM
Conservatives don’t have principles, they have talking points and those talking points are all mutable.
piratedan
the thing is, I thought Thune was the perfect Republican candidate. He’s not toting the baggage that others have, so the Republican spin machine could have painted him as a “honest, homespun, solid conservative” to counter Obama. Look at who else is likely in the field? Many of them have obvious flaws and with Thune, he could have sat back and smiled manfully while the other paid mudslingers whipped up the hate on the black man frenzy.
Dennis SGMM
Politicians say all sorts of things. OTOH, if his party insisted on nominating him I’m sure that Thune would be more than happy to play the reluctant candidate who’s only answering his country’s call.
fraught
Pretty only by teabag standards, but Scott Brown is PRETTY, and after seeing him on 60 minutes I think he’s running.
Suck It Up!
@shortstop:
He looks like he needs to eat more.
Davis X. Machina
Somewhere out there in the night there’s a 737*, low on fuel, with no shoulders left to land on….
Oh, the humanity.!
But wait, off in the distance, cloaked in clouds and fog, but maybe, just maybe….Mitt!
fn1 — Actually serviced offshore, with outsourced Chinese spare parts, and a non-union crew on three hours sleep…they’re boned.
Davis X. Machina
@ed: They’d split and stack out at about a quarter of a cord, is my guess.
Pangloss
They could always run a gun-totin’ Bible with a flag lapel pin….
General Stuck
OT
Just heard one of the first on ground reports from Libya of late, on MSNBC, and it looks like the Libyan military has split and are engaged in all out civil war.
Doug Hill
@eemom:
Again?
In the end, I’m more of an Iggy guy than a Neil Sedaka guy.
Elizabelle
Clearing the path for Jon Huntsman?
RossInDetroit
Your pretty face is going to hell
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: No way. Nobody who worked in the Obama administration has any semblance of a chance in the GOP primaries.
dms
Egypt Steve
I don’t think there are going to be any fresh faces in the money in the Rethug race this time, certainly not any with a genuinely bright future. The day is past when you can get the nomination, lose, and then come back. Whoever gets their clock cleaned by Obama in 2012 will be permanently damaged goods. So the 2011-2012 race is going to be all about which has-been lunatic gets to be the first 21st-Century Barry Goldwater.
Keith G
@shortstop: I totally agree and as I have gotten older I have become a bit less picky.
He seems a bit of a pencil neck.
Jeffro
@ed: Yup, totally agree. Why get in and get knocked around when he can sit back, get the Veep nod and some national recognition for 2016.
SiubhanDuinne
I think the Repugs are strategically encouraging Thune, Daniels, T-Paw, Mittens, etc etc NOT to run in 2012 — they know nobody with an “R” after their name can beat Obama, and as noted above, if no one else is in the runnbing, Sarah will step forward. Perfect way for the Rs to get rid of her once and for all.
cat48
@SiubhanDuinne: I think Romney’s about 64 or 65. Does he really want to wait??
tomvox1
Well, I guess Bobo will be relagated to whacking off to thoughts of Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie riding into DC on white steeds for the foreseeable future. 10 bucks he gets a hard on for Scott Walker in a week or so, though…
eemom
gotta admit I’ll miss “Thunementum.”
and btw I think yer ALL wrong. He’s not running because he realized that even against Obama, he loses the “real murikans don’t vote for funny names” demographic.
Mike in NC
This must be strike the Village Idiots as great news for Haley Barbour.
Rhoda
Thune voted for the bailout; the commercials write themselves.
Similarly, Romney is not only loathed and despised by a lot of mucky mucks who are pretty much guaranteeing they’ll take him on (see the NY Post hit job) he has Romenycare to deal with.
The buisness folks hate Huck.
Sarah is a joke.
Haley has a race problem.
Mitch Daniels has the same Bush problem Jeb did; and he knows it.
Chris Christie is destroying NJ and he would make a great target.
The Republicans have a weak hand and they’re going to throw as much money at the problem as they can; but Obama’s actually popular so it won’t likely work. Money can only take you so far and the fact is Obama will have more than enough to compete.
Even with the job numbers; I’m feeling pretty good about 2012. Shit happens so who the hell knows how it’ll turn out; but Barack Obama’s got a good hand.
Turgidson
@cat48:
Yeah, this is pretty much it for Romney. Not that it matters – he’ll probably be either long-dead or in his 90s-100s before his party will embrace a Mormon as their presidential candidate. He might as well take one more shot at it now so he doesn’t have any regrets about not trying.
I’d seriously consider voting for him in the GOP primary if he’s running reasonably strong and his competition is a total nutjob (which is exceedingly likely). Romney’s the only GOP candidate who might not finish Bush’s work of ruining this country for 2-3 generations. He very well may, but there would at least be hope.
feebog
There isn’t a steed large enough to accomodate Christie’s fat ass.
sistermoon
@shortstop:
Neither am I. In fact, I think he’s a bit creepy-looking.
ChrisNYC
I used to think Thune was a threat. I saw an interview where he did well — seemed smart, engaged, not canned, not crazy — it occurred to me that he may have copied the President’s style. But wow his CPAC speech was terrible. Wooden and nothing to it and just terrible terrible. It was like a politician speech in a movie, “My fellow Americans, I am for moving forward boldly!” Worse than Romney terrible.
The GOP debates are going to be so fun with just crazies (including Trump if all goes well!) at the podiums.
Triassic Sands
I’d say it is a smart decision for Thune. He’s currently got a guaranteed gig in the Senate. He can continue to feed at the public teat while advocating for a double mastectomy for others. His chances of beating Obama in 2012 are not good enough to justify giving up a job with great pay and benefits, low work load — I mean, how difficult is it to jabber on and on about the evils of gubmint and occasionally vote to screw some poor people you don’t give a shit about and will never meet? On top of that onerous workload, he gets to vote to further enrich the already wealthy — votes that can be seen as directly connected to his own fortunes and retirement.
In the end, if the presidential boat sails without him, he can quit the Senate and earn millions of dollars in a few years from the Wingnut Welfare Machine. Thune is a guy who has nothing but good choices right now. Being president would be a hassle.
askew
I was hoping he’d run. He is basically the GOP’s Edwards. A pretty-boy lightweight who has zero respect from his fellow Senators. Lugar damned Thune with faint praise the other day very similar to the comments Feingold made about Edwards.
mclaren
As I predicted. Thune doesn’t have a chance. He’s not remotely reactionary enough. Palin will be the nominee.
Keep calling me “insane” and “ranting” and “raving” and “crazy” and I’ll keep making correct predictions.
Four more predictions for free: Huckabee doesn’t have a chance because the paroled rapist issue will haunt him forever just the way Chapaquiddick haunted Ted Kennedy forever, Haley Barbour has the George Wallace problem that he plays well in the deep south and nowhere else, Chris Christie is vastly too vicious and combative to have wide appeal, and Mitt Romney will never be the nominee because the fundamentalist Christian base of the Republican party would rather nominate a gila monster for president than nominate a Mormon.
So who does that leave?
Palin’s children have higher name recognition among prospective Republican voters than any of the other Republican pols.
So three guesses.
Jill
He isn’t the prettiest boy on the prairie even now. Scott Kleeb is. And I wish he’d run again.