The best part of DougJ’s theory about the village screaming for a knight in shining armor like Mitch Daniels is that by the time they do, Sullivan will have already fallen out of love, having fallen completely head over heels and grown bored with the man:
Disgusted by the GOP field, Joe Klein begs Mitch Daniels and Jeb Bush to throw their hats in the ring. Kevin Drum wonders how Daniels would get through the primaries without losing his soul…
Didn’t you have to turn in your soul when you worked for the Bush admin?
Villago Delenda Est
One of the necessary qualifications for service in the deserting coward malassministration was to offer your soul willingly to Dark Lord Cheney for his personal consumption.
Martin
In order to keep Sully in love, they’ll need a beard. A big Rutherford B. Hayes one.
schrodinger's cat
I nominate Tunch as the GOP Presidential nominee, he is clearly better than the field.
JenJen
He sold Indiana (quite literally). What’s a soul to him?
In other Heartland News, SB5 just passed the Ohio House, 53-44. 5 Republicans defected.
dmsilev
Of course. How else was Dick Cheney to stay animate?
dms
Redshirt
Soul? What’s a soul?
Well, if Sullivan is that motivated by facial hair, clearly he’s a “Bolton” Man.
schrodinger's cat
@Martin: His pet obsession these days is about how Gandhi was gay, just like Lincoln apparently. What that has to do with anything I don’t know. Do their contributions become more worthy because of their sexuality? What is he trying to get at?
Lev
Soul was signed over upon entry. Heart and mind, after a period of six months.
Just Some Fuckhead
Remember when Mitt Romney, Rudy G. and John McCain were the nonbatshitcrazy saviors of the Republican party? At what point do we quit searching the barrel for one good apple and just throw out the barrel?
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
He’s trying to identify his pathetic existence, not only as a gay man, but as a human being, with some historical icon.
He’s a low rent baggage handler. He’ll never escape that. He can’t.
Bob Loblaw
Poor Kevin Drum, getting lumped in with the likes of Klein and Sullivan. How’d he ever manage to keep his mainstream credibility after going off to write for that godforsaken hippie rag Mother Jones, by the way?
FlipYrWhig
I’ve been laughing at this too, but then I remembered 1992. The Democratic field was said to be laughably weak because all the serious candidates were avoiding a showdown with the unbeatable Bush. All the Beltway people cried out for Mario Cuomo, who like Godot never came. For a while there was Tsongasmentum. And everyone was too quirky and/or too little known. And then Bill Clinton actually won.
If Haley Barbour were better looking, he might be able to pull that off from the right. Scott Walker might be able to excite The Base. But you’d kinda want it to be someone who can flip a typically Democratic state, and that’s pretty much out of the question for Walker now.
Blue-skying it… Pat Toomey? Toomey’s Club-for-Growth ties probably mean he’s well networked into the hive mind, and he hasn’t been around the Senate long enough to have voted for anything embarrassing.
General Stuck
Daniels has the charisma of a three toed Sloth, and is only a governor because his state is populated by a majority of three toed idiots. Jeb is THE only viable candidate over or under the horizon, though I guess they could strap Cheney to a battery powered podium and wheel his evil ass around the country like some kind of Frankenstein monster running of electricity and bile.
And Jeb is not stupid, like his brother, and not as mean and crazy, and it wouldn’t take long for the tea tards to pronounce him a RINO, unless he shaved his head and tattooed “I wanna kill” on his forehead. Not going to happen.
beltane
I can’t think of a single prominent Republican with a soul which is a necessary precondition to losing one’s soul. If they had souls they wouldn’t be Republicans in the first place. I’m too busy to try to turn these sow’s ears into silk purses.
jo6pac
jeb/betryus 2012
beltane
@General Stuck: One thing that I like about Mitch Daniels is that I tower over him. As a rather petite 5’4″ there are not many people, male or female, I can say this about.
schrodinger's cat
My prediction: The beltway darling McCain will run again, against that one and all his beltway fan boys will be ecstatic.
DarrenG
From the previous thread I think if there’s an off-the-board candidate who sneaks into the field late and gets the nomination it’ll be one of the governors, but not Walker.
Snyder or Scott would seem to have the best chance, but I suppose Kasich or Christie still have an outside shot if the right players line up behind them.
gnomedad
The right goes through presidential heartthrobs like popcorn because the latest stoopid gets boring after a short time and fresh stoopid is needed.
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: What about Bush, Sr.? He would be better than the whole lot of them.
Alex S.
As long as Mitt Romney has got New Hampshire locked up, the easy way to the nomination leads through Iowa. With Huckabee out of the race, the nominees have to out-crazy each other. Santorum is too creepy to win the evangelical vote and there is no one else with religious credibility. Well, the other powerplayer in Iowa is Steve King and his teabaggers. This all points to Michele Bachmann… Only well-funded opponents will be able to survive a defeat in Iowa AND New Hampshire. Then we get to South Carolina and Nevada. Romney might be strong in Nevada, but this might be the best chance of Daniels, Huntsman or Pawlenty. South Carolina will elect whoever is endorsed by Jim DeMint. Could be Bachmann, could be Barbour with the wrath of a thousand lobbyists.
I guess that the four-winners-in-four-contests scenario might trigger the search for a compromise candidate, like Pawlenty or like Jeb Bush.
schrodinger's cat
@beltane: Bush Sr and the ghost of Reagan for 2012.
DarrenG
@Alex S.:
Nobody’s got New Hampshire locked up in March. Polls this early are indicators of name recognition, nothing more.
And if Romney can’t win Nevada, he can’t be the nominee.
dmsilev
@Alex S.:
If there really are four winners of the first four contests, it’s too late for a dark-horse candidate to swoop in. You’re talking just a couple of weeks from the end of the early primaries/caucuses to Super Tuesday.
dms
BombIranForChrist
If Sully falls out of love with his political paramour, I will show him the Way by painting my body green and standing within view of his window with a boombox over my head Say Anything style.
Just once, just once, he needs to hold an opinion not related to Palin family maternity for longer than 2 weeks.
Just once.
WereBear
Yes, but apparently they put them in Tupperware.
Elia
I think Christie has a damn good shot at it if he decides to go for it. He’s left himself enough wiggle room on social issues to get by, probably, and he’s really good at pissing libtards off, which is always a huge plus.
Alex S.
@dmsilev:
Yes, it’s a tight schedule. The plan has to be ready before the situation is there. Pawlenty is already positioning himself as everybody’s nr.2. But Jeb Bush would have the power to mount a similar campaign. And since the media really wants a close general election they’ll help wherever they can.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@WereBear:
So the rumors that Cheney would administer a Dementor’s Kiss right after the swearing-in ceremony were unfounded, as it turns out?
DarrenG
@Elia:
Christie’s major problem is that he seems to be the politician version of BillO. He can play Stern Daddy Figure as long as he’s the one in control of the microphones and can shout everyone else down.
I don’t think he plays nearly as well if he can’t shut up other candidates and has to debate and buy media on neutral ground.
Alex S.
@DarrenG:
Well, of course, it’s just my opinion, but Romney’s numbers have been stable for 2 years now. He’s well-connected and well-funded. He’s ignoring Iowa and campaigning through New Hampshire like McCain in 2008. He hasn’t won yet, but I can’t see how he could lose… And in 2008, Romney managed to keep his campaign alive in spite of his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire by winning several primaries of lesser importance, the punished primary of Michigan, Wyoming and Nevada. He could affort it. Similarly, Nevada won’t be decisive this time, either. Once again, California and Florida will decide his fate. Florida will be really interesting. Will they nominate a Southerner, or Rick Scott’s choice or Marco Rubio’s choice… This would be Jeb Bush’s opening.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@WereBear: I find that the people who are easily able to just turn it over don’t really need tupperware. I don’t think they behave appreciably better when they have it than when it is sitting in storage.
WereBear
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: That cracked me up. And it takes a lot to do that, in a sentence with the word “Cheney” in it.
I swear, I remember as a kid thinking, “All the evil people in the past…” but now I lived under someone like that.
And I was just lucky I wasn’t a Quaker!
DarrenG
@Alex S.:
Early polls just don’t mean that much, especially in smaller states like NH:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/nh/new_hampshire_republican_primary-193.html
If the big money lines up behind someone like Pawlenty, he could easily get competitive there in a hurry.
Nevada won’t be decisive in terms of delegates, but it’s the sort of state Romney has to win if he’s going to get the nomination — no big local machine, lots of Mormons, and a mix of Plutocrats, Birchers, and teahadists for a primary electorate.
Ben
Not true. Sullivan fell out of love with Obama just about now. If Mitch Daniels runs, or Rand Paul, Sullivan will throw his support to them. Just like he ditched Bill Clinton after his first term. And it’s not clear why because Clinton carried out welfare reform.
Tonybrown74
DADT and DOMA.
Ruckus
@beltane:
sow’s asses, sow’s asses into vinyl purses is about the best that one can do with a rethug.
agrippa
What is this interest in Sullivan?
rarely does he make any sense.
Splitting Image
@agrippa:
Sullivan is the perfect example of what the Villagers call an “independent voter”. Specifically, the type of independent voter that decides elections. In other words, you answered your own question.
honus
@FlipYrWhig: Bill Clinton: son of a single mom nurse, put himself through Yale and Georgetown, Rhodes scholar, won Arkansas AG’s office three years out of law school, then 11 gubernatorial elections. Youngest governor in the country. Won a presidential election against a sitting president with a 90% approval rating a year before the race. Did it all coming from a working-class background.
Obama’s resume is not dissimilar. Name a republican contender one-fourth as smart or capable as either of these guys.
Paul in KY
I don’t care if the dude is 5′ 2″, I think he can be a credible & formidable candidate. He just looks so folksy (and he sounds that way too).