This weekend, we are seeing the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, a followup on the FreedomWorks/Tea Party protests of last weekend.
This group of social conservatives has welcomed various presidential possibilities to speak before their organization, but only four have done so–Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Mike Pence. Each, of course, is trying to outdo the other in appealing to this group, which is having discussions on such issues as: The Global Warming Hysteria; The Pro Death Agenda; Rationing Your Life Away with Obamacare; and Fighting the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
It is hard to read this list of areas of discussion without guffawing like a hyena LOL 🙂 Does this group really believe that it is to be regarded as anything more than a group of right wing whackos with such titles and topics being employed, and no hint of any solutions to the many problems this nation faces?
The most interesting thing to come out of this series of meetings will be the straw poll of who is favored by this group, with the choices being the four mentioned above, plus Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal.
As one looks at this group of contenders, all nine of them, it is hard to avoid big smiles and knowing looks, that ALL of them, with again the exception of Romney, would seem to the observer to have not a chance of seriously challenging President Obama in 2012. That does not mean that Romney does not have major weaknesses, but none of the others would seem to have any strength or backing that could possibly make them competitive.
Then again, however, it could be, as many are starting to observe, that the GOP nominee for 2012 might very well not come from this group, and may be someone that nobody has been taking seriously yet or even thought of up to this point. After all, at this stage in September 2005, who was thinking about Barack Obama?
So, as always, American politics is a stimulating and exciting sport, with the impossibility this far ahead of imagining what the final game in 2012 will be like!