THE GOP POLITICAL CIRCUS HAS A VERY FULL CLOWN CAR

Grouping the potential GOP candidates is a good way to follow the Big Show.

With the current plethora of potential 2016 Republican presidential candidates, how are we the public supposed to deal with the long list of individuals going after the same brass ring?  One political pundit stated that, “It’s starting to look like there’s going to be more candidates that there are voters.”

Well, one observer has at least come up with a way to categorize and list the different types of potential candidates.  This individual has broken the groups down to the following categories:

1.     The Pugilists

2.     Right Wingers who don’t Pick Fights!

3.     Moderates in Name Only

4.     Religious Conservatives

At least when using these categories, it does narrow down a way to view the field from a different point-of-view.  First, we will list who is considered in each group and then we will define why these individuals fit in that category.

OK, so let’s start with the Pugilists.

The GOP candidates considered in that group are: Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Dr. Ben Carson.

Ted Cruz’s senate career is known for his giving his middle-finger to his own party by personally forcing a 2013 federal shutdown.  He also did not endorse his fellow Texas Republican Senior Sen. John Cornyn, in his primary last year. Cruz campaigned in Iowa with freshman Rep. Rod Blum, who is known as a backstabber who last fall won due to Speaker Boehner’s help.  But Blum then didn’t vote for Boehner for speaker.  Ted Cruz is also a believer in a "Flat Tax" which is proven to not be a workable issue.

Scott Walker is in this group because of what he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  As the Washington Post headline noted, “Yes, Scott Walker really did link terrorists with protesting teachers.” When asked at CPAC how Walker would respond to the ISIL threat, Walker had said, “If I can take on 100,000 [pro-union] protesters, I can do the same across the world.” Walker later told a right-wing radio host, “Americans want someone who is going to fight and win every day.”

Dr. Ben Carson, is the black retired neurosurgeon that called “Obamacare, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.”  He also compared the Obama administration to Hitler’s Nazi Germany. He has also said homosexuality is a choice, and same-sex marriage can lead to bestiality.  He has no patience for undocumented immigrants, as was reported in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  Carson is a major political bomb thrower not to be believed.

Now those in the, “Right Wingers who don’t Pick Fights!” group include: Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio, ex-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Rand Paul is here from the GOP’s ideological libertarian wing and has been trying to build his base among young, idealistic voters.  But Paul’s biggest problem is one that he brought upon himself.  He was trying to be pragmatic when he said the U.S. must go after ISIL, but this was undermining his own brand as being a non-interventionist.  Paul also opposes many of the emerging GOP positions, such as saying the federal government should not act on helping with our nation's income inequality.

Marco Rubio’s fast rise in Florida politics was aided by the then-Gov. Jeb Bush.  This could make Rubio another GOP turncoat if he does run against Bush in the primaries.  Rubio, who outwardly boasts about his foreign policy acumen, was totally shredded by Secretary of State John Kerry for factual inaccuracies about Iran’s nuclear facilities.  Rubio’s political persona is hard to figure out as when he trashes the labor unions, even though his father had held a culinary union job for years.  He now backs away from comprehensive immigration reform, even though his family’s Cuban refugee status helped his family gain their start in America.

After 14 years as Texas governor, Rick Perry told a right-wing radio host that he is going to launch a campaign with a Reagan-like script.  Americans, Perry said, are “ready for a positive vision of this country, that our better days are ahead.” When asked for specifics, he complained that while Obama oversaw a 61% growth in domestic energy production, largely through oil and gas fracking. “it’s gone down 6% on the federal estate.” Thus, he would open up more drilling on public lands.  In other words, he would offer another corporate giveaway. On foreign policy, Perry said he’s been coached by Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, among others. He is another candidate who can’t let go of the dream that he should be president.

Bobby Jindal is another candidate that is considered going absolutely nowhere.  When he remarked that Islamic militants were creating “no-go zones” in Europe where the police and military refused to go, this falsehood was met with serious ridicule.  It also removed Jindal from any real presidential consideration.  However, he says he’s still serious about running.   Jindal still believes in trickle-down economics and that cutting taxes will lead to economic growth for everyone, even if the facts show it’s not true.

Now there are only two candidates in the “Moderates in Name Only” group.  Those are former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the Gov. of New Jersey, Chris Christie.

Jeb Bush got off to a very poor start when he said he would not pander to extreme right-wingers and social conservatives to get the nomination.  Then he turned around and did just that. He said he supported Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s anti-LGBT religious freedom bill, embracing the law as he opened up about his Catholic faith.  He distinguishes himself from the GOP’s “blow-up-the-government wing” by his embracing of comprehensive immigration reform, federal education standards and charter schools.

The other moderate-in-name-only is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.  Many feel Christie isn’t really running due to the debacle of his office being in the center of the George Washington Bridge “Bridgegate” scandal. This was where some of Christie’s staff had shut down one of the busiest routes into New York City’s, Manhattan area, during the first week of school in 2013.  And this was supposedly all due for his staff taking revenge on a local mayor who had displeased Christie.  In other developments, there was an extensive New Yorker magazine profile that described how Christie unseated Tom Keane, Jr., who was New Jersey’s Senate Minority Leader.  The article just underscored that Christie is a political thug who cannot be trusted. Christie also notably has said he would support a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks, as he panders to all the GOP social conservatives.

Finally, there are two potential candidates in the “Religious Conservative” group.  Those being: former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Now it must be noted that everyone seeking the GOP nomination is anti-abortion, and as we have seen, they are also anti-LGBT. But even if religious conservatives do have a record of winning the Iowa caucuses, as did Huckabee in 2008, and Santorum in 2012, no evangelical candidate has ever come close to winning the Republican nomination.  These religious individuals are only able to stay in the nominating contest for long periods of time because of their own very wealthy donors.

Both Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have made it clear that they intend to run again. Huckabee, who just left a very lucrative job on Fox News, has the most unique credential of all the Republican candidates.  That being that this ex-Arkansas governor says he knows Hillary and Bill Clinton better than anyone in the campaign. On the other hand, Huckabee’s most recent book: God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, is just chocked full of insults for all liberals and what he calls ”Blue-State America”.  Now, from my point-of-view, calling Americans names is not very Christian or presidential.   

So, looking at this diverse group of presidential wannabees, we see a field that is dominated by varying shades of right-wing extremists.  But today, the real Republicans want a candidate that can actually win.  They know that the Sarah Palin’s and Tea Partiers and bomb-throwers like Ted Cruz and Dr. Carson aren’t really ready for prime-time.  The GOP is seriously power hungry which means they’re looking for a predictable establishment candidate who is a known quantity.

That’s why many moderate Republicans feel the nomination is Jeb Bush’s to lose.  But, a third Bush for the White House...?

This is going to be a fun circus to watch over the next 20 months.

Copyright G.Ater  2016