South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, a Republican, surfaced today to explain that he’s been in Argentina with a sweetie for the past several days; his wife declined to attend the press conference. This comes just days after Arizona Senator John Ensign, also a Republican, was obliged to acknowledge some indiscretions of his own.
Both men had been remarked as rising stars who might be presidential material.
And so much for them.
Meantime, the loonies appear to have tightened their grip on the Grand Ol’ Party anyhow, with surveys suggesting that a Sarah Palin / Mike Huckabee ticket might be just the thing.
Palin edges Huckabee as the most popular among Republicans. They’re both vastly popular among the Republicans polled by Pew, though Palin is divisive nationally (about the same number view her unfavorably as favorably). If the 2012 GOP primary were today, Palin might just win it; if the general election were tomorrow, she’d probably lose.
This is grim news for educated conservatives; they’ll be facing a charismatic candidate who thinks in paragraphs with a team whose principal can’t think in sentences and a preacher who believes it is sinful to think at all.
The bloodless coup of the Southern Baptist Convention by Calvinists over the past few days can only harden the pressure on Republicans from the right because, beneath the fancy-sounding rhetorical diversions, the Calvinist concept of the good is whatever degrades and drives men unto ‘brokenness’ and docile obedience.
In short, a Republican candidate will have to be even loopier than the 2008 bunch in order to win the 2012 nod.
loading...
