(AP Photo/Jim Cole) |
On June 13, CNN held a Republican debate in New Hampshire and there were actually winners and losers (despite what you may have heard elsewhere) and I don’t just mean the moderator John King.
It’s now seventeen months until the 2012 presidential election and the fight for who will be the next president of the United States has begun in earnest. The discussion and debates between the candidates will hopefully enlighten the voters as to why they should not elect Barack Obama to another term as president. The Republican primary debates are an especially important forum for voters getting to know the candidates and the issues better.
In my opinion, no one person really won the debate, though Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney came out looking the best. Businessman Herman Cain also performed well, though I really think his thin political resume is going to hurt him. My advice to Mr. Cain is to run for governor or senator first and then come back and run for president. He’d be a shoe-in then!
Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty didn’t do themselves any favors in Monday’s debate for the simple reason that they have no charisma. You must have some charisma or likeability factor if you’re going to have a chance and they didn’t have it. Ron Paul was his usual self, sometimes making sense and sometimes expressing radical and untenable ideas.
If you are going to be elected president of the United States you need to have charisma, and/or political gravitas, and not hold radical positions that most people would disagree with. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Mitt Romney have the charisma. Newt Gingrich doesn’t really have charisma, but he does have the political gravitas. Rick Santorum and Tim Pawlenty have zero charisma, so even though they have good political backgrounds they are not electable to the presidency. Ron Paul has a non-politician’s genuineness but he consistently supports ideas outside the mainstream and is frankly too old. So, he is also unelectable to the presidency.
So the only person up there on Monday with charisma, political chops, and no baggage was Michele Bachmann. In my view, the race will be between her and Mitt Romney, assuming that no one else throws their hat in the race.