Pence to visit Iowa again; Gingrich to SC; Pawlenty to IA and NH

[Mr. Morden]

Pence has generated very little presidential buzz, though he's actually been fairly prolific in visits to early primary states.  Here's another one:

http://iowaindependent.com/38519/pence-making-iowa-visit-to-address-ralph-reeds-organization

Meanwhile, Gingrich is visiting SC for the second time this year:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/09/1722685/gingrich-to-test-2012-waters-in.html

and Pawlenty is visiting NH and Iowa after just having gotten back from SC:

link

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/wire/chi-ap-mn-pawlenty-iowa,0,4251063.story

You wouldn't know it from his travels, but, unlike Gingrich or Romney or Johnson or Pataki, Pawlenty actually has a day job.  Despite, he's doing more early primary state visits than anyone else.

[Mr. Morden]

I'm really grasping at straws here to explain Morden's behavior in posting all these threads, when the nominee is so obviously Palin.

Lol.  The campaign hasn't even really started yet.  If you think the 2012 GOP primary campaign is already over, then you're free to ignore all the threads about the campaign here and come back in March 2012 when the general election campaign gets underway.

[Mr. Morden]

I'm calling Pence the dark horse Republican whose potential to pull an upset in the primary is the most overlooked.

I'd probably agree with that.  Not really sure what Pence's intentions are.  From what I've read, he no longer seems interested in climbing the leadership ladder in the House, even if the GOP wins the House this November.  He may very well opt out of any leadership position in the next Congress, regardless of which party wins control.  He'll probably run for either president, governor or senator (Lugar's seat, if Lugar retires).  I honestly have no idea which of those he goes for.

[Mr. Morden]

I'm really grasping at straws here to explain Morden's behavior in posting all these threads, when the nominee is so obviously Palin.

Lol.  The campaign hasn't even really started yet.  If you think the 2012 GOP primary campaign is already over, then you're free to ignore all the threads about the campaign here and come back in March 2012 when the general election campaign gets underway.

You didn't answer the question. I'll repeat: Do any of these candidates get any grassroots support, i.e., if you browse on sites like Free Republic or RedState, are there people who passionately support them?

Probably not.  But:

1) The campaign has barely started.

2) The GOP presidential nomination isn't determined by teenagers posting on Free Republic.

Look, bottom line is, I don't see how anyone can say that "the nominee is so obvioiusly Palin" at this stage, 17 months before anyone votes, especially after we've just had two successive presidential nomination contests (the Dems in 2004 and the GOP in 2008) in which the eventual nominee was someone who nearly everyone said had virtually no chance just 6 weeks before Iowa.  Especially when she doesn't match the profile of previous GOP presidential frontrunners.

In any case, we'll see what happens.  A year from now, either she'll be running or she won't.  And if she's running, we'll have a much better idea of whether her campaign is taking off or not.  Until then, I'm sure there will be many threads here about candidates other than Palin.  I hope there won't be too many that are derailed by "Why are you people bothering to talk about candidates not named Sarah Palin?".