It is clear the GOP is still looking for a candidate

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Perry is showing why he basically stayed out of sight in Austin the last 12 years, so much so that Texans like me hardly heard a word about him...not only is no one home, the lights aren't even on.

conservatives dont have a viable canidate....so I think there is STILL time for someone else, other than Palin, to enter the race

[Jacobtm]

Obama certainly could be beaten, but not by any of those fools on stage last night.

[angus]

Perhaps.  

But whom do you have in mind?  Mike Pence has already declined.  John Thune really likes his job.  Ronald Reagan is dead.  Krusty the Klown has too much baggage.  

Paul Ryan may be available.  His main concern seems to be government spending, so his message may sell.  And as a matter of strategy, those Wisconsin electoral votes would help.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

The only two candidates mentioned that could still jump in are Giuliani and Palin, but I doubt either of those will run and one of them is a gay loving, baby killing RINO.

[NHI]

I think the consensus that is begin to build is that Romney is the best choice to beat Obama. Perry has proven he cannot debate his way out of a paper bag, and would be crushed against Obama, even in this economy. He provides no plan or specifics, only referring to Texas.

Frankly, I'm glad he entered the race because he has made Mitt a stronger candidate, and one that will be able to soundly defeat Obama.

[cavalcade]

I don't think the GOP is going to get one.

[billbillerson]

Mitt will do just fine against Obama. As would Huntsman, but that ship has sailed.

Perry is only going to get worse from here, come super Tuesday it's going to be a clear victory for Mitt.

The only other person who could beat Obama would be Newt.

Regardless, there will be no one else joining the race at this point.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Mitt will do just fine against Obama. As would Huntsman, but that ship has sailed.

Perry is only going to get worse from here, come super Tuesday it's going to be a clear victory for Mitt.

The only other person who could beat Obama would be Newt.

Regardless, there will be no one else joining the race at this point.

I tend to agree, except I think Newt has too much baggage to win against Obama. I do think a debate between the two would be super entertaining though. Can we do that without Newt being the nominee?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Romney is a big concern for me...I love the fact he has great business experience, but I am not sure he could be controlled...BUT, the GOP does have John Boehner and a conservative congress to keep him in check.

If I could get assurances from Romney that would attempt to continue to drain the swamp, cut entitlements, and appoint more Scalia's to the SCOTUS...then I would be on board with a Romney nomination.

I even would be in favor of raising taxes if a 5:1 or 6:1 cuts:taxes type of deal could be reached...and I'm all for massive infrastructure rebuilding as long as it is directed at national infrastructure that would benefit all Americans (like starting the conversion over to nat gas and nuke power)...but I don't want my tax dollars being spent to fix leaking infrastructure at the city level (e.g. Boston's natgas pipe network throughout the city is very old and rusted and has a million leaks, bad enough to smell nat gas on every corner of every street...Bostonians should pay for that, not jmfcst's in Texas....and if your city has allowed it's sewage treatment to degrade, then that's your city's problem, not mine.)

[Torie]

Jmfcst, one thing you don't have to worry about from your perspective is Romney's choice of SCOTUS nominees. They will be very conservative. How could you possibly think otherwise? If I were POTUS, perhaps you might have to worry a tad more. But you don't have that little worry now do you? 

[Zarn]

They real question is who gets a 'second' chance?

Will they take a new hard look at Paul's foreign policy?

Will they give Cain and his antics another glimpse?

Will they give Bachmann just one more opportunity to not sound completely nuts?

Will they begrudgingly see Perry as better than Romney?

Will they want to go old school with Newt?

There is no more room for anyone else.

[milhouse24]

I still think Perry has a better chance at the nomination than Romney, even though I think Romney is a better debater and can beat Obama.  Perry is just not ready for primetime and is not a national candidate. 

Also, going against Perry is that much of the GOP leaders hate him, including Dubya and Karl Rove.  Its hard to win the GOP nomination when Karl Rove is actively working against you. 

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

They real question is who gets a 'second' chance?

the rest are all too extreme (Paul) or tainted (Newt) or both (Santorum).

What the GOP grassroots wanted was a Ryan/Rubio kind of ticket....but Ryan has said no.

...I still think my economic and environmental views (willing to spend on our energy infrastructure in order to keep a good portion of $700B we're sending overseas each year for oil, willing to protect the oceans so that fish stocks can rebound, cutting ties to Japan unless they stop whaling, etc, etc) would be a good sell to the GOP and to the nation during the general election....the problem is these pols, on both sides of the isle, have ZERO imagination to rebuild this country and they stand for very little.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Jmfcst, one thing you don't have to worry about from your perspective is Romney's choice of SCOTUS nominees. They will be very conservative. How could you possibly think otherwise?

because out of the last 4 GOP presidents, Bush43 was the only one to appoint conservatives.  Nixon gave us Berger, Reagan gave us O'Connor and Kennedy, Bush41 gave us the complete disaster known as Souter.

The next GOP president will have a chance to replace Kennedy and possibly Thomas and Scalia and build a conservative majority on the SCOTUS that would last a generation, which would overturn Roe and protect us from the socialism that the next Dem president will try to push.

[Guderian]

Basically every GOP President will look for SCOTUS candidates primarily among Bush-appointed federal judges currently under 60, and those tend to be a pretty conservative bunch. Of course, President can never fully control the outcome of his SCOTUS nominations. I don't think Papa Bush expected Souter to be that liberal nor Thomas to be the most conservative member of the Court since New Deal.

[angus]

The next GOP president will have a chance to replace Kennedy and possibly Thomas and Scalia and build a conservative majority on the SCOTUS that would last a generation, which would overturn Roe and protect us from the socialism that the next Dem president will try to push.

The double-edged sword problem.  What would Romney say to you?  If he sincerely said he'd do just that, then he helps his nomination prospects, but dims his general election chances.

Conversely, if he says he can't sincerely promise that, he increases his general election chances for a general election that never happens because somebody else becomes the nominee.

You see the problem I think.  

[Guderian]

Only people who care about SCOTUS are political junkies. Most voters don't know who the Chief Justice is or anything about the current ideological composition of the Court. It's unlikely that any Court-related comments will play a significant role in primaries or general election.

[Eraserhead]

You're stuck with Perry or Romney at this point. Sorry.

It's starting to get old for me as an observer already too.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

I don't think Papa Bush expected Souter to be that liberal

well, that is what can happen when you don't go with a known quantity and attempt to send up a stleath nominee....of course, his chief of staff from NH should get a lot of the blame also

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

ok, I've decided Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, should end his campiagn for POTUS.  He's obviously not qualified, nor did I ever think he was but I thought we could own him...but, even worse, no one is going to give him the time of day...no one in the Center will take him seriously.  When he talks, they will immediately tune out.

so, who would they listen to....Romney, maybe Newt, ...who else?

[opebo]

ok, I've decided Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, should end his campiagn for POTUS.  He's obviously not qualified, nor did I ever think he was but I thought we could own him...

Um.. who's this 'we'?  You religious zealots?

[Lambsbread]

ok, I've decided Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, should end his campiagn for POTUS.  He's obviously not qualified, nor did I ever think he was but I thought we could own him...but, even worse, no one is going to give him the time of day...no one in the Center will take him seriously.  When he talks, they will immediately tune out.

so, who would they listen to....Romney, maybe Newt, ...who else?

Romney, Hunstman or Ron Paul. Those are the only three of the "major" GOP candidates that could win the independent vote.

Newt's campaign was dead in the water from the start.

[Zarn]

Yeah jmfcst,you got me. Paul is way to extreme by quoting and following this Constitution thing and being viable to independents.

[Mr. Morden]

If I could get assurances from Romney that would attempt to continue to drain the swamp, cut entitlements, and appoint more Scalia's to the SCOTUS...then I would be on board with a Romney nomination.

What happened to the jmfcst who wrote this just a couple of weeks ago?

there is no way the jmfcst's of the gop are going to vote for romney

dude, [Romney] is done, stick a tea bag in him

Romny has no path to the nomination...short him

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

If I could get assurances from Romney that would attempt to continue to drain the swamp, cut entitlements, and appoint more Scalia's to the SCOTUS...then I would be on board with a Romney nomination.

What happened to the jmfcst who wrote this just a couple of weeks ago?

there is no way the jmfcst's of the gop are going to vote for romney

dude, [Romney] is done, stick a tea bag in him

Romny has no path to the nomination...short him

Perry just screwed the pooch in an obvious way, and admitting that any other candidate could surpass Romney would lead to conclusions he would probably dislike even more than "Romney wins"