Our prayers might be answered: Christie to decide on 2012 bid.

[President von Cat]

For crying out loud, your prayers have been answered for years.

I do not understand why the right doesn't want Mitt Romney as its standard bearer. He can beat Obama in the general, and will fight for most of what they stand for once elected. Yet the base keeps looking around frantically for someone else - Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, etc. What seems to be the problem? Is it because he is a Mormon? Stop being bigots. Is it because of "Obamneycare"? Stop being so dogmatic. Is it because he is a blue state Republican? Stop being so Southern. For goodness sake!

What is Chris Christie really going to add to this race? He's going to split the moderate vote even further, which means Romney stands to lose by his entry. Plus he is way overrated and isn't even that popular in his home state.

Romney has the most potential to hand 2012 to Republicans on a silver platter. Whats that they say about a gift horse's mouth?

[President von Cat]

The problem with Romney is that he is a status quo type of guy...he's not going to be real change....I would trust Christie a lot more than I would Romney.  NJ>>MA

How is Romney status quo? He will be a Republican taking over from a Democrat, which suggests that he will hold different views than Obama does on the government's role in a free market economy. Romney is likely to change economic policy quite a bit. Not to mention he will shape the trajectory of Obama's health reforms, or kill them entirely.

And you can't compare records that simply. Christie is shaking things up in Jersey, sure, but did Romney really need to do that in MA?  As governor, Romney faced a 2000s Massachusetts which had vastly problems than a 2010s New Jersey.

[President von Cat]

"Anti-spending Republicans" will be an oxymoron the instant they are given the keys to the White House. They didn't become "anti-spending" until they were kicked out of power completely in 2008, and its been a wonderful marriage of convenience.

[President von Cat]

Who's the hot girl in bryan's sig? Is she Afghan?

Pakistani foreign minister.

Damn, that's impressive and stereotype breaking for a position like that. That instantly makes you think some wrinkly balding guy.

She was born in 1977, which is extremely young for a FM.

[President von Cat]

Politico has run a blog post featuring comments by FL strategist Ana Navarro, which elaborates on what I was trying to say a few pages back:

Florida warning for Romney?

Mitt Romney's campaign has done a clever job of gaming the straw-poll circuit this cycle. By declaring that he simply wouldn't compete in these events, Romney has largely managed to write off unimpressive finishes in Iowa and Florida, while winning a lower-profile victory in Michigan.

But even if the perception hasn't been bad for Romney, the reality of the Iowa and Florida straw poll results isn't entirely encouraging.

Florida strategist Ana Navarro, who is supporting Jon Huntsman, emails five reasons why Romney's third-place finish in the Presidency 5 straw poll should be interpreted as a warning sign for the former Massachusetts governor:


    1) He has been coming to Florida and building a network here for over 6 years. Has been in the state countless times and the best he could do was get 14 percent?

    2) Many saw him as winning the debate and definitely besting Perry in the debate and yet, the best he could do was come in 3rd, and 23 points behind Cain?

    3) People who dropped their support for Perry, did not turn to Romney as an alternative. They turned to Herman Cain and just about everybody else but Romney.

    4) He had benefited from this being labeled and depicted as a two-man race between him and Perry. It's hard to still call it that.

    5) Mitt Romney has 100% name recognition amongst Florida Republicans. Less than 4 years ago, he spent lavishly in the state. And yet, people aren't going to him, they continue looking for a Romney alternative. People that haven’t gone with Romney-whether donors, activist, electeds, whatever — it's not because they don't know Romney, it is because they do know Romney and don’t want to go there. I heard that over and over again these last three days. After 6 years of campaigning in Florida, he is still not connecting.

The Rick Perry team made some of the same points yesterday. That was a tougher sell for them, though, since as Navarro points out, voters moved to Cain because they were rejecting both Romney and Perry.

But while Romney lowered expectations for his performance in the straw polls this season, some of his Florida supporters clearly thought he had an opportunity to stand out this weekend. State Sen. John Thrasher, a former state GOP chairman and Romney supporter, had predicted his candidate would do "very well" on Saturday.

It's not a shock at this point that conservatives aren't wildabout Mitt Romney. But even as his latest challenger of the month stumbles, it's worth remembering that Romney isn't close to closing the deal with the activist core of his own party. Or eliminating the demand for a new candidate in the field.

[President von Cat]

Nice find, Bryan.  On another note, who's that in your signature?

Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister of Pakistan. I think the Thai PM I had before is a lot sexier, though this FM definitely has it going on.

To be clear. Jon Huntsman is practically irrelevant to this campaign, and anything written by his acolytes is likely to be so heavily biased that its connection to reality is loose and largely coincidental. Call me crazy

Crazy? No. Missing the big picture? Definitely. You can't dismiss the strategists' argument because she is a Huntsman adviser, especially when she has no agenda. Huntsman isn't exactly on Romney's tail in Florida.

[President von Cat]

I am absolutely baffled as to why some of you Republicans are so intent on not winning the 2012 election.