What does Obama think of the hopefuls?

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

See title.

[© tweed]

he's obviously preferred to not face Romney since the outset.  what he thinks on a personal level, I have no idea.

[TheGlobalizer]

Generally, he's scared to death of the centrists and rooting for the extremists.

I'd probably put Perry at the border between nervousness and quizzical fascination.

[Averroës Nix]

Generally, he's scared to death of the centrists and rooting for the extremists.

I'd probably put Perry at the border between nervousness and quizzical fascination.

I doubt that he's "rooting" for anyone. The Republicans will have a more formidable general election candidate if they choose Romney, but nominating an extremist speaks volumes about where the party - and in turn, the country - stands. This would be a sign of widespread desperation and discontent. Obama might wallop a Perry or a Bachmann (though I doubt Perry would do much worse than Romney), but he'll come off of that victory facing a Republican party that will persist in its obstructionism and inability to compromise. Ceteris paribus, Obama would probably prefer to face an extremist candidate; but the nomination of such a candidate would be a symptom of conditions that are, generally, as bad for Obama as they are for the rest of the country. The problem would not be that Republicans nominated an extremist; the problem would be that Republicans were willing to nominate an extremist.

That said, I expect that Obama is considering the Republican candidates in terms of the general election campaign strategy that would work best against each. Romney, for instance, might be vulnerable to highly populist messaging that portrays him as an elitist with undesirable connections to Wall Street and the financial industry. Perry might be more vulnerable to attacks that rely on negative stereotypes about Southerners and people from rural areas (uneducated, ignorant, racist, etc.) and accusations of corruption or incompetence.

[NHI]

He's probably praying it's anyone but Romney.

[TheGlobalizer]

Generally, he's scared to death of the centrists and rooting for the extremists.

I'd probably put Perry at the border between nervousness and quizzical fascination.

I doubt that he's "rooting" for anyone. The Republicans will have a more formidable general election candidate if they choose Romney, but nominating an extremist speaks volumes about where the party - and in turn, the country - stands. This would be a sign of widespread desperation and discontent. Obama might wallop a Perry or a Bachmann (though I doubt Perry would do much worse than Romney), but he'll come off of that victory facing a Republican party that will persist in its obstructionism and inability to compromise. Ceteris paribus, Obama would probably prefer to face an extremist candidate; but the nomination of such a candidate would be a symptom of conditions that are, generally, as bad for Obama as they are for the rest of the country. The problem would not be that Republicans nominated an extremist; the problem would be that Republicans were willing to nominate an extremist.

That said, I expect that Obama is considering the Republican candidates in terms of the general election campaign strategy that would work best against each. Romney, for instance, might be vulnerable to highly populist messaging that portrays him as an elitist with undesirable connections to Wall Street and the financial industry. Perry might be more vulnerable to attacks that rely on negative stereotypes about Southerners and people from rural areas (uneducated, ignorant, racist, etc.) and accusations of corruption or incompetence.

I agree with all of that, but when it comes down to it, the nominees are going to have a lot of time to argue post-convention, and extremists are much more likely to push independents to Obama or out of the electorate given sufficient exposure for their views.  Obama has a floor as an incumbent; we don't know if he'll stop the economy from imploding (or, better said, stop imploding the economy himself) but at least we're pretty sure he's not going to nuke Iran or try to impose Biblical law.

[Jacobtm]

Obama's excited but actually a little nervous to run against George Bush Rick Perry

[izixs]

The President very likely has game plans for any of the possible nominees at this point. Most of which would rely upon making the nominee the face of the entire Republican party in order to not just paint that candidate as dangerous for the country but the Republicans in congress and the senate as well. Because remember, even if he's looking very good for reelection due to facing a weak candidate, there's a ton of senate seats to defend and a house to win back.

So that leaves Romney (and a very outside chance of a Huntsman, Gingrich, or Christie if he magically appears and doesn't get painted as a liberal 3 seconds after declaring). These guys who in various fashions are good at painting themselves as reasonable in some fashion would very very likely be forced to pick a very tea-baggage centric VP. The best the Republicans could do would be a Romney/Perry ticket provided that the nomination contest is very long and Romney doesn't win it out right early on. Because that would mean that Perry was enough of a tea party darling to last through an extended season and thus has de facto become a full tea party person in appearance while lacking the extremism or flim-flammery that's quite visible in your standard tea party darling. If Perry looses early on then he'll be seen as not being tea party enough to stand up to Mittens and the evil moderate hoards and so they'll be itching for someone way more obviously crazy.

Romney could of course pick a non-tea-hadist person for VP but risks returning the tea party folks to 2008 levels of enthusiasm or worse. He might be able to pull off something where he picks someone he can paint as belonging to that nebulous group in some fashion who's actually on the sane end of things enough not to frighten people, but that would be insanely difficult to pull off.

Long story short, Obama would probably be happiest with a fringer, but is expecting the eventual opposing ticket to be at least half ways slamable for being extremists, thus allowing for a replay of the 2008 equation.

[The Mikado]

I think it's pretty obvious (as everyone here has already indicated) that he sees Romney as the most dangerous opponent.  Past that, who knows.

[Ⓐnarchy in the ☭☭☭P!]

He wouldn't want to face Romney because Romney has an okay chance of victory, and he wouldn't want to face Paul because he has around the same chances as Romney in addition to bringing up uncomfortable topics even if he lost.

[Averroës Nix]

He wouldn't want to face Romney because Romney has an okay chance of victory, and he wouldn't want to face Paul because he has around the same chances as Romney in addition to bringing up uncomfortable topics even if he lost.

Not if Obama swiftboats Ron Paul by alleging that his campaign is actually an elaborate hoax to raise funds to purchase Manitoba from collaborators in the Canadian government.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

He's only afraid of Paul. In fact they all are afraid if Paul gets the nod.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

He's only afraid of Paul. In fact they all are afraid if Paul gets the nod.

lol

[cavalcade]

Pretty clearly thinks Romney and Huntsman would be the hardest to beat.  On a personal level, i.e. what he would think about them if they weren't trying to take his job, my guess is

Likes: Huntsman

Neutral: Perry

Dislikes: Cain, Paul, Gingrich, Santorum

Hates: Bachmann, Romney

[Oakvale]

He's only afraid of Paul. In fact they all are afraid if Paul gets the nod.

lol

I always find it interesting that the only people who believe this happen to be Paulbots. What a funny coincidence.

[Lambsbread]

His response to Perry.