News has trickled in the last couple of weeks that a lot of the biggest Republican hopefuls in the 2012 presidential race won’t be throwing their hats in the ring.<\/p>\n
Mike Huckabee?\u00a0 Out.\u00a0 Mitch Daniels?\u00a0 Taking a pass.\u00a0 Donald Trump?\u00a0 It’s back to reality TV for him.<\/p>\n
The message these conservative leaders are sending to voters is pretty simple:\u00a0\u00a0 We’re just not that riled up.<\/p>\n
Consider for a moment that Mr. Huckabee is most popular among the GOP’s socially conservative voters.\u00a0 Those are the people who believe most fervently that something grim is happening to our republic.<\/p>\n
A plurality of “movement” conservatives believe that the nation is currently being led by a foreigner, very likely a closeted Muslim, and almost certainly a socialist eager to tear down our capitalist way of life.<\/p>\n
Since 2008, I’ve been in rooms with these right-of-center voters and they are as passionate, motivated, angry and frightened as people in a democracy can be.<\/p>\n
Mr. Huckabee’s response to these folks — his natural constituents — was summed up in four words:\u00a0 “My heart says no.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Daniels, similarly, bowed out for personal reasons:\u00a0 “[T]he interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all,” he concluded.<\/p>\n
And Mr. Trump — a man who campaigned largely on the idea that our president is a foreign imposter and con-man — bowed out because he has better things to do.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector,” he noted.<\/p>\n
These three aren’t alone, either.\u00a0 Other heavyweights who’ve decided not to take up the banner include Haley Barbour, Chris Christie, and Rudy Giuliani.<\/p>\n
There is one concrete reason for this glaring disconnect between conservative voters, who hope to man the ramparts next year, and many of their leaders who seem so blase.<\/p>\n
Here it is:\u00a0 The vast majority of Republican leaders know that most of the things their followers fear simply aren’t true.<\/p>\n
Yes, they have legitimate differences of opinion with Barack Obama.\u00a0 If they controlled the White House, they would pursue significantly different policies.<\/p>\n
But they also know that most of Mr. Obama’s policies have cleaved fairly closely to the big, sloppy center of American politics.<\/p>\n
The massive government intervention in the economy over the last few years was sparked by the recession, not by the president’s “socialist” tendencies.<\/p>\n
TARP and other policies pursued by this administration — vilified by rank-and-file conservatives — were initiated by the Bush Administration, with the support of many Republicans in congress.<\/p>\n
The element of the healthcare bill most reviled by conservatives, the individual mandate, was supported in the past by Mitt Romney, but also by Newt Gingrich and other GOP leaders.<\/p>\n
Cap-and-trade?\u00a0 Tim Pawlenty was for it before he was against it.<\/p>\n
I cite this litany of philosophical alignments between Mr. Obama and Republican leaders, because it’s one reason for the collective shrug now resonating through the highest ranks of GOP politics.<\/p>\n
Bluntly, if the Republican leadership really believed that the President were a dangerous radical, or that our nation’s existential future and welfare were at stake, we would be seeing the best and the brightest stepping forward, and damn the consequences.<\/p>\n
They would be undaunted by personal issues, or by the lure of hosting Fox News programs, or reality TV shows.\u00a0 Or by the very real challenges of unseating Mr. Obama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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