The Republican Party has a real opportunity next year to transform Barack Obama — a politician whose triumphant election was history-making — into Jimmy Carter Revisited.<\/p>\n
The sour economy and Mr. Obama’s own surprisingly lackluster political chops have created a big opening.\u00a0 But toppling a sitting president is tough.<\/p>\n
It took a Ronald Reagan to shove aside Carter.\u00a0 And it took a Bill Clinton to edge out the first George Bush.<\/p>\n
The problem this year for conservatives is that, far from anointing that caliber of challenger, the GOP appears stuck in silly season.<\/p>\n
Week-by-week, the party flirts with embracing candidates who are, by every credible measure, unelectable.\u00a0 Michele Bachman, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are, collectively, backbenchers.<\/p>\n
The goofiness continued yesterday with Herman Cain’s straw poll win in Florida.<\/p>\n
Each of these candidates represent a tiny, ideological slice of the Republican or Tea Party movements.\u00a0\u00a0 Some have interesting ideas, and play an important role in the national debate.<\/p>\n
But they lack the organization, the money,\u00a0 the experience, and the broadly appealing platforms that translate into serious presidential aspirations.<\/p>\n
All political parties have fringes, and fringe candidates, but I can’t think of a prior election where so many candidates with resumes this thin were taken so seriously by so many for so long.<\/p>\n
The silly season may have reached a peak last week, when former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson cracked a joke during a Fox News debate, arguing that “My next door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this president.”<\/p>\n
A great wise-crack, worth of a couple of repeats in the highlight reel.\u00a0 But Charles Krauthammer, the hugely influential conservative columnist quickly inflated the moment into another full-blown flirtation:<\/p>\n
“That was the best line of the night,” said Krauthammer, “and had he said it early on, he might now be a top tier candidate.”<\/p>\n
A top-tier candidate?\u00a0 Please.\u00a0 I bet most of you reading this column wouldn’t recognize Gary Johnson if he bumped into you on the street.<\/p>\n
The biggest lingering question for the GOP is whether Rick Perry, the current governor of Texas, can prove that he’s more than a member of this supporting cast — more than another flirtation.<\/p>\n
During last week’s debate, he failed to convince most pundits across the political spectrum.\u00a0 Politico ran with the headline “Texas toast.\u00a0 Perry worries GOP.”<\/p>\n
And his answer to a question about nuclear missiles going AWOL in Pakistan was particularly damaging, prompting the on-line news magazine to conclude<\/a> that “Perry gave a foreign policy answer that offered no indication he\u2019s thought about how to respond to threats against America…”<\/p>\n Combined with some of his past statements — about Social Security, secession, the Federal Reserve — it’s unclear whether Perry can graduate from provocative to presidential.<\/p>\n (For what it’s worth, Perry finished more than 20 points behind Cain in yesterday’s Florida straw poll.)<\/p>\n Mitt Romney, who is slowly emerging as the establishment candidate for the GOP, hopes that missteps like this will set him apart and make it clear that he’s the grown-up in the room.<\/p>\n But there is evidence, at least in the political press, that the silly season will continue, forcing Romney to continue scrambling.\u00a0 After all, he came in third in Florida’s poll.<\/p>\n