The G.O.P.’s Empty Stage
By ROSS DOUTHAT
NYT
A month from now, the contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination were supposed to appear at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., for the first of their primary debates. But the list of declared candidates is so pitifully short that last week the debate was postponed until September, to avoid the embarrassment of a stage potentially populated only by Tim Pawlenty and the pizza magnate Herman Cain.
The stage would be full by autumn, the organizers promised. While “too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile,” the Reagan Foundation’s executive director declared, “there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field.”
No doubt the list of candidates will lengthen. But Republicans shouldn’t feel too confident about the “impressive” part. When it comes to challenging Barack Obama for the presidency, the Party of Lincoln looks increasingly like a party of Mario Cuomos. Its biggest names and brightest lights are mainly competing to offer excuses for why they won’t be running in 2012.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, for instance, is convinced that he could capture the White House. “I already know I could win,” he told National Review earlier this year. But he’s apparently too modest to vindicate his boast: “I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t.”
(More here.)
NYT
A month from now, the contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination were supposed to appear at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., for the first of their primary debates. But the list of declared candidates is so pitifully short that last week the debate was postponed until September, to avoid the embarrassment of a stage potentially populated only by Tim Pawlenty and the pizza magnate Herman Cain.
The stage would be full by autumn, the organizers promised. While “too few have made the commitment thus far for a debate to be worthwhile,” the Reagan Foundation’s executive director declared, “there will be a long and impressive list of Republican candidates who eventually take the field.”
No doubt the list of candidates will lengthen. But Republicans shouldn’t feel too confident about the “impressive” part. When it comes to challenging Barack Obama for the presidency, the Party of Lincoln looks increasingly like a party of Mario Cuomos. Its biggest names and brightest lights are mainly competing to offer excuses for why they won’t be running in 2012.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, for instance, is convinced that he could capture the White House. “I already know I could win,” he told National Review earlier this year. But he’s apparently too modest to vindicate his boast: “I’ve got to believe I’m ready to be president, and I don’t.”
(More here.)
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