I like strong principled leaders. They have a certain clarity that creates new and better options and ideas. They make things better. Our current President is fixated on the worst of human nature, demagoging the right as pro rape, pro crime, and pro dirty environment. I really have nothing positive to say about our current President. He makes us want to blame someone else.
Just about anyone of the Republican candidates would be a better president than President Obama. I fear that if President Obama has another term, his 8 years in office will do 20 years of damage to the psyche of our nation. First and foremost, we need to get a new President. We can't hope for a perfect replacement.
In the Las Vegas debate I was frankly unimpressed with Perry's attack of Romney about illegal immigrants working in Romney's garden. I was unimpressed because it is Obama politics's. We need people that can drive us together, not win by driving us apart. We need people that can bring opposing camps together to drive an agreeable solution. Forcing left, then forcing right, just to force left again is terribly unproductive.
I would like a more principle conservative than Romney, but the person is not on the stage yet. We know a lot more about candidates today than we did just a few years ago, or even 20 years ago. In our desire for information and our will to tear down the opposition, we destroy good candidates that are human. Our government is comprised of people that collectively provide leadership. Trying to make one person, our president, into an impossible character in our past vision of a president is an insatiable pursuit.
In the grand scheme of elections, new is not good. Every candidate has warts. We know most of Romney's. At the end of the day he is an honorable person. He may have implemented policies I do not agree on, but no one is saying he is disagreeable. He would not accuse his opponents of being pro rape. He would not make his attack personal. New candidates are bringing great character to the election. But, the Chicago gang has not attacked them yet (and they will). Cain would be a very good president, but his lack of government service will make him vulnerable to the politics and systems of Washington. Gingrich has great ideas, but his leadership is polarizing. Santorium has great principle, but he needs more time to mature. I love Perry's aggressiveness, but once the Obama team digs insiders tell me they are going to find some dirt on Perry that will kill him as a candidate.
This election is probably more about getting rid of Obama than finding the new Ronald Reagan. It could also be an election about getting Washington back a bit to normal where rationale people on either side of the isle collaborate to help the country move forward. Romney is well positioned to be a leader in that situation, RINO or otherwise.
