Seriously, is it just me or is everyone else appalled at the complete lack of quality of what gets foisted upon us for national office?  These people can’t debate.  They can’t offer reasonable plans.  They can’t take a stand and stick to it.  They can’t keep their pants on.  They can’t avoid putting their feet in their mouths up to the knee.  Granted, one or the other may be able to manage avoiding a couple of these pitfalls but they’ll walk face first into another.  I know people like this in real life.  I understand nobody is perfect.  But none of the successful people I know regularly makes these kinds of mistakes under pressure.  They aren’t carting a thousand pounds of baggage with them, either.  Part of the reason they are successful is because they did not personally self destruct at the first hint of accomplishment.

More, they know who the enemy is, why he’s their enemy and to at least be prepared for what such an enemy will do.  They have appropriate rebuttals.  And if money grubbers say nasty and unsupportable things they step on those gold-diggers with lawyers and evidence and a history of personal integrity.  They don’t fumble around with inconsistencies while playing CYA.  But then they’ve never put themselves in a position for such claims to gain traction in the first place.  In short I, and I am certain you, too, know a better grade of people than what we keep seeing put up by the Establishment as “leaders”.  If these people can’t lead their campaigns through the mine field of leftist extremists(by definition the Democrat Party) and the salivating Drive By Media how the hell are they supposed to lead a nation?  Let alone lead it back from the brink it’s been taken to by the incompetent US-Hater currently soiling the White House?

Most important, perhaps, would be why does the “Party Elite” keep offering these losers?

Because of this proclivity for finding the worst among us the Republican Party is once again in the process of snatching defeat from the jaws of certain victory.  The upcoming presidential election is already a wash for conservatives.  The best we can do is replace Obama with a warm body which is, admittedly, a step up.  But we could have had more.  We should have had more.  This nation is full of successful, honorable, intelligent, constitutionally well versed men and women who could hold the office with dignity.  Instead we get the usual cadre of politicians and lawyers and poseurs who make easy pickings for the enemy and its smear machine.  Why?  Is the Old Guard Republican Party that outright stupid?  Do they have a reason to want to lose?  Is it that important to them to barely hang on by appealing to a non-existent segment the media euphemistically calls “Moderates”?  I don’t know, but I do know we can’t keep this up, swapping between the high-speed-rail to hell(the Socialist Democrat Party) and the diesel freight train to hell.

Unfortunately it’s too late for this time around barring some kind of miracle.  We’re going to get a flip-flopper with baggage for a president.  Or we’ll get Obama II which this nation simply can’t endure for another 4 years.  So finally I find myself on the ABO bandwagon, even if that means Mittens Romney.  But in being reduced to this once again we have got to do damage control.  That means it’s time to let this presidential circus come to it’s eventual absurd conclusion while we pursue getting the most conservative House and Senate we can.  We can not allow the Dems to hold the Senate.  We can not allow them remain meaningful in the House.  And we can not settle for “electability” in our congressional candidates.  We’ve got to set a higher standard there and we’ve got to pack CONgress with decent conservatives who will steer a Romney or Newt and totally block Obama if he wins again.

Otherwise we are going to see the end of this Republic this time around.  What comes after may still be called the US but it won’t be anything the Founders, or even our grandparents, would recognize as a free nation of liberty and individualism.  This is the election that decides between Republic and banana republic and we’re already stuck with the rear guard option.  So get busy, it’s later than you think.

I don’t like Ron Paul, but I do like his message.  Dr Paul may or may not be a nice enough guy.  No question he’s been a consistent supporter of our Constitution for his entire political career.  I don’t dislike him on a personal level because I don’t know the man.  But as a presidential candidate he’s lacking.  He’s weak in debates and he’s weak in interviews.  He’s not a politician who inspires people and these days, if not always in the past, that is a requirement for a presidential candidate.  Sadly, despite our nation’s dire straits, this is once again a personality race first and issues trail somewhere far down the list.  Thus Paul can’t beat Mittens or Perry…though he has Huntsman and Bachman in the bag.

What we need to find as Conservatives and Constitutionalists is a genetic hybrid of Dr Paul, Governor Perry and Sarah Palin.  A Constitutional literalist with a grizzly bear mentality and a polished political persona.  And that person needs to be able to speak well and with only the bare minimum of gaffes.  I mean, seriously people, I could do better in front of the camera than anyone we have seen in politics since Reagan and, maybe Clinton.  In fact, we need Slick Willy but with a constitutional bent and a moral center.  We need Ronald Reagan resuscitated, rolled back to age 50 and given a crash course in constitutionalism by Ron Paul.  Not that President Reagan lacked a grasp of it but he was too willing to go along to get along.  That’s how he was snookered by the Dems; a mistake Paul wouldn’t make.

So what do we do?  What’s the answer for 2012, since Ron Paul is not going to get elected, or even nominated.  Since we can not afford 4 more years of Obama.  Since the best we can hope for is probably Perry…  I refuse to even consider Mittens because we might as well HAVE 4 more years of Obama if that’s who the ‘pub leadership gives us to “support”.  Since it’s conceivable we won’t have a financially viable nation by 2016 if we don’t do something soon we need to start focusing on more of the solution than just nominating a conservative.  We need to start pushing the likely nominee to do the right things to keep this nation viable for another 4 or 8 years.  And my solution is not to say let’s push for Dr Paul for VP.

Not what you were expecting, eh?

No, the best candidate we have right now in a two party environment is Rick Perry.  We need Herman Cain as his VP pick.  We need to put Dr Paul over the Treasury and we need to start lobbying both he and Perry for this arrangement now.  While we still have time and before things get so rushed that no organized push is even possible.  In doing it this way we get what we need, even if we have to spread it over three people.  Perry provides the dynamic politician.   A “leader” figure that US Citizens, sadly, demand.   A younger Reagan who can be presented as the conservative we need…whether he is or not.  Herman Cain is the smarts.  Not that Perry is dumb because he isn’t.  But Cain has business savvy and this nation needs that now.  Right now.  Even before the election, but there’s nothing we can do until then so oh well.  And then we have the Paulster.  Dr Paul over the Treasury.

Think about that.  Imagine the Fed running scared.  Imagine no more fiat paper “money” being printed for every random, pointless banker-loving bailout the porker good-ol-boy politicians of both parties can dream of.  Imagine someone actively pushing for an audit of the Fed.  Someone pushing for veto of every unconstitutional bill that comes through the Oval Office.  Backed by a business man with common sense experience in how things work.

It’s not perfection.  We need to find this trifecta in one person to run in 2020.  But for this coming election it’s the best idea I can see that has a chance of happening.  It’s the most effective way of staving off ruin, if not actually saving the nation, we have available to us in the few short months before November 2012.  And despite how far off that may seem it’s not.  It’s tomorrow.  You’ll wake up and it’ll be here.  So get past the argument over the nominee; it has to be Perry because that’s what we’ve got to work with.  Get past that and worry about making sure Mittens goes home and Perry picks the best, read effective, people to support him in the crucial areas.  Start pushing now, all of you who want to see Paul in a position to make a difference and Cain in a place to pull the race card out of the Dems greasy hands.  Because otherwise when you wake up tomorrow Mittens will be your man, just like McCain was, and you’ll be stuck with the choice, once more, of the lesser of two evils.

Personally I can’t abide that choice yet again.  Whether I like Ron Paul or not, we need is ideals and however we get them into power it beats the alternative.