Competence Does Not Replace Passion

Ahh, the establishment conservative media is lining up behind their favorite Republican presidential candidates. Real and or imagined.
It appears that the New York Times house negro, er conservative, David Brooks, is looking at two former governors. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. And to Mr. Brooks, the rest of the field are also rans.
Conservative insider, George Will, says that there are only five "plausible" Republican contenders for the presidential nod. And here they are according to Mr. Will:


Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Utah governor and departing ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.


OK, a lot to quibble about with saying that this is it for the Republican party. But read the whole column by Mr. Will. It a righteous rant against one the Reverend Mike Huckabee and all but citing Birther propaganda about the Dear Leader, President Obama. The thrust of the column is that some Republicans are playing to such outliers as the Birthers and the like.
In some defense of the Rev. Mike, I do believe that he did mean Indonesia and not Kenya as where the Dear Leader, President Obama, spent some of his childhood. And I do believe that some of that time did get ingrained into a young Barack Obama that the United States was not all that great a nation. But he did speak stupidly and to some people, it is why he should not even be considered top tier.
A lot of people on the Republican side believe that it does not matter who the Republicans nominate. That the Dear Leader will win a second term.
That is a later post.
But back to this winnowing the field on the of the Republican establishment.
If Mr. Brooks and Mr. Will are right, the Republicans of 2012 will make the mistake that the Democrats made in 2004. They will nominate someone "electable" and nothing more.
And that, my friends, will lead to a second term for the Dear Leader, President Obama.
Let me offer why there are other, realistic and good potential candidates out there for the Republican party.
Passion.
Say what you want about passion, but it does often replace the whole argument being made by the so-called grown ups.
You know whose campaign had a huge amount of passion?
Why that of the current Dear Leader, President Obama. Only then he was known around here as Sen. Messiah Barack.
Just ask President Hilary Clinton how being a "grown up" got her to the White House.
Oops! My bad.
Again, the one with the passion and boundless support was then Sen. Messiah Barack.
In an unrelated story, The Other McCain pointed out how lousy a campaign former Sen. Carol Mosely Braun ran for mayor of Chicago. But in that piece was this link to how Sen. Clinton essentially blew her campaign.
Remember kids, she was the inevitable candidate. She was the only "grown up" in the Democrat field. She was a first lady, a senator and well, you know the rest of the story.
Let me tell you why all of the above, with the possible exception of Mr. Romney, are not what is needed for the Republican party in 2012.
Take Jon Huntsman. Please. I mean it. How is this guy going to explain to Republican voters why he became the Dear Leader, President Obama's ambassador to Red China? And what makes him much different than Mr. Romney? Maybe because he comes off a little less, oh how shall I write this, rough around the edges on the pesky social issues? Really, Mr. Huntsman is but a technocrat and while it may work as a governor, to run for president, you really have to get people excited to vote for you. Do not see it in Mr. Huntsman.
Ditto for Mitch Daniels. Again, he has waffled on the social issues as well. Yes, I do agree that this election will come down to the economy. And for many of us conservative Republicans, Gov. Daniels has been wonderful. But again, it appears that Gov. Daniels will not talk about anything else but the economy. And the reality is that our foreign policy, or lack of one, will rear its ugly head. As well as, like it or not, social issues.
Tim Pawlenty is a good guy, but he supported Sen. John "F--- You" McCain early on and that was not a good judgement on his part. Would things have turned out differently if he had supported someone else? I am not sure. But Mr. Pawlenty came out early and it did help the campaign in the long run. I can not see rewarding T-Paw with the Republican nod for backing the worse candidate this side of Sen. Bob Dole.
And I like Haley Barbour. He has been a great governor for Mississippi. But, he has been governor of Mississippi. Like it or not, and I do not like it, Gov. Barbour is from as Deep South as one can get. He came of age during the epic civil rights struggles of the 1960s. And while not anything like a Klansman or anything like that, he certainly does not come off all that engaged in the time. And the optics and sounds, Southern White conservative vs. Northern Black liberal. It just gives many cringes. And it may, wrongly I believe, turn people away.
And I come back to Mr. Romney.
He needs to want to be president. He needs to have the fire in the belly. He needs to talk about his time as governor of Massachusetts. He does need to explain RomneyCare in an easy to understand way. He needs to admit its faults and the good aspects of it. And he needs to keep hammering away the fact that what works, or doesn't work, in Massachusetts does not need to be made for the whole United States. He needs to make those of us who have supported him to want to do so. He needs to get us excited.
Which leads to some potential candidates that the establishment can not stand.
I don't care for the Rev. Mike Huckabee. But he does come off as someone that wants to be president. He cares about issues and it shows. He has baggage, but supporters will not care. They will crawl through broken glass for the guy.
Same for Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor. She has also mastered Facebook, Twitter and modern technology to get her message out there. And she has not been afraid to mix it up with fellow Republicans. Just ask Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.
And he is another fellow that has passion for trying to straighten the ship in hapless New Jersey. He ruffles the feathers and says some things that need to be said. And he is saying them with passion and like that parent that has to tell tough truths to the kiddies.
Since Richard Nixon became president in 1968, Americans want some one that relates to them on a level. Nixon did that with the "Silent Majority". Ford came in 1975, tried the Return To Normalcy, but he was in a lousy position from the get go. And some guy named Ronald Reagan said it is time to change course in the Republican party. He did not do so in 1976, but made Gerald Ford a better candidate. But nothing could compare to the peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmah Carter. He came off as a regular guy becoming the leader of the Free World. OK, maybe a little too regular. Way too much baggage and he just came off as in over his head. Then came along Ronald Reagan. He inspired people to be better. That we are Americans and we can do anything. In other words, Mr. Reagan to many was the embodiment of the American Dream. George H. W. Bush seemed to be the cool cat compared to the Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Michael Dukakis. But, a cooler guy, the guy that could feel our pain, Bill Clinton, came along and won two terms with less than 50% of the popular vote each time. But talk about baggage. And tawdriness. He left a bad taste in many an American's mouth. And then came along George W. Bush. Promising to restore honor to the White House. And we come to our current leader, the Dear Leader, President Obama, the first Black to be elected president.
What all these candidates had in common is that they won hard-fought campaigns because their supporters would do anything to get out and vote for them. And to bring others to the fold. Oddly, all those that lost seemed to be competent and electable. To a certain group of people.
Bottom line is that while competency is very important, a candidate has to have people want to vote for them. Not against a candidate. That shows in every campaign when the loser usually throws everything but the kitchen sink to try to thwart the other guys. It just does not work.
As the headline says competence does not replace passion. And the Republicans better realize that before it is too late.