Which Republican has the best chance of getting the party’s nomination for president?

Jon Gordon Aug 12, 2011
27

Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty traded jabs at a debate in Ames, Iowa last night ahead of Saturday’s Iowa straw poll. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry says he’ll enter the race. Today’s Question: Which Republican has the best chance of getting the party’s nomination for president?

  • Ryan Johnson

    If Obama is to be beaten it will not be through the soundbyte and that out rules Bachmann but a stringent conservative as Kerry was Liberal in 04 is passionate it will be 2016 when the White House is lost.

  • david

    The one that least deserves it, but that’s how the GOP rolls these days.

  • uptownZombie

    Of those currently running I would say Bachmann. Not that I enjoy seeing someone as radical and naive being put into a position where they could possibly lead the country, but her strong emotions about topics she’s talking about (whether her statements are based in truth or not is another matter) really strike a cord with a lot of people.

    All that being said, I predict Palin will jump in the race as late as she possibly can (deadlines for forms and all) and try to sweep up a victory. Hell, maybe her and Bachmann can jump on the same ticket. That’d be a hoot.

    *sigh*

  • Stevie Rawn

    Hopefully no Republican will win the Presidential Race, but Romney stands the best chance of winning the GOP nomination. I can’t believe anyone would want Pawlenty to do to the country what he did to Minnesota. We are having to be left mopping up what Pawlenty left us with, namely a deficit over $5 billion. Do we really want that?

  • Romney, experience running, has the organization, and will raise the most money. The GOP and the tea-party will shift to the center when they realize that they have a chance with Romney.

  • Julie

    If the news media was free, and all candidates were treated equally, Ron Paul is by far the best candidate and he would win.

    He represents the majority of people:

    End all wars,

    End homeland security, privatize the TSA (like it was),

    End the Federal Reserve,

    Back our money with gold,

    End the war on drugs, legalize all, tax all,

    And many more great ideas that NONE of the other candidates Republican or Democrat.

  • david

    I too wish people would really give Ron Paul a serous looking at, but like I said the GOP won’t nominate the person that would be the best for the job, but the best for their corrupt overlords ,i.e. another puppet like moron bush.

  • Jim B.

    I suspect it will be Romney, although I think Pawlenty would be the better choice. And after hearing him on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” I’m also a fan of Gary Johnson. 🙂

  • Clark

    Anyone is better then clueless community organizer Obama. He is like a deer in the headlights dealing with the problems of the U.S. Economy. Same old penalize success and reward failure. Democrats equate his command of English syntax with a mark of a great intellect. Still a big supporter of Pawlenty but most electable republican unlikely to win nomination.

  • Alex

    I really hope that Bachmann gets it and stays in past the time she can have her seat again.

    You can only hide the crazy for so long. 🙂

  • David Rogde

    Clark thinks he has disguised his bigotry and racism: he hasn’t.

  • greg

    Texas Governor Rick Perry. He’s everyting the party really wants. He’s been a state executive. He acts like he’s teflon and nothing is his fault. He is fecklessly Christian and wears it on his proudly sleeve. He looks good on a poster. He’s a man. He’s part of the internal GOP machine already – not just a gadfly. He’s popular “enough” with the Tea party set. And when he announces next week and absorbs the marketing bump from Iowa the rest will be trying to explain the bruises they got in Iowa to an unlistening media.

  • greg

    Ala Tater Salad ( aka Ron White) and a word to the Republican Pary – “You can’t fix stupid”

  • Ron

    At this point, my *guess* is Romney.

    T-Paw is already on the outs, Paul has to deal with the baggage of the Tea Party, Bachmann stands a very good chance of doing something completely objectionable to her own party and flaming out before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, Cain isn’t even on the radar and Palin is too busy cashing checks to be bothered with entering the campaign.

    Perry is interesting and I think will actually win the Iowa caucus, appealing to the hard, hard right who actually control in the Republican side of the Iowa caucus these days (remember ’08), but will suffer the same fate as Huckabee.

    Just a guess, though. It is early.

  • Zeke

    Lyndon LaRouche ;^)

  • Chris

    Rick Perry.

    T-Paw is lame and everyone knows it. Bachmann is a moron and can’t get moderates to vote for her. Romney has been down this road before and lost to McCain who wasn’t that great.

    I would like to see Huntsman or even Ron Paul have a chance but the GOP really isn’t interested in people who have plans that actually solve problems. They prefer candidates who actually increase gov spending by putting it on the card.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Whoever is best able to do these three things

    1. pander to the reactionary mad hatters of the Tea Party;

    2. appease the single-issue anti-abortion theocrats among the religious right (so-called); and

    3. raise money from plutocrats by promising to reduce regulation and sacrifice the social safety net to keep taxes low.

  • Ben

    My Super-PAC money is on

    Rick Parry with an ‘A’.

  • Joe Conrad

    Bachmann is WAY to polarizing to have a shot in a general ellection…although that might be the very thing that gets her the Republican nod.

    Romney probably has the best shot at beating Obama. Which would be really amusing, since you would then essentially have two moderate Republicans running against each other, and arguing over their Republican health care plans.

  • Roul

    I don’t think anyone can beat the most experienced community organizer who pals around with dictator Chavez, or that he is directed by George Soros on economic plans ( OK..so what if 80 year old billionair Soros is accused of rape and assault on his 28 yr.old girlfriend?

    The media won’t cover any story that is negative toward Obama’s closest adviser or any of his friends such as Bill the 60’s Pentagon bomber) Ayers. That said, the GOP can’t win as long as the mainstream media controls the air waves. Even CNN did a story today that started of with ” Rick Perry is GW Bush on Steroids) a cheap commentary from some liberal news editor_ cheap slams from CNN. No wonder it is only those with IQ scores well above 100 and that have actually worked for a living, that watch Fox News news broadcast.

  • bill

    Someone who is a CPA and attorney is a moron? Seriously? I can see the press treating her as shabbily as Sen. Clinton was.

    It’s hard to beat an incumbent and the Pres has a very good ground machine. Barone has an article earlier this week about how different and better the candidate has to be.

    If being Pres is like being a CEO, then I would go for Romney or Cain. Romney has the best experience (turning around the Utah Olympics, doing OK as Gov) but suffers from religious bias. Cain has major experience too.

  • suzie

    Obama is the incumbent and the Dems wouldn’t dare nominate someone else. The bunch last night plus the add-on are what the Rep’s are offering.

    We’re screwed if this is the best the parties have to offer.

  • Tim

    The Republican that should get the party’s nomination for president?

    Ron Paul.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Raoul, would you cut it out with the ridiculous myth of liberal bias in “mainstream media” please? It hasn’t had anything close to a liberal bias since the early ’90s, when they started responding to criticism that they’re too liberal by bending over backward to be “fair” to the extreme right wing, giving pronouncements from conservative hotheads way more credence than they deserve. I remember when it started. It was during the Gulf War, when SLN was satirizing liberal reporters asking stupid questions of the generals at press conferences. Ever since then, mainstream media organization have been over-compensating to the point of actually having a conservative bias. Not even NPR has been immune, though less so than other news outlets. And the more the media are deregulated, the more big businesses have controlled it, and the more it has been biased toward small-government conservatism (with the sole exception of MSNBC, which is capitalizing on a niche market).

  • Kevin VC

    The one so far off reality it will remind people of Willie E. Coyote who ended up off a cliff of the grand cayon before Buggs Bunny reminds him of the law of Gravity.

    Then again reality, science, and well listening not the current strong point of ANY of the candidates but that seems to be what they are racing for.

  • rose

    I DON’T CARE.

    The republican party needs to better define who they are. Right now the current front runners are still suffering from the Bush era image of being “non articulate”, “dumb”, “hot headed” and “implusive”. I switch them off.

    Having said that, the democrates could also improve by demonstrating more leadership, immediate decision making and once informed take more risk.

  • Patrick

    As usual the one with the most money and elitist backers.

    Pawlenty fizzled and died, as he should. His sniffly-nosed fox disguise could not cover up what an idiot he be.

    If Ron Paul could lose all that social consevative baggage in an Alabama bus stop he might even get my vote.

    Has the media explored the execution of an innocent man in Texas signed by Rick Perry? He refused to accept new DNA evidence that proved innocense. He should be tried for third degree murder. But then the guy executed was black so it doesn’t matter in Texas.

    I hope all the financiers jump aboard Romney’s cadillac, the stock market crashes again, and Washington DC slides into the Atlantic. Three dodos with one stone.