Delusion alright, but not in the GOP

There is an essay by John Ziegler on American Thinker in which he argues that the withdrawal of Tim Pawlenty dooms the GOP's chances of defeating Barack Obama next year.  He believes that by failing to line up behind Gov. Pawlenty Republicans have proven that they are "delusional".

You can go read his piece for yourselves but his argument boils down to this.  Sarah Palin can't be elected because she resigned her governorship of Alaska before her term was complete and thus became a "quitter".  Of course the fact that Obama quit his Illinois State Senate job to run for the US Senate and then his US Senate job to run for president (if Obama serves out his complete term as POTUS this will be the first elected office he has ever held in which he didn't quit) did not stop him from being elected.

Ron Paul can't win because he is a nut.  Rick Santorum can't win because he opposes the radical gay agenda.  Herman Cain can't win because of his inexperience.  Newt can't win because of the global warming commercial he made with Nancy Pelosi and John Huntsman can't win because he was a part of the Obama administration and has only good things to say about him.

Michelle Bachmann can't win because she is a woman and associated with the Tea Party and is a member of congress in a period when congress isn't popular and Rick Perry can't win because he is from Texas and can therefore be compared to George W Bush.

In Mr. Ziegler's mind the only GOP candidate other than Pawlenty who has even a ghost of a chance of defeating Obama is Mitt Romney but since about half of the GOP primary voters don't like or trust him he probably won't get the nomination.

Unless Republicans stop "deluding" themselves and follow exactly the same kind of campaign "logic" that led them to choose John McCain as their candidate in 2008.

How well did that work out for us?

The fact is that Barack Obama is in the same kind of trouble, and for the same reasons, that Jimmy Carter was in 1980.  He is such a disaster as president that the public will elect someone that they would not otherwise take a chance on just to get rid of him.

Remember that Ronald Reagan was not popular among the moderate wing of the GOP nor among independents.  He would never have gotten the Republican nomination and he would have never won the general election if Carter had not made himself so toxic.  Just like Obama has done.

Obama has become so hateful to conservatives that they will not accept anyone who does not represent a sharp contrast to him in the primaries.  Newt has proven himself to be someone who will stick his finger in the air and say whatever he has to say at any given moment but no one believes him any longer.  Ron Paul is a Libertarian not a conservative.  Mitt Romney still thinks that RomneyCare - the inspiration for ObamaCare - was a good idea (although he believes it should be imposed on the nation state-by-state rather than from Washington).  Huntsman is a serious candidate only to the mainstream media and the more left-leaning wing of the Republican RINO caucus.

Palin, Perry, Bachmann, Cain and Santorum could each probably beat Obama and any of them would be acceptable to the GOP base.  The choice will come down to which one gets Republican primary voters the most fired up and that will be determined by which one is the most willing to attack Obama head on.

The fact is that whoever gets the Republican nomination is going to be savaged by the mainstream media.  They even turned on John McCain and he was their darling - before he tried to defeat B. Hussein Obama.  Choosing our candidate by which one we think will be least offensive to people who hate us and want us to lose is the only way that we can guarantee Obama's reelection.