Time for an update

What a difference 2 years makes.

In our last post, Montana Headlines mused that "We're still making up our minds about Gov. Sarah Palin."

Well, that mind-making-upper process has finished, and the answer to the question of "whether Gov. Palin is the right person to spearhead the GOP's comeback 4 to 8 years from now" has been unequivocally answered to the satisfaction of Montana Headlines.

No.

The fundamental question, as noted in our last post more than two years ago was whether then Gov. Palin had "the intellectual chops" to cut it. As we noted then, by very definition, any conservative will be labeled by the opposition in the Democratic party and in the mainstream media as intellectually deficient. We conservatives are Neanderthals, knuckle-draggers, hicks, dolts -- go ahead and choose your label. The best that we can hope for is to be thought of as having a sort of perversely evil cleverness when we successfully advocate for ideas that are wrong (i.e. conservative.) And the only hope one has for being thought of in any other way by the left is to "evolve." That is to say, move left or at least to stop advocating for conservative postions with vigor.

So while the left has the luxury of saying, "see, we told you from the beginning that Palin didn't have it between the ears," we conservatives have to take the time to judge for ourselves and sort out those who are not intellectually up to the task of high-level political leadership from those who are.

Unfortunately, Sarah Palin falls into the former category. We say unfortunately, because of her many manifest talents (see John Sullivan's comments in the previous post.) But there it is.

So who can carry the banner forward? Certainly not Mitt Romney -- why waste e-ink listing the long list of reasons why even a limping Obama would mop up the floor with him. Mike Huckabee, about whom we have written positively in the past, probably can't do it either. Mitch Daniels? Doesn't seem to want it, and if one thing is necessary to get elected president, it is a primal drive to attain the office. Haley Barbour will run into the double prejudices against Southern accents and the girth police (Chris Christie's accent allows him to stay in the running.) Tim Pawlenty we like a lot -- but does he have the charisma that would be needed to unseat an incumbent?

One of two things will happen. The most likely is that Republicans will follow their old playbook and nominate the next guy in line -- Mitt Romney will go down in blazing defeat and join Bob Dole as a "well, of course he would lose" Republican candidate. To be fair to Republicans, our list of such candidates is much shorter than is the Democratic list of sure losers (Dukakis, Kerry, McGovern, Mondale...) An unresistable aside: If Romney had the financial resources of Huckabee, would he even be on anyone's radar? He has enough money to buy the Republican nomination, but unfortunately not enough to buy the presidency.

The other possibility is that someone will rise to the fore as an unexpectedly effective candidate and leader, and that a hungry Republican base will recognize this and nominate the guy (can't think of any likely women at this point.) An unlikely scenario? Of course. This is the Republican party after all.