So, who’s it gonna be?

I’ve been asked this question at least a dozen times since Wednesday morning.

Who’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be? Who’s it gonna be?

My answer has been a sheepish, “I really don’t know”.

I wish I had more insight, but as you all know there’s so much that can happen in four years that it’s virtually impossible to guess the Republican nominee for 2012 with any certainty.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not about to do that, but this is just my way of covering my hide if my prediction is incorrect.

I do find this obsession with naming the next Republican nominee rather humorous. All I ever hear from people is how much they “hate the election” or “can’t wait for this election to be over”, yet less than 12 hours after figuring out that Obama beat McCain, people were already on the edge of their seats, ready for the next election to come. A little consistency would be nice, people!

Here is my list of the early front-runners for the GOP’s nomination in 2012, in no particular order:

• Mitt Romney- Former Governor of Massachusetts and Businessman- 61
• Bobby Jindal- Current Governor of Louisiana-37
• Mike Pence- Current Congressman of Indiana-49
• Sarah Palin-Current Governor of Alaska-44
• Tim Pawlenty-Current Governor of Minnesota-47
• Eric Cantor-Current Congressman of Virginia-45
• Paul Ryan-Current Congressman of Wisconsin-38
• Mike Huckabee-Former Governor of Arkansas and current contributor to Fox News-53
• Mitch Daniels-Current Governor of Indiana-59
• Charlie Crist-Current Governor of Florida-52

As I said, it’s virtually impossible to see what’s going to happen four years from now, but I would be fairly surprised if the 2012 Republican nominee for president isn’t on this list.

If I had to categorize these people into groups of strong, average and weak, I would probably go this way:

Strong
• Pawlenty
• Jindal
• Palin

Average
• Daniels
• Crist
• Pence
• Ryan

Weak
• Cantor
• Huckabee
• Romney

In regards to name recognition, devoted supporters and election experience, Palin clearly has the advantage over everyone. Conversely, she has more negatives then they all do. The visceral hatred for Palin that the Left demonstrated was shocking and that may be a liability for her as well. Jindal’s Indian ancestry shows the party’s diversity and his conservative beliefs, performance during Hurricane Gustav and overwhelming popularity are all pluses for the Louisiana Governor. Tim Pawlenty is another young Governor with a strong conservative voting record. His proximity to Iowa could be a huge factor for him during early campaigning (ask Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama and John McCain what Iowa can do for a campaign), however, his tough stance on immigration, while popular amongst conservatives, could be costly with an ever expanding Hispanic voting block.

I think the rest of the candidates are either too inexperienced, unknown or ill equipped for the position.

So, if I had to pick a party ticket for the Republicans today, I would go Pawlenty as President and Jindal as VP.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it…for now.

Now, as I said in my previous post, the message, not the messenger, is paramount for a conservative to regain the White House. Yes, we need an able messenger, but if they lack a true, conservative message that speaks, directly, to every person in this county than it doesn’t matter who is running.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

- John