Reagan presented to the public well, was glib, and probably a nice guy. And he really didn’t have a center. He was led around by Nancy, her astrologer, and business interests. His cabinets and appointments were predominately business interests as was his agenda.

George H. W. Bush again was a guy who presented well. The views of him by his political contemporaries is not flattering. He was parked as Ambassador to China when it seemed he was owed something and people wanted to get him out of the way, and the same with the CIA. Considered a lightweight. He was embarked on his own agenda solidifying the Bush relationship with the Saudis, and taking after Noriega when his, Noriega and the CIAs relationships were embarrassing. I don’t think he was his own man, however.

Dole had sold out to big businesses long before, through himself and his wife. Was a puppet.

McCain seems to be his own man. An exception here.

I do think that the bigger individual money and the mega-corporations tend to figure they will wait until the primaries are over and then elect whoever gets nominated. And that the Democratic candidate can’t get elected without their support, either, so in the longer run it makes very little difference to them.

Sure Reagan was ideologically pure, charismatic, and ultimately successful. Bush I, McCain and Dole were highly qualified candidates, not to mention war heroes (that really matters to Republicans, unless the heroes happen to be Democrats).

Dubya was their Great White Hope, the man who would put the Clinton years behind them once and for all. He turned out to be the new Hoover, instead. The reason they loathe Obama so much is they’re afraid he’ll be the new FDR.
This is why they must stop him at all costs. He must be discredited, destroyed, humiliated. You’ve heard the rhetoric, they’re terrified of him, they are chewing up the carpet at the very mention of his name.

But this time around Mitt was qualified (and it was his turn, to boot). The rest of the gang was laughable, except for Pawlenty (who left prematurely) and Huntsman (the best of the lot, in my opinion), but he sounded too liberal to get past the Tea Party. He wasn’t too liberal, he just sounded too liberal.

Still, there were other formidable potential candidates in the GOP; Jeb, Barbour, Christie, not to mention a respectable list of popular state governors and some charismatic and personable Senators and Congressmen that would have passed TP muster and still had some appeal for the Establishment. These are smart guys, who speak good English and make sense.

Instead, we got the Klown Kar, Cain, Bachman, Perry, Paul, with guest appearances from Palin and Trump. Even the other survivors are either too far Right, or have burned too many bridges behind them to be acceptable, even to conservatives. This is not an ideological slam, like I said, there are smart people in the GOP, they just haven’t been able to nominate any.

Something else is going on in the Republican Party, some kind of internal power struggle. Maybe its that dreaded “asymmetric polarization” you hear so much about.

Another factor is that they ran their best in the primaries. Remember Perry, Bachmann? Among their best. Palin. So out of the entire country they were left with Gingrich, Paul, Santorum and Romney. I think he got the “what the hell” vote, as people stood in the booths and figured “what the hell”.

And Daddy Warbucks doesn’t care which Republican is president. He’ll run it.