As Chris Christie dithers at stage left, the candidate-filing curtain is coming down on Republicans with no one but Mitt Romney and hapless Jon Huntsman standing between them and nomination of a possibly suicidal candidate for next year.
Only 100 days away from the first primaries, 2012 is shaping up to be the year in which the GOP has to decide what kind of Change is more important—-expressing hatred for Barack Obama or getting him out of the White House.
Will they choose someone who satisfies Tea Party blood lust for the current President but stands less chance of attracting the marginal voters needed to win in November (Perry, Paul et al) or move to the center?
As Obama expressed Hope in the last election, will his anointed successor represent Resentment this time? If so, the out party would be well-advised to ponder some of the accumulated wisdom on the subject:
“Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
“Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.”
And, all the way back to Buddhist wisdom: “Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.”
Not many Buddhists will be voting in GOP primaries next year, but non-haters have to ponder the reasons for Christie’s indecision as he expresses it to supporters in California:
“(A)nyone who has an ego large enough to say ‘Oh, please, please stop asking me to be the leader of the free world, it is such a burden, if you could please just stop’--I mean what kind of crazy egomaniac would you have to be to say that? It’s incredibly flattering.
“But at the same time, that heartfelt message that you gave me is not a reason to do it. That reason has to reside inside me.”
Christie’s modesty is refreshing, but as time runs out, resentment is still the driving force in his party. If he enters, his voice could add some balance to future Republican debates, but until then it’s sad to see flip-flopping Mitt Romney as the Voice of Reason.
Long-time observers can remember when his father, George, was the GOP frontrunner in 1968 until he self-destructed by claiming he had been “brainwashed” by the military on a trip to Vietnam.
Moderates today can only hope he overcomes the gene that caused a Republican governor to observe back then, “Watching Romney run for president is like watching a duck trying to [alliterative expletive deleted] make love to a football.”
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The Republican Party is a three-way split between the southern Neo-Confederates, the Right-Libertarians, and the Corporatist kind personified by the Bush family who did so much for Big Oil, Big Pharma, defense contractors and the FIRE economy (Financials, Insurance & Real Estate.
It's hard to imagine them cobbling together a unified ticket.
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