What Do You Actually Like About The GOP Candidates?

You may have noticed we've spent a bit of time on the many, many, many faults off each GOP candidate for the nomination. But there has to be some good things about them too, right? They are attracting some support.

Let me get things going. The list won't be comprehensive or even terribly convincing given my personal lack of enthusiasm for any candidate but we are going to nominate one of these people, so we might as well polish up the turd as best we can.

I could qualify each positive or offer 3 or 4 counterpoints but that's not the purpose of the exercise.

Mitt Romney: I honestly do like his mix of experience. Strong business experience, turning around the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and a term as Governor. He certainly has plenty of executive experience, which I think is important in a candidate for the presidency.

When he speaks about the economy and the governments role in it, he does a nice job. He was good on the auto bailouts, he's offered politically unpopular but realistic talk about the housing market and defending the idea that corporations are people sounds odd to many people it's necessary to push back on liberal lies.

Herman Cain: Again, solid business experience which is a plus.

Obviously his strongest asset is his personality and passion. His ability to stir up the base is unmatched in the race. He's got that great deep voice and the cadence of the southern minister that he is. When he gets rolling, you want to believe, you want to get out there and fight to get the country back on track.

Rick Perry: Long tenure as Governor of the 2nd largest state. He's dealt with all the issues, faced all the crises and has an enviable record of creating the environment to grow jobs. His tort reform has made his state attractive to medical professions and corporations of all sorts.

His instincts are clearly in tune with conservatives.

His economic plan is bold and basically in line with every conservative idea floated over the last 30 years.

Newt Gingrich: I like smart conservatives who can see problems and offer conservative solutions to meet them. As important is the ability to articulate the rationale behind them and promote conservatism as a governing philosophy. Newt's been the best at that for over 20 years and this campaign has shown he hasn't lost a single step. He's simply the smartest, most articulate candidate out there by a wide, wide margin.

I also really like his desire to find some way to deal with an out of control judiciary. As important as any particular plan to do that will be convincing the American people that a lot of what they think about the role of the judiciary is just plain wrong. Again, that's right in Newt's wheelhouse.

If you want to take on the intellectual underpinnings of liberalism in this country and make the conservative counterargument, Newt is head and shoulders above anyone out there.

Bachmann, Santorum, Paul, Huntsman? You're on your own with them.

I know this is a little out of the ordinary but let's try and keep one thread positive because the best thing about each of these candidates is none of them is a SCOAMF like Barack Obama is.

posted by DrewM. at 12:54 PM

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