Republicans: Still Anybody's Race

There’s still no clear conservative favorite in the presidential race

Republicans are looking in vain for a savior. The Republican field of candidates has now been decided, but which of them will be the nominee is still wide open. Most Republicans are still undecided on that question.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the last best hopes for conservatives, have dropped out of the race. That means Mitt Romney is still the presumptive favorite. While he performed well in the debates thus far, he has failed to generate much enthusiasm from the conservative base. He would be the reasonable choice: moderate enough to capture the all-important undecided voters in 2012. But on the other hand, he won’t have an easy time from the tea party movement in the primary elections. His health care reform package for the state of Massachusetts served as the basis for Obama’s health care reform, anathema to conservatives.

Tied with Romney at the moment is the relatively unknown ex-CEO of the Godfather’s Pizza chain, Herman Cain. He has won the hearts of the tea partiers with his radical “9-9-9” tax plan — a flat 9 percent tax rate on incomes, businesses and retail sales.

In contrast to Cain, Texas Governor Rick Perry has lost a great deal of ground over the past few weeks. He had managed to steal Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s thunder by pandering to the tea party movement, but after several unsatisfactory debate appearances, it became apparent that Perry really wasn’t ready to face President Obama. Besides, his support for educational opportunities for the children of illegal immigrants in Texas was immediately unacceptable to the Republican base.

But even Barack Obama doesn’t have it made in the run up to the election. In a recent interview he referred to himself as the underdog. Considering the economic crisis, that’s not an unreasonable conclusion. In a recent survey, only 37 percent of respondents thought he would be re-elected. Despite that, Obama does have one advantage: the weakness of his opponents.