The Republican Chamber of Horrors

Commentators are calling Mitt Romney the least common denominator of the Republicans, but the voters cannot decide. They should soon.

The New Year’s resolution of the Republicans for the year 2012 should be to really grill Barack Obama. If they do that, reality should play right into their hands: Obama has relatively bad approval ratings, and the country is in a serious economic crisis. The national debt has reached a historic high and is rising.

The Republicans are not going to get going by themselves. They are already wearing themselves out in primaries at the beginning of the year without any discernible focus on recapturing power. Instead, they are getting bogged down by their radical positions and numerous scandals. The Republican bid runs the gamut from the libertarian — almost Democratic — but also partly quite unrealistic views of Ron Paul, who, for example, sees the elimination of the Federal Reserve as a solution to the economic crisis; through Mitt Romney, the slick “flip-flopper;” to Rick Santorum, the ultra-conservative favorite of the religious right. Even with the shrill Michelle Bachmann, the weak-debating Texas Governor Rick Perry or the arrogant advocate of child labor, “Bad Newt” Gingrich, the disarray of the Republican Party is still not complete. Altogether eight candidates form the “chamber of horrors” that is scrambling to challenge Barack Obama at the beginning of November. Some Republican voters might be cautiously asking themselves, “Where should I turn?”

The first Republican primary in Iowa clearly showed this indecisiveness: The voter turnout was bad and the first three candidates are very close in the polls, but their views divide the party into two worlds. A party split in such a way will not be able to get into power, even against a weakened Obama. From a Republican perspective it would be important that Romney wins the next two primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina so that the slug fest of extreme views ends soon. According to commentators, it looks as though the only candidate to be taken seriously is one with the necessary financial background for the great majority of the Republican middle. The only thing that could ruin Romney is the image of a political flip-flopper.