re: #58 avanti

I read about him a few months back and was impressed, by definition, that means he won’t get anywhere with the far right.

I am not convinced that’s true. The far right crazies are very noisy, and a lot of politicians are terrified of them. In some areas, particularly in the South, they are a sizable portion of the party. Some politicians are genuinely in alignment with that wing of the party, but many others are willing to pander to them out of fear that they can’t get elected without them.

I think a principled center-right politician, such as Huntsman or Romney, could retain the 3/4s of the party that aren’t religious extremists, while drawing centrists from the Democrats (many of whom are probably going to be appalled at what the O tries to do over the next four years). A candidate who can say, “I respect your religious beliefs, but in a pluralistic society they do not belong in public school classrooms” and is willing to take the consequences would certainly earn my respect, and probably that of many others, too. And for Huntsman or Romney, as Mormons, what have they got to lose anyway? The Baptists already think they’re going to hell.