re: #4 Charles

The problem for any GOP candidate is that without the support of the religious right and the Tea Party (really the same thing), they won’t be able to beat Obama.

John McCain ran up against this wall in the last election, and the wall is a lot higher now.

Speaking of McCain: McCain slams GOP hopefuls’ ‘isolationism’

We cannot repeat the lessons of the 1930s, when the United States of America stood by while bad things happened in the world,” McCain said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

Citing what he viewed as the GOP presidential hopefuls’ positions in general on both Libya and Afghanistan, McCain said, “We are the lead nation in the world, and America matters, and we must lead. But sometimes that leadership entails sacrifice, sadly.”

Asked about a threat by House Speaker John Boehner to consider cutting funding for U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military mission, McCain, R-Arizona, responded, “I was more concerned about what the candidates in New Hampshire the other night said,” referring to a CNN debate among seven people seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

“This is isolationism,” McCain said. “There’s always been an isolationist strain in the Republican Party, the Pat Buchanan wing of our party. But now it seems to have moved more center stage, so to speak.”

Good luck with that.