President 2012: NEXT

Well, to say that Texas Governor Rick Perry had a bad night is an understatment. As the front-runner in the polls for the GOP Presidential nominee, he under performed to epic failure proportions.

Perry was even booed by the Florida GOP crowd for his statements defending his record on The Dream Act and illegal immigration.

Mitt Romney, the other front-runner, was the same mechanical TECHNOCRAT flip-flopper he always is. Mitt is the “safe” candidate but continues as uninspiring.

Time for another candidate or candidates to emerge.

The e-mails flooding into our inbox during the evening were less guarded. Early on, we received this missive from a bright young conservative: “I’m watching my first GOP debate…and WE SOUND LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!” As the evening went on, the craziness receded, and the demoralized comments we received stressed the mediocrity of the field rather than its wackiness. As one more experienced, and therefore more jaded, observer wrote: “I just thought maybe it’s always this bad…they’re only marginally worse than McCain and Bush.”

Now there are some legitimate excuses. With nine candidates on the stage, and answers restricted to one minute, it’s hard to really show your stuff. And two of the candidates—Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney—did provide respectable performances. But no front-runner in a presidential field has ever, we imagine, had as weak a showing as Rick Perry. It was close to a disqualifying two hours for him. And Mitt Romney remains, when all is said and done, a technocratic management consultant whose one term as governor produced Romneycare. He could rise to the occasion as president. Or not.

Time for Chris Christie, Paul Ryan to step up or for Mitch Daniels to reconsider.

American cannot afford another four years of an Obama Administration.