It’s No Accident That the Tea Party’s Presidential Candidates Keep Flaming Out

[pampango]

Last week was a difficult week for the Tea Party. Tuesday’s election results firmly rebutted the idea that the movement had touched off an irresistible rightward wave in American politics, one that would not subside until it submerged the Democratic Party and its union/liberal allies once and for all. Meanwhile, the process of choosing a champion to drive Barack Obama out of the White House is not going well at all. With only seven weeks until actual caucus and primary voting begins, how did the movement arrive at this seemingly hopeless state?

ALL ALONG, Tea Party supporters have been holding their own mini-primary during the lead-in to actual voting. Initially, their problem seemed to be an embarrassment of riches when it came to candidates seeking their favor. With Sarah Palin on the sidelines, Michele Bachmann was often called the “Queen of the Tea Party.” But despite her win at the Iowa GOP Straw Poll and her frontrunner status in many national polls, Tea Partiers abandoned her for what then looked like a behemoth of a candidate in Rick Perry, who had thrilled hyper-conservatives in Texas with harsh anti-government rhetoric and event hints of secession as a last resort.

But having brushed aside Bachmann and other Tea Party favorites, Perry promptly lost most of his Tea Party admirers when he reiterated and then clumsily defended his support for making the children of undocumented workers eligible for in-state tuition at Texas colleges—a position that Tea Partiers found deeply offensive, especially when he made the supreme mistake of saying those who disagreed with him had “no heart.”

When Perry crashed, it was not surprising that Tea Partiers flocked to the banner of Herman Cain, one of the earliest Tea Party boosters as a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The glib former pizza executive seemed the epitome of the citizen-politician, fond of attractively simplistic cure-alls like a modified flat tax plan, long popular in Tea circles.

But just when non-Tea Partiers were coming to grips with the strange possibility that Cain would have to be taken seriously as a candidate, his amateurism, so attractive to his fans, began to undo him. Even if he forges his way through the current sexual harassment allegations without being proved a predator and a liar, the bloom is off his rose. The days when Cain could count on universally positive feelings from Republican voters are long gone, and there is a palpable fear (nicely reflected by Michelle Bachmann’s comment that the GOP couldn’t afford any “surprises” from its nominee) that he is one press conference away from complete, final disaster. Any chance that Rick Perry could quickly ride back into contention, meanwhile, probably expired during the November 9 debate in Michigan. Questions about Perry’s debating skills aside, any Tea Party champion worth his salt can list the federal agencies he’d shut down in his sleep.

Which brings us to the movement’s current, desperate state. As ace political analyst Ron Brownstein recently noted, there are virtually no signs of growing Tea Party acceptance of Mitt Romney as the “inevitable” nominee; instead, there is incipient panic that the inability of the right to settle on a competent candidate could let Romney win by default. Brownstein quotes FreedomWorks spokesperson Adam Brandon as saying his group may decide to endorse someone—anyone—in order to stop Romney and avoid a division of the Tea Party vote. But who?

http://www.tnr.com/article/the-permanent-campaign/97365/tea-party-gingrich-santorum-gop-primaries

[TNLib]

1. The tea party movement should just be renamed the anyone but Mitt party

nt

[ecstatic]

2. Why are they flocking to Newt and not Bachmann?

Does it have anything to do with her husband?

[TygrBright]

5. In the end, they just believe the "Y" chromosome has special, innate leadership qualities. n/t

[Warpy]

3. 2016 will be the real bloodbath

Mitt's been the heir apparent since late in Stupid's reign, just shoved aside because it was Grandpa McCain's last chance to run. After his run, there are no others in the "it's his turn" lineup and the party will start to have candidates proposed by all the factions be ripped to shreds by competing factions. I won't be terribly surprised if that party is unable to field a candidate, at all, although they'll probably choose some lunatic at the last minute.

On edit: Yes, I'm ignoring the last man in the "it's his turn" lineup, Jeb Bush. I don't think the party is ready for another of the Bushes quite so soon.

[gratuitous]

6. Remember McCain's run in 2008

He dropped out at least twice (the second time for one day, to go back to DC to "fix" the deficit problems once and for all), didn't get much of a boost from his own convention, shocked the nation with his unvetted running mate, then went down badly against a relative newcomer. Who will the Republicans choose in 2012? I would have thought it would be tough to do worse than McCain, but never underestimate the GOP's power to fail.

In 2016, it could very well be Jeb!'s turn at the brass ring. This won't happen because of any national turning of lonely eyes to the Bush Dynasty, but more by default than anything. The GOP bench has never been a particularly strong part of their party. They line up anointed candidates in a conga line, and one by one they get their star turns. Jeb! will probably get the nod in 2016 because the GOP doesn't have anyone else. It's the business baron mentality that prevents them from assembling a stable of good candidates, preferring instead the "there can be only one" model.

[TygrBright]

4. Since Teepers have the attention span of fruit flies, I predict a dozen more attempts. n/t

[tech3149]

7. It comes down to one thing. Republicans don't want to win

They know what kind of shitstorm they created and don't want to get their fingers anywhere near it. It's the same old story. Republicans make a mess and Democrats come behind and clean it up. This time it will take another decade to clean up the mess they created.