Waiting for Guffman 2012, GOP Version

I have often called campaign time the “silly season” when talking to friends and acquaintances.  There is good reason for this as passions are inflamed and the strangest things not only can happen, but will happen. But mostly I call it that because of how people behave.

To the average voter, the November election campaign is all they are aware of and it seems filled with acrimony. They should pay attention to endorsement races and primaries if they want to see the good stuff. There is nothing quite like infighting between people who agree on most things.

Usually it is based on actual positions and has legitimate reasoning  behind it. But often it can be purely emotion based, simply motivated by liking a candidate. “Wooing voters” is a phrase that has much truth in it, for the most ardent supporters act like those in the first blushes of love.

Presidential races bring that out the most for some reason. My suspicion is that there is so much belief in the power of the presidency that it becomes idolization of someone being more than human – or at least very special, if not exceptional. Consequently, demagogues have a better than usual chance to get in than other offices.

This year, there have been some very intense crushes on potential candidates, with their devoted fans eagerly praising and pushing them on message boards, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Perhaps it is dissatisfaction with the established field or just a reaction to the disastrous Obama presidency that had many people waiting for their personal Guffman to show up.

Daniels, Ryan, Jindal, and Rubio were the lesser names that came up, but there have been big names waiting in the wings since the beginning. One of them who was supposed to be the savior of the field was Rick Perry from Texas. His meteoric rise and equally drastic crash illustrates the perils of listening to such hype. That goes for candidates and activists both.

Christ Christie is someone people have repeatedly asked me about and I did not think he would run until recently. But that turned out to be false information based on wishful thinking by those who wanted him in.  In the end, he chose not to run this week which made me very happy. Only by New Jersey standards is he conservative.

Today the other shoe dropped when Sarah Palin announced she wasn’t running. That was a relief to me, for I saw nothing good coming of that and she is far more effective doing what she has been doing. The president is not the ruler of the land, despite what Jim Lehrer may think. While powerful, the Oval Office has far less power than most think – thankfully.

Congress is more important, but harder to get the average voter to care about. I suppose it is the human tendency to desire a king that makes the executive branch more glamorous. A lack of understanding by most of the populace on how governance in the United States works is another factor.

So this is it, there really is nobody else to get into the race now. Just like in the movie, Guffman is a no show. Now the debates are going to matter even more, despite being dog and pony shows run by the media.

But the thing that must happen, no matter what the outcome, is rallying around the candidate running against Obama in 2012. Putting aside internal GOP differences has been very difficult the last several election cycles and has caused problems in turnout. This time I believe it will be different. Almost all the people I have talked to finally understand what is at stake.

Given how ugly things have been already, expect a very nasty election. If people think things are polarized now, they have not seen anything yet.