"Let's run a boring white guy"

"A boring white guy" is basically the advice of pundit Charles Krauthammer. In the National Review he has written that, in order to win in 2012, Republicans need to run an "ideological" race based on the issues that "shellacked" Democrats in 2010: "the size and reach of government, spending and debts, and ... the nature of the American social contract." Very fine words. And who is supposed to carry this message to the American people?

Someone without "baggage" or "flash." Americans, he asserts, have been burned by charisma and are no longer looking for "a thrill up the leg." What we want, he claims, is someone "solid, stable, sober, and, above all, not scary." Who could he be talking about? Gerald Ford, maybe? Excepting maybe Mitch Daniels, that description doesn't really match any of the "major candidates" he lists: Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich, Barbour (well, maybe it does fit him). I was surprised he actually considered Michelle Bachman a "long shot" for the nomination. She certainly scares a lot of people.

It's interesting how major pundits like Krauthammer do not want to consider Sarah Palin seriously. In his opinion, she is not running, knowing, he says, that she has "little chance at the nomination and none in the general election."

I remember hearing Krauthammer speak in early 2002. It was when George W. Bush was making preparations for what would be the invasion of Iraq. Krauthammer predicted that Iraq, having a large secular population, would have a democratic society in no time. Unfortunately, people like Krauthammer carry a lot of influence. It was opinions like his on Iraq that supported the invasion. Other pundits and opinion makers listen to him and repeat what he says, in the present case concerning Sarah Palin. An indication of the animus he has toward her came out in an interview with Hugh Hewett a couple of years ago, when he described her as the "pulchritudinous" Sarah Palin.

What guys like Krauthammer don't get is that a boring white guy is not likely to beat Obama. As I said in my original post on this site, the ideological issues of government size and spending are not going to drive people to the polls, short of a major economic depression. To win back America, we have to appeal to the hearts of Americans. And, besides Herman Cain (certainly not a boring white guy), Sarah Palin is the only one who can do that. Go, Sarah!