Roy Moore: The Forgotten GOP Presidential Candidate
What news coverage Moore gets tends to be in the places he visits on his testing the waters tour. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports, for example:
The possible presidential contender will continue his four-day tour of the Carolinas with stops in Charleston, Cheraw, Aiken, Myrtle Beach and Lincolnton, N.C. This old fashioned retail politics probably takes effective advantage of his popularity on the Tea Party circuit. And while he remains a hero to many on the Religious Right for his effort to put a monument to the Ten Commandments on permanent display in the Alabama state court house, we can't say with any certainty that Moore will ever be much of a factor in the campaign. At the same time, we can't rule him out either. Consider for example that unlike much of the possible GOP field so far, he has actually won statewide office. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum, have, while Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann have not. There are obviously many factors that make for a successful candidate but the evidence of history tells us that that kind of experience is no small thing. Not since Dwight Eisenhower has a nominee of either of the two major parties not previously served as Governor or U.S. Senator. The sole exception was George H.W. Bush who was the two-term incumbent vice president before running for president on his own. (But the former U.S. Representative, diplomat, and CIA Director first lost to former Governor Ronald Reagan for the GOP nomination for president in 1980 before Reagan selected Bush as his running mate.) Again, this is not to say that Moore has any chance of getting the GOP nomination. Rather, as candidates toy with the nomination before demurring (Barbour, Huckabee, Trump, Daniels), eventually the field will become clear. And when it does, it is likely that Moore will still be in it. If so, Moore's brand of theocratic politics will be featured on the national stage in ways that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.
Roy Moore: The Forgotten GOP Presidential Candidate | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
Roy Moore: The Forgotten GOP Presidential Candidate | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
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