Road to Hell Is Paved With Intentions

2012

• Dems fret over Obama re-election (By Michael Barbaro, Jeff Zeleny and Monica Davey, New York Times in Sac Bee) To reassure nervous Democrats, the president's campaign aides are traveling the country with PowerPoint presentations that spell out Obama's path to re-election. Their pitch is that Obama's appeal has grown in traditionally Republican states like Arizona, where there are fast-growing Latino populations, and that Republicans have alienated independent voters with "extreme" positions on popular programs like Medicare.
• Huntsman struggles to keep candidacy alive - The Utah Republican was a long shot from the beginning: He's tried to be the voice of reason in a field that has been courting the angry voter. In New Hampshire, he makes a last stand. (By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times) Huntsman, scion of a wealthy Salt Lake City family, has distanced himself from the rest of the GOP field in an effort to appeal to moderates and independents. But he seems to be hawking a product for which there is no market.
• Huntsman has $15 million to $66 million in assets (By Michael J. Bailey, Boston Globe) Considered a moderate, Huntsman has struggled to resonate with GOP voters. Focusing on the traditionally independent voters in the first primary state of New Hampshire, he has established one of the biggest campaign organizations ever there. Yet his poll numbers remain stuck in the single digits.
• Huntsman discloses his personal wealth (By T.W. Farnam, Washington Post/Post Politics) The Huntsman campaign has been mired in the low single digits in polling throughout the Republican nomination contest. Huntsman has run toward the ideological middle, hoping to appeal to independents who can vote in open primaries like those in New Hampshire.
• The election of 1992 could be harbinger of 2012 election (By Perry Mitchell, Special to the Coastal Point - DE) Any third-party candidate would face dynamic institutional barriers in winning the presidency. Duverger’s law from social sciences says that the plurality system existing in our congressional and presidential elections forces us into a two-party system, which is a huge barrier for a third-party candidate to overcome. The big challenge for our two-party system in 2012 will be how to accommodate the diverse views within its parties and nominate a centrist candidate. So far, the politics of 2010 and 2011 don’t show much promise that this will occur.
• Larry Sabato Politics Column Shows Plausible Scenario for an Electoral College Tie in 2012 (Ballot Access News) Even with only two candidates receiving electoral votes, a tie could occur and then the U.S. House would choose the president, with each state having one vote.
• Seemann Says: Ron Paul may be charismatic, but doesn’t understand science (By Chris Seemann, LSU Reveille) If the nation were striding up to an important impasse, could Paul be stubborn enough to stand his ground when Obama could not? Perhaps he would become frustrated enough to eschew pursuing another term for the purpose of making a stand. Whatever the case, the possibilities are intriguing.
• The Road to Hell Is Paved with 'Electable' Candidates (By Joseph Ashby, American Thinker) The theory reminds me of when my mother observed that boys, in order to impress girls, tend to do things that impress other boys.  Similarly, politicos and pundits try to impress independents by doing things that other partisans perceive as independent.  But just as running fast, jumping high, and lifting heavy things often fail to impress would-be sweethearts on the second-grade playground, so too is the Establishment's premise often incorrect.