ObaHill?

ObaHill?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

There is speculation all over the Internet that Biden is out and Hillary is in as Vice-President.  All this is projected to happen in time for the full-out Presidential Campaign in 2012.

Oh, theorists say that Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton will actually swap jobs – Hillary to Vice-President and Biden to Secretary of State.

Yesterday, I went to my favorite barbershop for my too frequent haircut, and that was the topic of conversation.  There was no shock.  There was no concern.  There was nothing but the collective conclusion that Obama would do anything to win… including putting his former arch-adversary on the ticket with him.

The whole thing springs from a piece by Robert Reich entitled: “Get Ready For An Obama-Clinton Presidential Ticket.”  You will find it HERE.

Reich says:  "My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State — a position he’s apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President.

So the Democratic ticket for 2012 is Obama-Clinton.

Why do I say this? Because Obama needs to stir the passions and enthusiasms of a Democratic base that’s been disillusioned with his cave-ins to regressive Republicans. Hillary Clinton on the ticket can do that."

As far-fetched as it may sound, at first, after thinking about it for a few minutes, I can see where Mr. Reich may, indeed, have a point.  But, what I don’t get is why the seeming panic in the Obama camp? 

I must be the only commentator on the right who thinks Obama stands an excellent chance of winning another term in November of 2012.  As excruciating to my friends on the right to hear such prognostications coming from a fellow conservative – there it is.

My reasoning is this (and I have said it ad nausium):  I am simply not convinced the GOP has a candidate currently running who stands a snowballs chance in Hades of beating Obama in 2012.  It has been a very long time; in fact, in my lifetime (over 7 decades) I cannot remember a weaker GOP ticket going up against an incumbent President – especially one with weak poll numbers.

The number one complaint I hear from fellow republicans is -- we have no one running, I can vote for.”  Granted, I’m in the southern part of the United States and maybe it is a “southern thing” – but, honestly, I don’t think so.

I just do not see Romney doing well in the south.  Once the primaries move into the southern tier of states, I expect Gingrich to begin picking up a few states.  Of course, his recent decline in the polls would indicate otherwise.

I mean, just stand back, and take an objective look at the GOP candidates.  The GOP’s favorite son is, without doubt, Romney.  But the record so far indicated by the polls is that the party and the voters do not share that admiration for Romney – especially in the South. 

When you consider the way voters have gone through the GOP candidates, one by one, it is clear the electorate is in an “anybody but Romney” mood. Well, maybe “anybody” is too strong.  Maybe it should be “SOMEBODY” other than Romney.

Conservative voter in my neck of the woods are STILL searching for a candidate they can get behind.  And, frankly, they have come to resent the GOP’s obvious and persistent promotion of Romney.  An angry electorate is not good for the party, especially when that anger is directed at the GOP and not at the democrat candidate. 

The enthusiasm is simply not there, and that spells HUGE trouble for the GOP at the polls in November.

It ought to tell you something when a candidate, Mr. Romney, has been running for President for fully five years and he STILL has not been able to win over the electorate in numbers that would translate into a victory in November of 2012.

Southern conservatives see Mr. Romney as a northeastern liberal-to-moderate candidate acceptable to voters in the northern tier of states but distinctly unpalatable where the word “conservative” seems to mean something entirely different than it does in the North. 

Those southern votes that support Obama’s leftist/socialist agenda are already aboard Obama’s campaign.  It will make very little difference to them whether Joe Biden remains as Obama’s running mate or he is replaced with Hillary Clinton.  They are going to vote for Obama – period.  They are, as we say, a lock.

There is no candidate in the GOP stable with a lock on the electorate and that would seem to hold true in a huge portion of the United States.

Nothing I have seen and heard, so far, has changed my belief that Romney, if chosen, will lose, and lose convincingly, to Obama in November 2012.

J. D. Longstreet                   

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