For my final column of 2011, I’m going to discuss the remaining three Republican presidential hopefuls and their stated – as well as their real – reasons for declining to run in 2012.
Republican Representative Mike Pence of Indiana was a darling of the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage Christian right wing who also won a presidential straw poll held at the annual Values Voters Summit in September 2010. But Pence was also the top presidential choice of the former House Republican leader from Texas, Dick Armey, who is also the leader of Freedom Works, one of the right wing billionaire Koch brothers’ favourite Tea Party fundraising ‘charities’.
Yet in January, despite the anxious prodding of Armey and the brothers Koch, Pence became the first Republican contender to announce he wouldn’t run for President in 2012. While he did not deny his interest in running at some point in the future, he said his wife and three young children, as well as the state of Indiana, needed him more than his country.
What he didn’t say was that since Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels couldn’t run for governor again because of term limits, Pence would have an easier road to the Indiana statehouse than the White House.
The other Republican contender from the House was Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the architect of the GOP plan to slash America’s budget deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits without raising taxes or cutting defence spending. But despite his credibility with fiscal conservatives, Ryan is also a Catholic who never aroused the passions of Tea Party activists and Christian conservatives.
So on 22 August I wasn’t surprised Paul Ryan dashed the hopes of many Republican fiscal conservatives by announcing he would not run for President in 2012. But I also believe this has something to with another factor neither Pence nor Ryan care to acknowledge – the fact that no serving member of the US House of Representatives has ever been elected President.
Last, but certainly not least, was Sarah Palin’s announcement on 5 October that she would join the list of Republican governors who had turn down the chance to run for the White House.
Although I have always believed Palin lacked the intelligence and emotional stability one needs to be President of the United States, I have never doubted her abilities as a political campaigner. However, in the aftermath of McCain’s loss to President Obama, Palin’s over-the-top responses to complaints by campaign staffers about her actions as a vice presidential candidate showed that she also had a very thin skin. It was at this point that I began to have doubts Palin would ever run for President, because a thick skin is a prerequisite for any Presidential candidate.
Those doubts were reinforced in July 2009 when, in the midst of a legislative investigation of her conduct as governor, Palin announced she would not run for re-election as governor and then resigned with a 18 months remaining in her first term. This was followed by her 11-state bus tour promoting her bestselling book, a six-figure job as an occasional contributor for Fox News, and then a starring role in cable TV show Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
Any doubts I still had about Sarah Palin’s presidential aspirations were finally put to rest when it was revealed in June of this year that she had purchased an 8,000 sq ft luxury home in Scottsdale, Arizona for a tidy $1,700,000.
That was when I knew that no matter how long Palin strung out her announcement, she was never going to run for President in 2012. Her brief turn as a vice presidential running mate had transformed her into a national celebrity, and while she may not be Presidential material, she is also nobody’s fool. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out what Palin did – cashing in on her fame without ever having to endure the rigors of running for President.
Charles Laffiteau is a US Republican from Dallas, Texas who is pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Political Economy. He previously lectured on Contemporary US Business & Society at DCU from 2009-2011.
