As we all wait around for the votes to trickle in (and wait, and wait — first exit polls start arriving around 5:45 EST), there's not much to do except look ahead. The big question: what does today's vote mean for the 2012 presidential elections? To me, only one thing is clear: the Republican candidate in 2012 won't come from Congress. That august body is going to be a zoo for the next two years, and all its members are going to be tainted by that. Congress is plainly headed for a long spell of partisan paralysis; running on a record of doing nothing is not a winning strategy. Besides that, there is really no clear Republican leader there who has expressed any interest in the job. (There is Mike Pence, yes. But again: not a leader. And he is heading even further down the hyper-partisan, no-compromise road as he sniffs out his prospects. He's dooming himself from the start.)
So, we're left with the non-Beltway types to consider. Palin and Romney get most of the attention, but I've predicted before that neither of them will get the nomination, and I'm only more sure of that now. Palin (if she even runs, which I'm back to doubting) is far too divisive a figure to stand a chance of actually wining the White House, and the party power brokers are reportedly already undermining her potential candidacy with that in mind. Romney... what can you say? He's as fake as a three-dollar bill, and utterly devoid of the firm ideals that so jazz the Republican faithful. Huckabee? Won't run. Guaranteed.
Which leaves the governors...
Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/todays-big-winners-republican-governors?src=rss
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