Is the GOP Schizophrenic in 2012?

Unlike picking the perfect gift for a loved one, the Republicans process of selecting a front-runner comes with much bigger consequences.  There are big rewards … or big time remorse.

Quick: name a four-letter word that both describes the Republican Party when it comes to picking their presidential front-runner and an oft-forgotten Los Angeles-based rapper from the 1990s.

Perhaps this back-and-forth from the GOP is a responsible exercise in trying to pick the best candidate possible in order to defeat the incumbent president.

Then again, this yo-yoing of the candidates in the polls may indicate nothing more than Republicans playing a dangerous game with their nomination process and their efforts to unseat President Obama in November 2012.

The upcoming Iowa Caucus is not just about who many conservative and Christian Right Republican voters are “feeling” at this stage of the process.  Tuesday’s version of political must-see TV will start to answer the question as to whether the GOP is unified in message and substance or if it is only unified in the goal of defeating President Obama.

If Tuesday in Iowa, along with subsequent early 2012 primary contests, does not yield a defining mantra for the eventual Republican candidate to galvanize the conservative base (other than the loathing of the Obama Administration), Republicans will be in trouble despite what the generic polls indicate. Similar to what Democrats and progressives painfully learned in 2004, despising a candidate never proves to be quite enough to defeat him in an election, especially when that candidate is the incumbent. Just as the Democrats and progressives proved 4 years later with the election of President Obama, status quo political thinking and hierarchical political maneuvers are not enough to solidify a candidate’s position as nominee or general election victor.

Keeping this in mind, the Republicans’ collective methodology in rallying behind a front-runner has approached a critical crossroads.

If played right, the lengthening of this GOP primary process could benefit not just the Republican candidate for 2012 and beyond, but it could strengthen and unify the party overall. Prudence in picking a presidential candidate may prove to crystallize what attributes and goals truly matter most to the conservative movement in upcoming elections cycles.   This is similar in a way to how the Tea Party Movement made fiscal responsibility the rallying point on Capitol Hill in 2011. This process could validate leaders and show direction for legislative priorities in the years ahead.

This horse-race mindset that Republican voters have with the candidates could ensure they avoid the mistake that Democrats might have made in 2008 when liberals selected a trendy, but inexperienced candidate and a distracted 2004 finalist ahead of whom many believed was the most qualified person running for the Democrats.

Taking too long to select their guy (or lady) and thus taking the wrong path at the political crossroads could have severe consequences for the GOP, however. Attempting to find the perfect candidate in some Frankenstein-like manner of piecing together likable traits is naturally futile because of the imperfection of humanity.

Politically speaking, this pace of pouring through front-runners only guarantees a significant level of dissatisfaction embedded among the base that a percentage of conservatives will maintain towards their nominee regardless of who takes the Thursday night stage in Tampa. That small, but notable internal disgust – whether it is due to marital indiscretions, perceived flip-flopping, or extreme foreign affairs positions – will be enough to keep enough voters home.

That loss of support could be the difference that allows President Obama to skate by with a Bush-like victory akin to the 2004 election. After all, that level of disgust with the moderate record of Senator John McCain and the polarizing factor that was VP nominee Sarah Palin aided Mr. Obama in wining Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.  These were 113 electoral votes that McCain could have used in Bush-controlled states that would have reversed the 2008 results.

Whether it is merely being prudent with selecting this presidential nominee or taking the de facto conservative purity test too far, Republican voters and supporters must begin this Tuesday showing America more of what they do like – and will support in 2012 – than they trumpet more of what they don’t want: another 4 years of President Obama in office. Not doing so makes the GOP base look less like the responsible holiday shopper and more like the miserly Scrooge that will never be satisfied.

Lenny McAllister is a political commentator found every Saturday with Democratic pundit Maria Cardona on “CNN Saturday Morning” at 10:30 AM Eastern (9:30 Central / 7:30 Pacific.) Find Lenny on “CNN Newsroom” this Saturday evening at 7:15 PM Eastern (6:15 Central / 4:15 Pacific) as well. 

Lenny McAllister is the host of the radio show “Get Right with Lenny McAllister” found on LMGILIVE.com and often re-broadcast on Politic365. He appears weekly on “CNN Saturday Morning” with host Randi Kaye and former DNC Communications Director Maria Cardona at 10:30 AM Eastern Time. He also regularly appears weekdays on CNN's "Early Start" at 5am - 7am and "CNN Newsroom" at 12:30pm Eastern. He also appears as a political commentator on multiple outlets including Sirius-XM Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC Radio in Australia, and Chicago Public Radio. Lenny has written previously for a number of publications including Rushmore Drive, Global Grind, and The Chicago Defender. In 2009, McAllister was a panelist at the 10th Annual State of the Black Union and the CNN panel discussion Young & Black In America: Empowering the Next Generation of African American Leaders. In 2010, Lenny was featured in the Studio 360 series “American Icons” in the episode, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. He was also featured in the November 2010 Essence Magazine roundtable discussion “Race (Still) Matters” that featured the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Ben Jealous, and CNN’s Soledad O’Brien.

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One Response to Is the GOP Schizophrenic in 2012?

1. dalmaar weekes says:

   7:15am January 1, 2012 at 7:15 am

   The republican party has a right to be double minded and schizophrenic, they can’t figure out who’s gonna be tea party or traditional rely livable and truly many regular minority communities cannot relate to today republican party even though it was historically the pa
   rty that supported blacks after the civil war.

   Reply