It’s hard being a GOP presidential candidate

If you're a republican running for a national office, you have to be for the Ryan budget plan even though it's very unpopular. Paul Ryan told David Gregory of Meet the Press that he will double down because a leader changes the polls. David Gregory reminded Paul Ryan that he was a politician and not just a budget director and in the end his policies may spell doom for the Republican Party. The republicans like to say that Paul Ryan is a courageous leader because at least he put out a plan. If we are to use that standard then president Obama is a hero for passing the Health Care Law. Paul Ryan kept insisting that the democrats will scare old people by demagoguing his voucher plan for Medicare. In the very next sentence Mr. Ryan said that the democrats will set up a board of 15 bureaucrats to ration Health Care. You can't complain about demagoguing when you do the same thing.

Every serious republican presidential candidate has supported policies that are considered taboo today. In the past republicans have supported the individual mandate for Health Care, climate change legislation and cap-and-trade. Since that no longer is the case, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman will have to spend much their time explaining their flip flops Jon Huntsman impressed the people of New Hampshire(liberals, conservatives and moderates) this past weekend by visiting a gun shop and explaining his positions without using hateful rhetoric. He is not backing away from his decision to serve in the Obama administration as an ambassador to China; in fact, he said if the president called, he would serve again. It is his belief that you just don't say no when the president asks you to help your country. I guess that we would just have to wait and see how well civility plays in a republican primary. It is puzzling why he picked Florida as this campaign headquarters because he's from Utah, where he served as governor. I suspect it's because it's the site of the republican convention, this year and Florida gets more media attention than Utah.

After all the hoopla about the president's remarks on the Israeli /Palestinian talks; most of the pundits agreed that present Obama was just repeating what has been the United States policy for years. Chris Wallace did say that he has never seen a leader from another nation lecture a sitting United States president at a press conference. I believe that lecture will have consequences down the road but if anybody thinks that the United States president will “throw Israel under the bus" they are genuinely naive. I was impressed that Chris Wallace chided Liz Cheney for saying that the president was leading from behind. He reminded Liz Cheney that the comment was from a journalist quoting an unidentified official of the White House. He asked her how she would have responded if someone had quoted an unidentified official  as the official Bush administration response. I don't think Herman Cain will last long after yesterday's performance. Chris Wallace asked him a simple question like what are your thoughts on "the right of return?" I can't believe the man running for president of the United States did not know what the "right of return meant." When asked if he would raise the debt ceiling, Mr. Cain said no and gave four of his reasons for not doing so. Then he admitted that his plan not to raise the debt ceiling won't work now, because Congress has allowed the situation to become a disaster. This man is not ready for prime time.

Now that Mitch Daniels has bowed out, the republicans are trying to convince Jed Bush or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to run, but they will have some flip flops to consider. It's obvious that the republicans are not happy with their choices.