Today's GOP - The Party of the Past

The first GOP presidential forum took place in New Hampshire yesterday and the fourteen participants looked - i.e., all but one were white males - and took positions of the past.   From accolades to Ronald Reagan who would not be sufficiently reactionary - read crazy - to win the GOP nomination to using anti-socialist rhetoric from the 1950's, everything basically looked backward in time.   Here are highlights from a piece in Politico:

Fourteen Republican presidential candidates, some on stage and some by electronic hookup, gathered in New Hampshire on Monday night and expressed political views that ran the gamut from A to B.

They are conservative or very conservative. They agree that Ronald Reagan would make a fine candidate were he not constitutionally ineligible and no longer alive. (Also, the Republican Party of today would not find him far enough to the right.)

[T]he future of the party gathered, and they pretty much looked like the past: Almost without exception, they were white men in dark suits.  Almost without exception, they have not led tough lives. Which means they have to borrow the suffering of their parents.

It was a two-hour forum, and, like all two-hour forums, at the 90-minute mark it already seemed too long.

Donald Trump, who leads the polls, did not show up, which left his Republican opponents with only one clear target: the Clintons. Bill or Hillary, take your pick.

Rick Perry got in a scripted line and then grinned hugely as if to congratulate himself for not screwing up. “The greatest days of this country are in front of us. We got through Jimmy Carter, and we’ll get through Barack Obama. Trust me,” he said.

Jeb Bush, second in most polls, seemed nervous and scored with the crowd only when he attacked a member of the media. “I think we can grow this economy at 4 percent instead of an anemic 2 percent, and the fact that Paul Krugman disagrees with me warms my heart,” Bush said.

 

Earlier, Rand Paul had told CNN that Trump’s standing atop the polls reflected “a temporary sort of loss of sanity, but we’re going to come back to our senses and look for someone serious to lead the country at some point.”

Ted Cruz found our future behind us. “I believe 2016 will be like 1980, when Ronald Reagan said we will win by painting in bold colors, not pale pastels,” Cruz said.

 

Scott Walker said he was ready to run against anybody, saying, “Whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, I am a new, fresh face.”  Walker showed himself lacking only what all presidential candidates must lack: modesty.

Hopefully tomorrow's FOX News  circus debate will offer more entertainment with Trump in attack mode and the rest trying to out do Trump's craziness and demagoguery.