Nashville, Tenn. – I'm leaning political today. Guess you could blame Dee Dee Myers and Fred Thompson, whose headline session yesterday did more than draw a standing-room only crowd.
And while their jokey banter didn't solve any of the health reform problems, they were entertaining and insightful enough to make it one of the best – and biggest – keynote sessions in the history of this humble conference.
So, it's with that thought fresh in my head that I read the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll of likely Republican contenders that place The Donald in second place – tied with that public record vandal Mike Huckabee at 17 percent – behind former Gov. Mitt Romney who's hovering around 21 percent.
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How is that even possible? Opportunities this golden don't come around that often. President Obama's poll numbers remain anemic, the economy's recovery churns slower than the sack races on "The Biggest Loser"and the buyer's remorse on the Democratic party's legislative showpiece – health reform – is at an all-time high.
So how do the GOP strategists – and candidates – respond? Well, for starters, not a single one of them has officially declared. What are they waiting for? Glenn Beck to diagram it for them? And two of the top five contenders right now are reality TV stars? This is how far we've come?
At least in 2010, the Republicans managed to run a war hero and sitting U.S. senator. This is a chance too good to pass up, with far too much at stake to treat this so lightly. We're worried about the budget, the debt ceiling and paying for health care, so we want to nominate a casino guru who's declared bankruptcy more times than Newt Gingrich has been married?
Might make for good TV, but it's bad public policy. It's a gamble.
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