The Revolving Door

The Nolton’s very own political editor, Logan Thorne, analyzes the swiftly shifting favor of the Republican party in the race to the preliminaries for the 2012 presidential election.

With the Republican primary race heating up, it seems as if voters cannot decide on a candidate to side with. Candidates are gaining and losing popularity faster than they can cordially wink to their constituents. This revolving door of popularity is neither beneficial to the candidates, nor the Republican voters who must stick with a decision in order to have a chance to see a Republican president in the White House next January.

Many voters have ruled out second-tier candidates as possible front-runners at this point; possibly ruling out a dark horse, such as Jon Huntsman or Rick Santorum, from gaining the nod. However, there is still much indecision between front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Romney has definitely been the most consistently popular candidate in the race, but some have decided against voting for Romney because of his past of seemingly flip-flopping on issues such as abortion and immigration, and his Obama-like healthcare plan.

The only decision that has been made by many GOP voters is that they will definitely vote against Barack Obama in the race no matter who is the Republican candidate. This can be dangerous. Voting for someone who you may not agree with simply because you don’t like the current President is irresponsible, but that is the beauty of democracy; being able to make a free decision of who to vote for (or against) and not have your judgment punished in any way.

Newt Gingrich has surged in the polls lately, baffling many of the mainstream media, because he does not fit the mold of a typical leading candidate. Gingrich’s strength is that he does not campaign to try to sell himself to the voters. He sells conservatism to the voters. He see the spectrum of public opinion as a fluid entity that can be influenced and altered. Gingrich could very well be Romney’s head-to-head opponent for the remainder of the race, but at this point, who can really say for certain?

The point also must be brought up that some candidates have gained popularity, not by their own virtue, but by faux pas by their fellow candidates, such as Rick Perry’s poor debate performance or Herman Cain’s (who has since suspended his campaign) lack of foreign policy knowledge. Once voters are fed up with a candidate, they must take their support elsewhere. This leads to a surge for another GOP hopeful. The trick will be to keep the surge long enough to form a solid backing, and have a legitimate chance to get the nomination in 2012.

The early portion of the 2012 GOP primary race has been one of the most tumultuous primary races in recent memory. Each debate seems to prove a new candidate worthy, in voters’ minds, of holding the position of commander in chief. Will there be another seismic shift of popularity? Many say no, but with unpredictability and indecision reigning supreme throughout this race, only time will tell.