The Incredible Shrinking Opposition
One by one, President Obama's potential Republican rivals are being dispatched like video game villains.
To wit:
Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, delivered such a feeble rebuttal to Obama's quasi-State of the Union speech that he has since shrunk back into anonymity.
Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, hiked the Appalachian Trail
Jon Huntsman, governor of Utah, was dispatched by Obama to Beijing
And now Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, resigned her position and gave a weird, rambling speech that seemed to indicate we won't have Sarah Barracuda to kick around anymore.
Added to Newt Gingrich, whose aesthetic appeal is only slightly greater than the amphibian he's named after, and Jeb Bush, whose last name is unfortunate, and the list of plausible Republican leaders seems small indeed.
Sure, it's early. There are also others I haven't mentioned: Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, and of course former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. These three have certain things going for them.
But there's nobody with even the remote stature of Obama. Or Hillary Clinton. Or Al Gore. The Democratic 'bench' is just much deeper nowadays, which provides no small succor to a Dem like myself who only recently had to endure Rovian delusions of 'generational dominance'.
