The next presidential election is going to be weird, if current trends continue. We'll basically have Obama, having screwed up majorly with nothing to show for himself, against some anonymous Republican with nothing to show him/her self either except maybe a nice local career. Third parties would be interesting, but there's no way in hell the media will give them any serious attention.
Specifically with the Republicans I think they're major problem is that their leadership and pundits have gone massively NeoCon when a good portion of their party, perhaps a majority, and a **** load of swing voters and independents would cream themselves for a traditional Republican more along the lines of Goldwater, Taft, or even Reagan. Someone with a hint of genuine old right credit. Ron Paul would be a sane choice, but the media and party leadership are too hell bent on excluding him because he's a libertarian in action if not name, and no special interest in the world would back him because he's too much of a threat to any and every cabal in DC. There is however no slightly more moderate alternative right now in their party. If someone would come in and leave major changes alone but just draw in the spending relative to tax intake and start exercising a little prudence on the budget he'd be a massive success.
As for Palin, it's not like this is the Republican's first attempt to get a unqualified woman into office. Remember Elizabeth Dole? But this got me to thinking, what are the qualifications for holding public office? For me I'd want someone to have a good understanding of the structure of government and its basic functions, and a good knowledge of economics, domestic and foreign policy. Almost every single person holding office right now would fail that basic test somehow. Beyond that test ideology is the only thing I care about. But, I think quibbling over who is and is nto qualified distracts us from the real question: who selects the pool of candidates? How the **** did George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Sarah Palin, or Elizabeth Dole ever even get close to the presidency, much less attain it in the first two instances? I've been looking for a book on this subject for the last couple of weeks, haven't really found anything.
Anyway, Palin got me more into this and I'm seriously curious how the pool of supposedly elligible candidates gets selected and put before the electorate. What's more, how does one come out on top? Because it doesn't seem to be linked to anything resembling competence or qualification.