GOP Timidity Is a Path to Defeat

◼ The American people in general, and the Republican rank and file in particular, are fed up, angry, worried, and supremely frustrated. Yet they are being told, once again, that we'd better not nominate anyone who is very conservative, or that person will get clobbered in the press and repel independents. - Joseph M. Koenig/American Thinker

This may come as a surprise to those timid folks in the Republican elite, but the candidate who can win is the candidate who can not only excite, but also harness and focus the immense dissatisfaction and frustration felt not just among Republicans, but also among voters across the political spectrum. As kooky as Ron Paul is on many issues, when it comes to spending and debt, he harnesses that dissatisfaction. If the Republican establishment cannot see how Romney simply doesn't manage the same feat, then we're in for another dismal election result in 2012....

The Republican party cannot continue to walk on eggshells out of fear of being portrayed badly in the press. By choosing a candidate in an effort to appease the liberal media, the right will once again push a candidate who excites few, has no appreciable mandate, and amounts to little more than a Democrat-lite. Once elected, this type of candidate may slow the progression of the country to the left, but he will do little to create the kind of change the American people are ready to fight vociferously for, if they only had a leader they believed might actually fight with them and follow through on his promises.