Friday 22 April 2011

Beyond Blighty: Where are all the Republicans?


No, I'm not talking about the Royal Wedding.

By this date in 2007 all the main contenders for the 2008 Presidential election had declared their intention to run. Two weeks ago President Obama announced that he would run for re-election and lunched his campaign, but where are his Republican rivals? Currently only five people have declared their intention to run for the Republican nomination for President, none of them have held public office before and none are likely to get the nomination. The people who have the best chance of getting it (Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin...) seem strangely quite.

Campaigning for the 2008 election did start earlier than any other in US history, but even so, the reluctance of major Republicans to declare is interesting. Pres. Obama has looked vulnerable in recent months, but it's clear his potential opponents for next year's election are rightly wary of his campaigning skills.