These days it seems like everybody is running for president.
Guys you’ve heard, guys you haven’t, and guys you don’t even want to hear
about. There are governors, senators, formers and current CEOs of large
companies and even a retired neurosurgeon getting into the act. There are so
many candidates that soon we might be hearing Bugs Bunny has finally decided to
try for the GOP Nomination. (That is one candidacy I might find myself backing,
by the way.)
But back in January, Paul Ryan, the
running mate on Mitt Romney’s ultimately doomed ticket in 2012, announced he is
not running. Of course, that didn’t make the national news in a big way; nobody
started around the clock coverage of his decision not to run. But now that
announcing a bid for the Republican nomination seems to have become the Grand
Old Party’s pastime, it seems like Ryan’s decision not to run should have
received more attention, for the reasons he gave were not only good ones, but
they showed a level of maturity many of the bids, which everyone including
their candidate must know are doomed to failure, do not have.
Ryan announced in January he is staying
in congress because he believes he has work to do. He wants to overhaul the tax
code. Of course, that job is going to take a very long, and most don’t think he
will even be able to bring his new plan, should he even finish the massive job
before the second coming, will even come up for a vote for at least a year from
now. But Ryan is proof that the Republican Party still has people in it that
are willing to do what they were elected to do-that is, actually govern this
nation rather than use their seat as a stepping stone to the White House.
The influx of sitting senators and
governors seeking the nomination is especially difficult for Republicans, as in
2016 their new found hold on the Senate will be tested, as so many Republican
seats are up for grabs, compared to a relatively small number of Democratic
ones.
Taking a look at Rubio, who has
announced he will not also be running for senate, and Paul, who probably will also
not run for reelection to the senate, just to name two seats that will now be
much easier for Democrats to take. Then there are governors like Christi, whose
BridgeGate scandal many believe will hurt him if he decides to run for
president, conceivably that means he will also be hurt at home in New Jersey,
and paradoxically he would spending less effort and time in his bid at
reelection to governor, should he lose his shot at the White House.
Then there are all the presumably
eligible, interested and capable people, from Carson to Santorum to Huckabee to
Fiorina, all of whom are not in office, and all of whom are running for
president; which means of course that even were one of those four to win, three
would still be left out in the cold.
It seems that with all of the long
shots in the race, it would be much better if most of them were to abandon
their bids, and do something unthinkable-run for lower office. Of course they
don’t want to do that. They think they see a chance for them and they want to
be president. It’s a perfectly understandable desire, but also perfectly
dangerous to the Republican Party as so many of their best and brightest are
risking it all on a presidential run, and by the laws elimination only one of
them can win, while at the same time leaving the rest battered and bruised.
So it seems to me, and the facts
tend to agree, that the best thing for the Republican Party right now would be
if a lot of them stopped trying so hard to be president, and got back to
running for other offices if they’re out, and actually governing if they’re in. It’s
counterintuitive, I know, especially these days. But it’s the best thing for
them. Sorry if the medicine doesn’t always taste good.
Andrew C. Abbott
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