2nd Place is first loser...

Yesterday 'The First Major Test of the 2012 Presidential Campaign' was held in Ames, Iowa.  We know it was the 'First Major Test of the 2012 Presidential Campaign', because a somewhat distance 3rd place finish has already caused former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to cancel his Presidential Campaign. 

But on the other hand, Steve Clemons, writing for The Atlantic wants us to think that the Iowa straw pole doesn't matter, because Iowans have made themselves 'irrelevant in the hard political choice department' because 'no one in the top 5 had any real chance of leading a 2012 GOP ticket'. 

Because, you know those poor, podunk farmers earthly, hardworking, full of common sense folks in Iowa are out of touch with reality...as opposed the fine folks in New Jersey and California, who will actually decide who the nominee's are, but couldn't tell you what end of the cow the egg comes out of.

As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

I don't care much for Michelle Bachman...but I would love to see Dr. Paul get an equal share of broadcast time in the news media.  Every few days, I talk to someone new who has taken the time to actually read what Dr. Paul has to say, instead of saying 'isn't that the gold standard guy' they keep making of fun of on the news?  But the numbers aren't increasing fast enough.

I'm not saying Dr. Paul is a perfect candidate.  He is old enough now that he would be a 1 term option.  I also don't agree 100% with his platform...his opinion on abortion and mine are different, and I am a bit more a hawk than the Dr.  His big problem though, is that he has plans and ideas to fix things.

That's a major problem, because at this point in the game, you aren't supposed to have plans and ideas with actual DETAILS...the media wants sound bites.  NBC isn't going to take the time to run a news clip with actual DETAILS....but 'We need to go back to the gold standard'...well, they can squeeze that in around their Tea Party bashing. 

In the end, the GOP nominee will probably be either Romney or the newly announced Perry.  Blah....boring.  Because the 'same old, same old' has been working so well.  My real hope is that Dr. Paul continues to pole well enough that one of the candidates whom the Main Stream Media allows to be nominated is attracted to him.

I think Romney or Perry could do much worse for themselves than announcing a few weeks before the Republican Convention that if they are nominated, Dr. Paul will be their running mate, and that they will allow him to focus on fixing the budget as V.P., so they can guide the ship of state through foreign affairs and other domestic issues.