Three more Republicans threw their hats into the ring this week, hoping to clean up the mess Barack Obama has made since he took over the helm of our country two hundred ninety-two months and seventeen days ago (but who’s counting?) Dr. Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee added their names to the list, which could be a dozen or so before all the Republicans considering making a run announce one way or the other. Here’s some background info on the latest three, and my thoughts.
First, Ben Carson. He announced his candidacy in Detroit, where he grew up under challenging circumstances. His father left the family when Ben was eight years-old, and his mother who had a third-grade education, cleaned homes to support the family. He won a scholarship, and graduated from Yale. Then he earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan. Dr. Carson was the youngest Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery in Johns Hopkin’s history where he performed a number of cutting edge surgery firsts.
He was unknown on the political scene until two years ago, when he was on the dais at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. During his speech, he criticized Obamacare even though President Obama was on the dais also, only two seats away. The Left criticized Dr. Carson for being “disrespectful”. The Right loved it. A star was born. A few weeks later, Dr. Carson was quoted as saying “Obamacare is really the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. It is making all of us subservient to the government.”
So what do I think? I think he’s great. He’s a serious, knowledgeable, inspirational guy. Of course, like all the other candidates, he’ll face challenges. He’s never held public office before. This can be a plus, and a negative. It’s a plus that he’s an outsider, and thus he can say that he’s not a professional politician. On the other hand, he’ll likely make some rookie mistakes. (Some would say he already has.) And the press scrutiny at the presidential level is particularly intense. So he’ll have to be careful what he says, and how he says it.
Next, Carly Fiorina. This may be her first run for the presidency, but it’s not her first rodeo in politics. She ran as a challenger against California Senator Barbara Boxer in 2010, unsuccessfully.
She had a successful business career with AT&T and Lucent Technologies, before becoming CEO of Hewlett-Packard, which she led for six years. She was ousted by the Board of Directors there. Her political opponents will try to use this against her, but I’d note that her tenure at HP corresponded with the rise and then bursting of the tech bubble, and any CEO there would most likely have faced similar dissatisfaction with the company’s performance. If she’d be the Republican nominee, the Dems and the liberal press will be particularly brutal on her, because they consider women a key part of their coalition, and any turncoats must be destroyed (Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, etc.)
I really like some of the issues Ms. Fiorina emphasized in her announcement this week – like emphasizing the importance of reducing taxes and regulations on businesses. As the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, the only thing I’d have said differently was to add the word “small” before businesses. But other than that, I’m becoming a fan.
And then there’s former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. A lot of us expected that when he left his successful and lucrative gig at FOX News a while back, it was to pursue one more run at the presidency. Well, indeed that turned out to be the case.
Governor Huckabee, who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was also a very successful governor of Arkansas. Coincidentally, something he and Bill Clinton have in common is that they both actually grew up in the little town of Hope, Arkansas. Other than both being “people” people, they diverge from there entirely, morally as well as politically.
Some of the political pundits question whether Mike will be able to raise the “big bucks” necessary for a serious presidential campaign today. Supporters of some of his Republican rivals are trying to paint him as a “big government” Republican, because of his alleged past support for Common Core and Cap and Trade. I think his bigger challenge will be the relatively large number of conservative candidates who will vie for the conservative vote in the Republican primaries, thus maybe strengthening the hand of a more “moderate” candidate, like Jeb Bush.
Having met Mike several times myself, I wouldn’t underestimate the strength of his “affability” factor. He’s a really nice guy. You’d be surprised how far this can go in politics, at all levels.
In my opinion, the addition of the three above mentioned candidates in the Republican field for President, makes the Republican slate even stronger. I wouldn’t rule any of them out – any of them could be a credible nominee. That being said, I’m not changing the prediction I made six weeks ago, that the top three Republicans having the best chance of being the nominee are Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, and Jeb Bush.
We’ll see.
