The Linear Canvas

Back in 2003, I wrote in my blog Republican Primaries, or the lack thereof that Republicans not having a primary was a very foolish thing to do. Judging by the candidates running for presidential nomination so far from the Republican Party in 2007, the inability to run as a presidential candidate in 2004, even in the primary, hurt the Republicans more than they could have imagined at the time. I think the whole Republican Party leadership was so drunk on power, that they placed their trust in just a few people. Those people were very charismatic, talked really loud, and convinced the majority of the party that there was no need to hold a primary because everyone loved the president so much. Several other reasons were given for the need to support George Bush and George Bush only. Most concerned party loyalty and the possibility of fracturing the support for the president. The last thing Bush’s supporters needed were any pre-election discussions of the administration’s actual performance.

There is no doubt that in most primaries, the incumbent president would win the party nomination anyway and advance to the general election. The experience lost by the other candidates that might have run in 2004, has to be a factor in the outcome of the elections next year. For some of them, this will be their first presidential campaign. That just has to make a difference. Having to follow an awful president like fellow Republican George Bush, has to be a real bummer to begin with, but having to follow him and it be their first campaign for president could really test their resolve.

I think that if the Republicans had had a primary in 2004, everyone in the party would have benefited from the debate and the experience, including George Bush. Not having a primary seemed to raise Bush to a royal platform that he never has had to descend from until the Democratic Party won a majority in both houses of Congress in 2006. The last thing the Bush administration needs, is someone poking around in what they’ve been doing for the last 6 1/2 years. What they would do to prevent that would never surprise me.