Taking Turns?

The race for the GOP Presidential nomination is speeding up as of late, with Herman Cain rising in certain polls and tying with Mitt Romney in others.  Many people are virtually handing the nomination to Romney, based on the fact that Cain has no political experience and Romney is the most polished in the field right now.  He's been running for president for six years; he should be the most well prepared, right?

Wrong.  This race is far from over.  Assuming that someone will get the nomination at this point based on their lead in the polls means nothing.  Polls can change overnight, and we are still 65 days away from the first nominating contest.  A lot can and will change between now and then.  Based on that, no one, not even those candidates at the bottom of the polls, can truly be counted out (well, maybe a couple of them could ;).

Mitt Romney has been the frontrunner that people began crowning with the nomination back in May.  It has just been assumed that he would be the nominee.  One of the reasons for this is that many people in the GOP establishment feel this is his "turn" at the nomination.  That idea really is as far-fetched as it sounds.  When you look back at history, though, there is definitely a pattern to this that has been followed and gone unnoticed.  In the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon.  Later, in 1968, it was Nixon's "turn" in which he won the presidency.  Gerald Ford beat Ronald Reagan in the 1976 primaries, then went on to lose to Jimmy Carter.  In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the nomination and beat George H. W. Bush, who then became his vice president.  In 1988, H. W. Bush became president but lost reelection in 1992 to Bill Clinton.  Again, in 2000, George W. Bush beat out John McCain for the Republican nomination.  In 2008, apparently, it was John McCain's turn. 

I know that was a lot of names.  I hope you were able to follow it and see what it all really means:  the GOP establishment has found a way to work themselves into the actual nominating process, in ways other than simply choosing the actual nominee.  The people should be the ones who choose the nominee, based on our own vetting and our actual votes.  The establishment does not get to set up a list of people who will eventually be Republican nominees and the order they will do it in.  The media is a huge part of the nominating process as well, and may shape it in some ways to fit the mold they want it to, but at this point I believe the establishment is just as much to blame if the recent poll numbers are not correct.  The establishment needs to get out of the nominating process until the convention next year.  The people should be responsible enough to do their own vetting of the candidates and choose for themselves who they feel is the best candidate.

Mitt Romney has clearly been chosen as the establishment's candidate.  Herman Cain has, in a sense, been chosen as the media's candidate; their intentions are still fairly unknown.  Both of these "endorsements" may prove to be beneficial to these candidates, especially to Mitt Romney if the establishment decides to go against the peoples' wishes and choose their own nominee.  While he has been running for president for nearly six years, it has been made clear that Mitt Romney is not the peoples' choice.  He has consistently stayed at about 25% in polls and has changed his opinion on so many important issues, many conservatives have been turned off by his flip-flopping.  I, for one, am not a fan of his and do not feel he is the best possible person to lead our country out of this crisis.  At this rate, however, neither my nor your opinion will make a difference.  The establishment is pushing hard for Mitt Romney to be our nominee.  If we wish to stop that from happening, people will have to sound their true opinions loud and clear and let them know that "We the People" will choose our own nominee, not them.  We do not take turns trying to defeat incumbent presidents.  What we need is someone who has never run for the presidency before to come in and show the establishment that their choice is not always the right now.  Just something to note, both of the current frontrunners have run for president or explored a run before (Mitt Romney ran in 2008 and Herman Cain formed an exploratory committee in 1996).