Another one bit the dust

The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, announced today that he would drop out of the 2012 presidential race and endorse Newt Gingrich. Sarah Palin endorsed Gingrich recently, saying that "If she were in South Carolina on Saturday, she would vote for Gingrich."

Hard-right conservatives are scared that big, bad Mitt Romney will be unstoppable in winning the GOP nomination, and they're rallying around Gingrich as their last best hope. Couple that with the fact that Gingrich is losing ground to Paul in the polls, to the point where Ron Paul is tied for second with Gingrich in the GOP race, and you have the best political drama this country has seen to date.

Let's weigh the probabilities of each candidate, then, starting from the bottom of the scrap heap. Rick Santorum's surge in public opinion hasn't lasted, and he's not likely to go far in South Carolina. He may beat Gingrich on account of his stance on social issues (the man wants to ban the use of contraceptives in America and effectively repeal Roe V. Wade), but he's a dark horse candidate. If he won the GOP nomination, he would lose to Obama by a landslide. America isn't in the mood for social politics - it wants a President who will help fix our debt problem.

Oh, wait, what debt problem? We don't have a debt problem - BUSH gave it to us, and Obama has been saddled with the blame. Just because he spend five trillion more dollars than the gov't budget had doesn't mean we have a debt problem. And who cares that the house voted against another debt ceiling raise? It's not like that vote meant anything; the debt ceiling will go up as high as it has to. Unless, of course, we go bankrupt.

You have forty-six million Americans now living on food stamps, up from thirty-two million just five years ago. Not only is that an unacceptable record for any President - it means that out of three hundred million people living in this country, one in SIX don't have enough money to eat - even many of those who DO have jobs.

But going back to the race, Gingrich is as likely to win the nomination as Rick Santorum. They're unsexy candidates whose popular appeal is too small to make the cut - so we're down to Ron Paul and Mitt Romney in this race. Then you have these attacks on Romney for his time at Bain Capital... as if being a businessman makes you evil.

Hey. Maybe Ron Paul DOES have a shot. But either way, it's good to see that voting Americans are still using their heads when choosing their leaders. Maybe our republic will make it out of this mess intact. I hope so - for our sake and for those who come after us.