Whether it’s Gingrich making his presidential bid official today (after a rough start two months ago), or Romney delivering a speech tomorrow on his Achilles heel (health care), or the latest NBC poll (showing President Obama’s economic approval at 37%), every 2012 candidate has this in common: They’re all flawed. That includes me.
In the GOP field, you have a failed former presidential candidate whose own health-care law is similar to President Obama's. You have a thrice-married former House speaker who left that office in an ethical cloud.
You have a former Minnesota governor most Americans have never heard of (and when they have, he gets overshadowed by others). You have a former Pennsylvania senator who lost re-election in 2006 by 18 percentage points.
And it’s likely you’ll soon have someone who faithfully (and uncritically) served in the Obama administration. On the Democratic side, meanwhile, you have an incumbent president overseeing an economy where the current unemployment rate is 9.0%.
What matters in presidential campaigns - and we’ll witness this over the next year and a half - is how the candidates conquer, exploit, or side-step their flaws. Nobody is perfect, especially in politics. But what counts is how they take a punch and respond. In many ways, a presidential primary campaign is a test to see who can BEST overcome obstacles.
All I can say is; bring it on!
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