After spending almost every day since last August posting on Facebook, tweeting, and retweeting in support of Jon Huntsman, you can imagine how heartbroken I was last Monday when he suspended his campaign for the 2012 presidency.
Huntsman, former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador, most recently to China under the Obama administration, was the apple of my eye in this long GOP primary race.
Others may have been crushed Thursday, as Rick Perry abandoned his campaign for the White House, and endorsed Newt Gingrich.
If you’re just now getting into the “primary season,” you’ve missed some “astounding” individuals as they’ve withdrawn from the race, such Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) or former Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty.
If you don’t know much about the current race, many are criticizing the long “primary season,” positing that it is creating rifts in the GOP, or displaying Republican weakness as a whole. Also, some vehemently believe that this “primary season” has been a waste, as there are no strong Republican candidates in the limelight.
Yet, one must take a closer look at this primary season.
First, what everyone needs to remember about the race is that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Yes, this “golden rule” has been empirically proven to yield strong candidates.
After being tried multiple times by members of their party, Republican nominees will have already withstood tough pressure needed to stand a chance against an incumbent in the November general election. Proven already in the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucus, negative advertisements can kill a candidate.
After PACs supporting Mitt Romney released millions of dollars in negative television advertising against Newt Gingrich, the former house speaker withered away from a strong showing to fourth place with just 13.3 percent of the vote, just three percent more than Gov. Perry.
Something else has been important about Iowa, too.
There was an abundance of back-and-forth speculation of who had won the race, Rick Santorum, or former Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor had the chance the make history by winning the first three caucus and primary contests, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, but it looks like Romney will have to set his sites on the presidency as GOP officials in Iowa have declared the contest had no winner.
The neck-and-neck results of its contests highlight the importance of a long primary season – Republicans haven’t made a decision.
Moreover, many posit that this signifies the crumbling of the Republican Party. The long-term advantage is that produces the strongest and most-likely candidate to defeat President Barack Obama in November.
Especially since Obama, for the most part, has had to result to vague advertisements, and released some of its first “anti-Romney” ads on Friday.
When asked if ‘dirty laundry’ coming out about current GOP candidates is a dooming curse of the long primary season, Reince Priebus, Republican Party Chairman noted that it has no effect on the outcome of the race.
“If you look at Lee Atwater and Bob Dole, or Bush 41 and Reagan, Clinton and Obama, it’s very much part of American history,” Priebus said Wednesday. Priebus is overwhelmingly correct.
Specifically looking at the most recent election, Obama had household recognition as a candidate who won in a very long fight for the Democratic nomination. On the other hand, John McCain swiftly won in the Republican primary season.
Three years of abysmal job creation and poor macroeconomic management later (looking at you, Keystone), we know who won that general election.
Instead of dreading the lack of a definite candidate, Republicans should be thankful that this process has removed the skeletons from the candidates’ closets. Moreover, it’s clear that this process will not only provide a qualified candidate to man the White House, but one who is electable.
This process could quite clearly make this election season—the year of the elephant.
Joe Kieklak is a freshman majoring in philosophy and journalism. His column appears weekly, every Monday.