Democrats are rubbing their hands in joy over the most recent CNN-Opinion Research Poll that shows cartoon character Donald Trump tied with Fat Mike Huckabee for the Republican nomination for President in 2012.
We cats agree with the glee: What's not to love? Trump is sucking all the oxygen out of the room. Send in the clowns, GOP. The more the merrier.
However, we cats caution that this is a national poll, and therefore completely meaningless. What really matters, nomination-wise, is what happens in the states. We know this because we well remember how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led President Obama in national Democratic polls in 2008 — only to lose to him when the state-by-state delegate counts piled up.
On that note, we call your attention to this obscure South Carolina straw poll, in which has-been right-wing nutbag Rick Santorum came out on top. We cats find it perplexing that anyone takes Rick Santorum seriously, but it's worth noting this result from — gasp! — 413 Republican diehards in a single county in the Palmetto State. Why? Because the fringey nut cases are driving the Republican train these days.
Also, Santorum bears watching because as a former Senator without a real job, he can campaign full-time — that is, when he's not busy home-schooling his 53 kids. Therefore, he might have an advantage here. When you haven't anything better to do, you can trot around GOP primary states, making red-meat speeches that resonate with off-the-wall Republican crowds and racking up straw-poll victories.
But wait a minute: The famous quitter from Alaska doesn't have a full-time job right now, either. Couldn't she visit primary states and pitch herself at teeny-tiny straw polls, too? Yes — but that would be actually working, wouldn't it? Newt Gingrich can campaign around the clock as well (and let's hope he does, because he prefers to travel first class, and as such will burn through his money quickly). Ex-Governor Tim Pawlenty can do it, too — but he's going to have to spend all his time raising money, because he can't inspire the grassroots droolers the way Rick Santorum can. Meanwhile, Haley Barbour and Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie and Michele Bachmann are gainfully employed. So they simply can't be everywhere at once.
Which leaves us with Mitt Romney, another ex-Governor — who appears to be the real loser in the CNN poll. Why? Because he can't go to the mat with the hard-right, teabaggy, healthcare-reform-hating, non-Mormon-loving Republican base the way the other clowns can.
The Republican field is a mess. But if we cats had to try to predict their 2012 nominee right now, we'd say, keep your eye on the teabag-loving clowns without a job. It's going to be one of them.
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