If the heat gets turned down and we join hands we can hope for solutions to our problems as effective as the recent Debt limit extension.

(oy vey)

I've been saying this same thing here in the Corner for the past couple of weeks.

A lot of GOP voters look at this election as a chance to defeat Obama and a chance to advance conservative values.

*I* look at this election as one of the last chances America has to fix the entitlement state before it destroys it all.

Meaning, a vote for Ron Paul or Michelle Bachmann might feel darn good, but at the end of the day-- that day being January 20th, 2013-- that person needs to be President of the United States.

I shake my head, hasn't the Obama experience taught the Right anything? The Presidency isn't a jobs-training program, it's not a reward for giving the best speech. It's a *job*, one that you should hopefully have some experience and political talent before you enter.

If we hired presidents instead of elected them, no one would have hired Barack Obama based on his resume.

We're going into a serious crisis, the most serious crisis America has faced since the end of the Cold War. The War on Terror, as bad as it is, isn't a existential threat; the collapse of the American-- and global-- economy is.

We don't need a great campaigner. We've all seen how that doesn't work. We need someone who can SOLVE these problems, or at least LEAD others who can solve them-- folks like Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, etc.

For me, I believe that the willingness to surround yourself with competant advisers, and secondly to listen to them is much more important than executive experience.

The Presidency is a job that is too big for one man. It takes a competant team to fully execute the job. This was one of Reagan's strengths, he set the policy and the tone, then left it up to those who worked for him to fill in the deatails.

It was one of Carter's greatest weaknesses. I read once that he actually reviewed the daily schedule for the White House tennis court. A person who gets lost in the details will always be an ineffective president.

Another vital characteristic is the willingness to admit that you were wrong and to change course.

Obama does not have this ability. From Mitt's unwillingness to admit that RomneyCare was a mistake, it appears that he doesn't have that ability either.

Why is Romney even a thought? He thought RomneyCare was a good solution for Mass. That's all I need to know about his decision making and views on personal responsibility. Buh-bye Mitt.

Hillary did tend to win the primaries, particularly in the big swing states needed for the general election. Barackus Obamus outhustled her in the little caucus states, most of which were default GOP wins anyway. If she'd done a better job organizing in places like WV she'd have sewn it up before he even got in it.

That's good advice (and my hunch is that there's better-than-even odds that Newt will be taking your advice on how to best spend his time).

The more I think about next year's election and the nature of our current crisis, however, the more I'm convinced there's just one right answer:

Paul Ryan.

I know folks @ the Corner don't pay attention to Palin until the lefties point something out to them.

But there was a pretty good take down of Obama and a plan forward just the other day from someone sounding like a leader... Funny, it didn't make NRO... but Romney saying nothing and doing nothing and leading nowhere is described as "smart"... Interesting.

The GOP establishment (and unfortunately NRO) have adopted position "if we ignore her she'll go away" because all of the "anyone but Palin" candidates are spectacular failures. Bill Bennett, who I used to respect, now even started talking Daniels and Huckabee re-entering the race, in between his pining for Perry. We'll see how well this misguided strategy worked soon enough. I expect announcement on August 29.

Yes.