[Publisher’s Note: After the defeats suffered by the Republican Party in the General Election, we have reached out to some California leaders to ask them to reflect on this question, "What must the GOP do to once again be the majority party?" We are pleased to bring you this column from one of our own FR correspondents, Dan Schnur – Flash]
After last Tuesday’s elections, there are twenty-one Republican governors in the country. Because of constitutional restrictions, only twenty of them are thinking about running for president in 2012. But it’s always better to be a mile outside of hell heading out, and as the GOP looks to rebuild itself, as it did after the 1976 and 1992 elections, the political, policy and intellectual firepower for that effort will come from the states.
The Republican leadership on Capitol Hill seems resigned to fighting a series of rear-guard actions to watch for likely Democratic overreaches. John Boehner is one of the best political minds in the party. Mitch McConnell is one of the ablest legislative tacticians in either party. Both may serve well as leaders of the opposition. But neither represents either a new or renewed Republican Party. Their most important contribution will be holding the fort until the next generation of leadership emerges. While there are smart young thinkers within the GOP ranks in Congress – future stars like Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Mike Pence of Indiana, and Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes from California – look for the next significant wave of energy to come from the party’s governors.
There is no shortage of potential candidates in this group: from the innovative (Mitch Daniels of Indiana) to the iconoclast (Mark Sanford of South Carolina), from the moderate (Charlie Crist of Florida) to the conservative (Jon Huntsman of Utah), from the familiar (Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Rick Perry of Texas) to the new faces (Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Bobby Jindahl of Louisiana). And of course, Sarah Palin, whether as a governor, Senator or talk show host, is poised to make a big imprint on the race if she chooses. Add to that the survivors of the class of 2008: Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and perhaps Rudy Giuliani, and some not-so-recent alumni like Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush (although that option might be better off a few more years down the road). So there are plenty of options to fill the dais at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Des Moines next year.
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