Let the games begin.
With President Obama in Hawaii, lawmakers streaming away from Washington and the new year right around the corner, there’s no excuse to pretend anymore.
The 2012 presidential campaign is underway. There are some — including many voters — who will refuse to focus on 2012 until, oh, that very year.
But for political deal-makers and junkies, there is already much to consider. In less than six months, for example, as many as a dozen candidates will crowd onto a stage for the first major debate of the campaign, their eyes on the Republican nomination and the opportunity of facing President Obama.
Already, the potential candidates are warily eyeing polls that suggest that it will be no easy task to knock off the president, despite the many political challenges he has struggled to overcome during the past two years.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that the president would defeat all of the potential challengers they listed, if the election were held today. And that was before the president’s recent string of accomplishments in the lame-duck session of congress — in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released on Wednesday, 56 percent of Americans said they support how Obama has handled the lame-duck. Those numbers reminds the Republican hopefuls that defeating an incumbent president is never an easy task.
But before they get to take on Mr. Obama, the Republican presidential hopefuls are going to have to confront each other. What happens over the next several months will be a process of cleaving themselves from their potential rivals on issues and personality.
Here is a rundown of a few of the ways Republicans have started to define themselves in opposition to each other.
TAXES: With compromise and cooperation breaking out in Washington, potential Republican candidates used the tax deal to lay down markers on an issue that will be a central part of the party’s presidential debate.
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, both voiced their opposition. On the other side were Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota; Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas; and Senator John Thune of South Dakota.
“Advocating against this tax proposal is to advocate for a tax increase,” Mr. Thune said on the floor of the Senate – a direct jab at Mr. Romney and Ms. Palin.
FOOD FIGHT: Maybe it’s just a reflexive, anti-Democrat thing, but Ms. Palin took a shot at Michelle Obama, the first lady, the other day, mocking Ms. Obama’s healthy eating campaign. While making s’mores during an episode of her reality show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” Ms. Palin joked, “This is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”
That sparked a response from Mr. Huckabee, her fellow Fox News colleague and potential presidential rival. Mr. Huckabee, of course, famously lost a huge amount of weight after making healthy eating one of his own issues.
“With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin,” Mr. Huckabee said, “The first lady’s campaign is on target.”
THE HISPANIC FORUM: Get ready for this one over and over again. The presidential campaign season is all about which forums the candidates decide to attend — and reading the tea leaves from the ones they don’t.
Politico reports that Mr. Pawlenty appears to be the only potential 2012 hopeful who has said he will attend a conference put on by the Hispanic Leadership Network next month. Mr. Thune, Mr. Romney along with Mitch Daniels, the governor if Indiana and Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, have all declined, Politico says. Many others have not yet replied.
In fairness, it’s pretty early to star going to such things, especially when no one has announced their intentions yet. But courting Hispanic voters will be a key for anyone hoping to win the nomination and the presidency, especially given the growth of that population in key states like Florida, Texas and Nevada.
NUCLEAR AGREEMENT: The one area where the 2012 candidates have appeared to be largely in agreement was passage of the New Start treaty with Russia.
Perhaps looking for a good foreign policy issue that they could use against Mr. Obama, several of the candidates came out against Senate approval earlier this month. Mr. Romney, Mr. Pawlenty, Mr. Thune, Ms. Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich all criticized the treaty as not tough enough.
With the treaty now passed, it will be interesting to see whether any of them tries to backtrack – and in the process set themselves apart from the pack.
It’s only December, of course, and no one has yet officially jumped into the race against Mr. Obama, so we can all look forward to a lot more jousting to come in the new year.
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