I would much rather support a candidate who is honestly religious - as a vast majority of our great presidents and other leaders have been - than one who effortlessly lies about it. And would therefore effortlessly lie about anything else important to him and us. (*cough*Clinton*cough*)

Gingrich is smart, but his positions are not quite integrated into a consistent whole. As with McCain, I'm not sure I'd trust him to stay the course. He has the advantage that he has already survived most of the shitstorms that the liberal media has thrown at him.

I am enjoying liberals yelling "girls are just dumb!" I would put Palin's brain up against Nancy Pelosi's demented mind anytime, and the latter was two heartbeats away from the Presidency for quite a while. Does anyone honestly think the most important characteristic of a chief executive is being able to rattle off facts like Rain Man? I have to look up facts every day. The important thing is what you do with them.

Yelling "dumb! dumb! dumb!" is not an objective evaluation any more than yelling "smart! smart! smart.!" In truth, most of the evaluations of intelligence of various candidates, including the current officeholder, fall into this subjective category.

For example, I don't think Obama is all that smart. Certainly a Republican pulling half the things he has would have been eviscerated by the mainstream media by now.

Obama was basically greased into the office by an unthinking fan club and an adoring, totally uncritical media. He's going to have a harder time doing that twice, but it's going to take a pretty good Republican to balance those same factors.

There are quite a few men and women on the bench (including Palin) that would probably make damn good Republican presidents. Just not, in my opinion, in 2012. Although several already have more experience in real governing than Obama did when he was elected. Heck, so did Palin.

I'm not seeing an ideal candidate at this stage yet, but I would put experience and fundamental principles (that don't shift with the polls or time of day) over a Harvard or Yale degree any day of the week. At this point, Obama's ideas - whatever they are - are so disastrous that almost anyone would be better.

I suspect the Republican Party will pick someone "safe." This will be a mistake. We've already done Bob Dole and John McCain.