Fifth candidate is the charm?

As Republicans grow more worried about the state of the nomination for this year’s election, there has been talk of entering yet another person into the mix. Like we talked about in class the other day, the more state primaries and caucuses that pass, the more such a late entrance from a newcomer seems like a possible reality. Politico had mentioned yesterday a list of 10 Republicans who could potenitally jump in some time soon: the list consisted of Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, John Thune, Nikki Haley, and Marco Rubio. The main problem that I see with this list of people is that a majority of them have expressed no interest in running, or at least have told the public that they don't want to compete for the job. Mitch Daniels and Tim Pawlenty were involved in the 2012 nomination race early on; but ultimately, Daniels decided not to seek the nomination altogether and Pawlenty dropped out after a mediocre showing in the Ames Straw Poll. Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, and Paul Ryan all had their names thrown around early on, but don't seem too keen on the idea of entering the race now. Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, though popular among conservatives, have both virtually disappeared from the political scene since the 2008 presidential campaign. Nikki Haley and John Thune both have bright political futures ahead of them, but I don't think that either of them is right for the kind of heroics a new candidate would have to display at this point. That only leaves Jeb Bush, who has become more publicly outspoken about the 2012 candidates this week. He believes that a key flaw that he sees in the current candidates is that they are only appealing to Republican primary voters, instead of trying to broaden the base to independent voters as well. He thinks that if this continues to happen, the Republican candidate for president will likely alienate the independent voters and leave the Republican coalition short of votes to win back the presidency. However, despite these insights, Bush told Fox News, "That won't happen...yeah...positive" about the possibility of entering the nomination race. I guess we will see if Bush, or any of the others mentioned in this post, have changed their minds by the end of the Arizona and Michigan primaries next week.