Searching for the GOP candidate

By Armand Domalewski

The typical metaphor used to express an election race is usually simply a race. But judging by their recent performance at the first GOP debate, the race to the Republican presidential nomination is less a footrace and more of a confused and terrified scramble for the exits.

Already, Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour have withdrawn from the contest before it even started. Looking at the remaining candidates — or potential candidates, since many have not even officially announced — it becomes difficult to imagine that any of them have what it takes to outrun President Obama.

It's not easy beating a man in a footrace whose father comes from the country that consistently produces the best runners (and who, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some believe was born there), especially if that man has his special "I killed Bin Laden" sneakers on.

It becomes even harder to imagine when you examine the actual roster of candidates.

Sarah Palin, perhaps the most notorious of the candidates, is also one of the least likely to win. Her star power and celebrity have made her millions — but they have failed to win over the 56 percent of Americans that a CNN poll tells us view her in a negative light.

This gives her the highest unfavorable ratings of any candidate, and after four years of the Palin show, it's hard to imagine those opinions can be turned around.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has a lot going for him. He has a strong record as a moderate governor, is well liked by the conservative base, and hell he even looks like a President.

But, he faces a significant authenticity problem — not only has he switched his positions on abortion, he also advocated and passed a healthcare plan in his home state that strongly resembles "Obamacare."

Despite giving a speech recently attempting to thread the needle between supporting "Romneycare" and opposing "Obamacare," he has failed to persuade conservatives that there is any substantive difference. This will likely doom him in the primary.

The other candidates are either too unlikely to win (Ron Paul wants to legalize heroin, Herman Cain's major accomplishment in life was running a pizza chain) or are not yet well known enough by the public (Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman) for me to substantively evaluate their chances.

I do know this, however; in a weak economy such as ours, the GOP has no excuse for losing the presidential race.

Despite this, not a single GOP candidate currently wins against Obama in polls, meaning that if they hope to take home the gold, the Republicans need to step up their game, and to do so will require a few steps.

First, they need to seriously consider thinking outside of the box — while the media routinely dismisses candidates like Ron Paul, he polls higher against Obama than any other candidate. It might be time to try something new.

Second, they need to articulate a coherent economic alternative to Obama.

Simply opposing government spending and "Obamacare" is enough to carry you through the opposition years — but it is not enough to win the Presidency.

What would Republicans do to boost the economy? If it's cut spending, how would those cuts improve the economy? What would Republicans do to fix our healthcare system?

Many answers exist, but no compelling vision has yet emerged from the right side of the aisle.

With these simple steps, the GOP just might be ready to run this race all the way to the finish line.

Armand Domalewski is a junior economics major.