Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The 2012 Republican presidential candidate

by Jay McDonough

Connor Friedersdorf takes a shot at predicting which Republican might be successful at beating Barack Obama in 2012:

My
somewhat uninformed guesses: David Petraeus and Colin Powell (who�d
have all kinds of difficulty winning the primary). These accomplished
generals share one related trait: deep credibility as men who are
serious about national security, enabling them to run as sane,
experienced stewards, rather than bellicose idiots so desperate to seem
toughest on terrorism that they spend the primaries calling for
�doubling Gitmo� and competing to see who would torture in more
contrived ticking time bomb situations.

I�m
sure there are other candidates who could also mount a credible
challenge, though I don�t know who they are. Folks who can�t unseat
President Obama, in my quite fallible opinion: Mitt Romney, who might
actually make a good president, Sarah Palin, who wouldn�t, Ron Paul,
who the American people would never elect, and Mike Huckabee, who would
spend lots of money at home and abroad.

Obviously,
2012 is a ways off.  And Republicans should be thankful for that.  I
understand why Friedersdorf picked Petraeus and Powell as good
choices.  Their persona's as serious men with integrity, principles and
a temperate world view make them obvious choices.  But Gen. Petraeus'
politics are unknown and he could as easily be a Democrat as he could
be a Republican.  Colin Powell seems very unlikely; he was
just eviscerated by the conservative base when he endorsed Barack
Obama's presidential bid.  Fat chance, as Friedersdorf notes, that Gen
Powell could ever get through the Republican primaries and secure the
nomination.

The Republicans are in the unenviable position now of
having a very, very shallow bench.  They have a couple other
significant problems as well.  The Party's base has become increasingly
radicalized and they're unlikely to vote in a Republican primary for
any candidate who is foolish enough to appear moderate on the big
issues.  And, at least at this point, there's no one in the GOP with
sufficient charisma to convince a significant number of the
Independents required to win a general election that a little crazed
fanaticism and reckless economic policy is just what the country needs.


If the question is narrowed to which Republican could take the Party's
nomination, I wouldn't bet against Sarah Palin.  Polls indicate there's
a small but dedicated group within the GOP that still hopes she runs. 
But unless something very dramatic happens between now and November
2012, either in terms of Barack Obama or Sarah Palin, I just don't see
how she could ever win the general election.  (Jeez, a shudder just ran
up my back.)

Kudos to Connor Friedersdorf for taking the shot.  But I think he's missed.



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1 comment:

  1. mparkerSeptember 30, 2009 at 1:21 AM

    However shallow their bench is, the candidate they choose will be buoyed by the the cheerleading of a complicit corporate media. They will enjoy a distorted reality shaped in their favor which ignores all faults. At the same time unrelenting evil fictions will be formed and cast at a Democratic opponent.

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