WonderfulPessimist.com

John McCain wants to label it “a tale told by an idiot,” but whether that’s true or not, GOP US Senate challengers in Arizona J.D. Hayworth is certainly “full of sound and fury,” though it remains to be seen if his latest ad campaign in his challenge of McCain for the GOP nod is “signifying nothing” or not.

Hayworth, a one-time talk radio host, launched an ad critical of McCain’s conservative credentials, using an ad that paints McCain’s face blue, as in the movie Avatar. It’s a shiny, glitzy, with-it ad with a biting sense of humor and savvy pop-culture IQ filling the screens of netbooks nation-wide.

So of course, McCain and crew are demanding an apology for Hayworth calling McCain a “nominee for best conservative actor.” And here I thought it was that “sound like Reagan, govern like Carter” fellow currently in the White House.

Huh…

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and reality TV producer Mark Burnett are teaming up to shop a reality TV series around Hollywood, which would focus on Alaska and the Palin family, according to numerous online reports. Considering a reality show, even if approved for next fall, could spend as much as a year in production and it’s already 2010, the chances of Palin running for the GOP presidential nod in 2012 are starting to look slimmer and slimmer.

No one can begrudge Palin wanting to cash in and make a living for her and her family; but with her job search possibly impinging on the 2012 presidential campaign season, it’s looking like Palin may have her sights set on 2016 and beyond, or has embraced the celebrity life.

The reason a reality TV jaunt could impinge on a presidential run goes not just to conflicting schedules, but to FCC campaign standards. If Palin wishes to run, no broadcast show featuring her could air once her campaign for the White House officially begins, without invoking the specter of “equal time” laws regulated by the FCC. Since it’s unlikely any broadcast or cable net is going to give the green light to a Palin reality show that it would need to clone for some twelve to twenty candidates from the two major parties as well as minor party candidates, the chances of a show getting green-lit by Hollywood would likely depend on assurances from Palin that she’s committed to the show over a presidential run… at least until the first season completes airing.

There are numerous precedents for such situations; in 1980, broadcast TV had to cease airing old movies and TV shows featuring Ronald Reagan until after the Carter-Reagan showdown was over. More recently, in the late 1990s, former pro wrestler and talk radio host Jesse Ventura was forced to step down from his radio gig to run for Minnesota governor.

Two-term incumbent GOP Texas Governor Rick Perry fended off strong challenges from three-term GOP Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Tea Party activist Debra Medina to secure his party’s nomination for an unprecedented third term.

Perry, who has embraced the Tea Party Movement and anti-Obama sentiment, secured 51 percent of his party’s support, followed by 31 percent for the more liberal Hutchinson, and around 18 percent for the more conservative-leaning Medina. None of them seem including toward selling life insurance, so Hutchinson will continue in her Senate seat while Medina made a strong enough showing to be heard from again.

However, Perry holds several distinctions; even without a third-term, he’s the longest-serving governor in Texas history and will face former Houston mayor Bill White in the fall in a bid to extend his reign. Perry’s first term was relatively quiet but as the Bush presidency was ending, he emerged from his predecessor’s shadow to become a strong conservative voice.

At a Tea Party meeting last summer, Perry even gave voice to Texas independence if Obama’s strong-arm federal approach didn’t tone done… a note he struck again in his victory speech Tuesday night.

Former US Senator Norm Coleman, seen by many as the candidate in either party most likely to broker a stadium deal for the Minnesota Vikings, has decided to sit out of the race to replace presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty, who decided to forego a possible third term as Minnesota governor.

Coleman lost a tough, close battle with Al Franken for the US Senate seat from Minnesota, in an election marked by allegations of ACORN-inspired election fraud – even though the court system refused to consider such evidence.

While many saw Coleman as the biggest name the GOP could field to replace Pawlenty, the truth is that Coleman is a notorious RINO and was not considered a welcome entrant by the conservative wing of the party. By sitting out the race, there remains a chance a real conservative could prevail from the primary fight.

Still, one has to wonder why Coleman chose to sit out an election he thought he could win; does Franken have pictures of Coleman taking womens vitamins or something? Doubtful.

Today, Massachusetts will hold an election to fill the vacant Senate seat once filled by the late Teddy Kennedy, and it appears that a Republican may have a chance to not only win the seat in liberal Massachusetts, but could go on to take away the Dems’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That could help stop the ObamaCare plan that looks to imperil the nation’s budget, as well as its quality of care.

According to RealClearPolitics, Brown currently leads Democrat Coakley by nine points. In liberal Massachusetts. Wow. Of course, it helps that Brown is talking issues while Coakley is mumbling something about handing out Nordic Track promotion codes or some such nonsense.

Levity aside, a nine-point lead could be enough to put Brown beyond the margin of error; all eyes will be on Massachusetts over the next 24 hours or so.

It’s going to be a tough fight, putting together a reform agenda, an economic plan that offers real hope, and taking advantage of Obama Disillusionment Syndrome, but the political textbooks say that mid-term elections are always hardest on first-term presidents and so far the cards seem to be stacking in the GOP’s favor.

At least 11 Democrat congressmen have announced their intent not to run, with more on the way, and there have already been a couple defections from the Dems to the GOP in the House. There are at least two vulnerable Dem seats in Congress that seem destined to change the party in control as both Harry Reid and Chris Dodd appear doomed to defeat; others could fall as well, if this ripple turns into a tidal wave if midterm discontent.

Of course, the biggest risk for the GOP is whether they will choose to sponsor Democrat-Lite candidates, or real conservatives that will offer voters a real choice in November. If the GOP returns to its Reagan roots, we could be looking at something akin to the 1994 GOP Revolt once again.

The long-standing former CNN financial analyst, Lou Dobbs, is pondering a run for US Senate from New Jersey as a Republican in 2010. If he runs, it would be in opposition to the U.S. Senate’s only Hispanic member, Democrat Robert Menendez.

Dobbs gained notice for his strong views against illegal immigration and amnesty while a broadcast figure on CNN, but has been softening his views since announcing his intent to run for the Senate seat in New Jersey; sounds like he’d make a perfect politician, if not exactly a conservative. Sounds like someone took some pond pumps to him.

Dobbs has also admitted he’s considered a presidential run, perhaps as early as 2012. That would make him precisely as qualified at the federal level as President Obama was when he ran for the White House.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday this weekend, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted he may sit out the 2012 race for president, due in part to his weekly Fox News Channel show. This is great news for real conservatives, since Huckabee is no more conservative than John McCain was, even though he was younger, more Christian and more pro-life.

While his word is likely to be less reliable than good insurance quotes, for now the nation can breathe a sigh of relief and hope that a real conservative, like Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal, rise to the top in 2012.

A CBS News/Vanity Fair poll listed radio host Rush Limbaugh as the nation’s most influential conservative voice, according to results released Sunday. Limbaugh was named by 26 percent of respondents, followed by Glenn Beck with 11 percent and politicians Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney at 10 percent each.

That Limbaugh is the nation’s leading conservative voice should come as no shock, given its a position he held – poll data or not – since the early 1990s. The only true shock is that CBS News is actually acknowledging the radio host’s existence without attempting to tie him to an appetite suppressant scandal or something like that. Refreshing! Thanks for telling us what we already knew, CBS!

As the GOP candidate most in need of a good fat burner, Haley Barbour faces the William Howard Taft/Grover Cleveland dilemma: can a man who is solid on the issues but physically not very camera-friendly (e.g., very overweight) win a modern election in which having the right on-camera look is deemed equally important – if not more important – than experience, command of the issues and did I mention experience.

Barbour has governed Mississippi well, is a solid conservative and has been a party chair and a great leader since the time of Reagan; however, he’s just not that camera-friendly. Should it matter?

Well, no more than it ought to matter that he’d bee the white governor of a Deep South state running against the nation’s first black president; but it would matter, for better or worse.

Barbour is more temperate in his religion than Huckabee, more experienced and more conservative. But electable against Barack Obama? Not at the top of the ticket.

When he’s not perusing Outer Banks vacation rentals, Newt Gingrich is flirting with a GOP presidential run. He has long been a favorite of mine, but he recently fell out of favor with me when he backed an ACORN-loving, liberal Republican in the New York Congressional race, rather than a true conservative, Doug Hoffman. The race was tight and Gingrich’s support might have made a difference.

But in all honestly, Gingrich has been slipping a lot since leaving office as Speaker of the House; he has cozied up to liberals and Democrats to push forward global warming solutions in an effort he calls “green Republicanism” when he ought to be shouting “swindle and fraud” from the rooftops against the cap-and-trade scam that global warming alarmism is a backdrop for.

While Gingrich has had solid conservative credentials in the past, there is now room for a reasonable amount of skepticism as to its authenticity. Too bad.

In assessing, early on, the 2012 presidential field for the GOP, in the contest to face off with Barack Obama, the first name I’m going to tackle is a favorite of evangelicals and some party faithful. He’s been raising his profile and money, going as far as to accept credit cards from donors, but nothing’s official yet.

My problems with Huckabee as a banner-carrier, at this point, are manifold. First, if he runs again, he needs to remember he’s running to be commander in chief of the military and CEO of the country, not the national pastor. In 2008, Huckabee wore his religion on his sleeve even more obviously than did George W. Bush for two election cycles; it didn’t even sell to the party’s base.

But there’s a deeper problem with Huckabee, and that is that he’s not a conservative on most issues; he sees big government as simply misdirected by liberals, and would maintain a big government philosophy in office, simply redirecting the power of governmental power, as did GWB.

That’s the wrong direction for the party, which needs to re-embrace its constitution-loving, Reagan roots. Thus far, all Huckabee has proven himself to be is a “more Christian and pro-life” version of John McCain. And that, we don’t need.