Even Without Donald Trump, Plenty of Clowns in the 2012 GOP Field

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels commented last week that "the chances [of his beating Obama] would actually be quite good." Apparently channeling some Trump-ian bombast, he added that, "The quality and the number of people who have said they'd like to be associated is really quite awesome to me." Also awesome is the idea of someone running as a gimlet-eyed spending hawk whose previous job before governor was as George W. Bush's budget chief. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes, "By themselves, in fact, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for almost half of the $20 trillion in debt that, under current policies, the nation will owe by 2019." [Check out political cartoons about the budget and deficit.]

Then there's Mitt Romney, who Thursday made his highest profile attempt to explain why the healthcare law he passed while governor of Massachusetts, with an individual mandate, is good, but the national-level version of it, signed by Barack Obama, is bad. Romney's dilemma: He can't embrace the individual mandate because conservatives don't like it any more at the state level than they do at the federal one. But he also can't repudiate it lest he feed the political chameleon image that led the Democratic National Committee to tout "Mitt Romney, Version 5.0." [See political cartoons about healthcare.]

The most damning illustration of the state of the GOP field may have come in a Politico report noting that virtually the only issue the contenders agree on is that "Sharia law is a continuing threat to the United States."

One can't help but look forward to the GOP nominee explaining that urgent threat in a general election debate while standing next to the president who got bin Laden.

• See editorial cartoons about the 2012 GOP field.
• Check out political cartoons about Republican Party.
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