Let me get this straight: The conservative presidential field includes (1) the father of a socialized medicine regime every bit as disastrous as Obamacare, but who thinks his was OK because it was at the state level, (2) a woman who, in spite of having no interest in the subject, studied tax law because her husband told her to, and (3) a man who think it's OK if Iran gets nukes.

Holy crap.  Romney, Bachmann, and Paul respectively seem to have distinguished themselves primarily by displaying astonishingly poor judgment.  No wonder everyone is salivating over Rick Perry, hoping and praying he is the second coming (Perry himself is leading the prayer service).  He may or may not be; like most Americans, I am just getting acquainted with the Texan.  

One thing's for sure, however - conservatives deserve better candidates than the current crop, or at the very least more options.  So for Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin, or anyone else thinking of getting into the race, my advice is: Do it.  There's room for you.  There are a lot of conservative voters looking at the buffet and wishing they had ordered the fish (I don't know what that means either).  

Now, some will say it doesn't matter who the nominee is, as long as it's not Obama, that anyone would be better than Obama, etc, etc.  That is lazy, dangerous thinking, as lazy and dangerous as the "anybody but Bush" mantras that gave us Obama in the first place.  Remember, no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse.  And just because liberals delivered a dangerously unprepared/inadequate politician into the Oval Office, that doesn't mean it would be OK for conservatives to do likewise.  

Barack Obama has messed things up so badly, done such horrendous structural damage to our nation that it will take a president with both a supple mind and adamantine will to even have a hope of fixing things.  Allowing ourselves to be agnostic on Perry at this early point, does anyone really think there is a person like that among the top tier Republican candidates?  

Conservatives deserve better than this field; America desperately needs better.

mattpattersononline.com