A plethora of articles have appeared recently on American Thinker highlighting the flaws of the current GOP field. It's time someone pointed out their positive attributes.

Disappointment has reigned supreme amongst a subset of commentators and political bloggers concerning the current field of GOP contenders vying to unseat Obama in 2012. Not a day passes that there isn't another article lamenting our poor choices and dissecting every candidate's political flaws. These same bloggers decry the dearth of scrutiny applied to Obama in 2008 while shredding the GOP field and bemoaning the lack of a last minute conservative entry to act as GOP savior. As the GOP lead has rotated among the candidates, these bloggers have taken to the web to point out why their candidate is the only one who can win and why all the rest don't stand a chance.

Reading the constant drumbeat of negative information coming from these bloggers is enough to leave one feeling that the GOP field is populated by the most hopeless candidates around. Each career misstep has been magnified along with Democrat smears planted to keep conservatives second guessing their choices. Despite their misgivings, it needs to be realized that the GOP field is set and no conservative savior is waiting to appear at the last minute.

Rick Perry entered the race to much enthusiasm and immediately shot to the top of the polls as conservatives lauded his credentials as the longest serving governor in Texas history. Perry has since stumbled badly in the debates and tumbled to the bottom of the heap, but he was the original conservative savior whose entry was supposed to lead the GOP to the White House. Perry is a well-liked conservative who has served as Texas governor for the past eleven years. Debating skills notwithstanding, Perry has an enormous amount of executive experience leading one of the largest states in the country. He comes across very well addressing small groups where listeners come away impressed by his conservative views.

Perry inherited the top spot from Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann who is currently serving her third term in the House. Bachmann, a former tax attorney, has strong pro-life credentials and embraced the nascent Tea Party movement early in 2010, creating the House Tea Party Caucus. Her strong conservative record in the House helped her to win the Ames Straw Poll organized by the Iowa GOP earlier this year. Her knowledge and experience with the IRS make her a natural for leading the debate for comprehensive tax reform, while her assignment to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has given her deep insight into foreign policy.

Herman Cain followed Perry as GOP poll leader with conservatives reveling in his American success story. Cain parlayed hard work into a successful business career turning around the fortunes of Godfather's Pizza as its CEO and culminating in a stint as President of the National Restaurant Association. He later served as deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and later its chairman. His business experience has given him a unique insight into the needs of American business desperate for relief from burdensome federal regulations and taxes. Insight like this is precisely what is needed to turn our economy around and get Americans back to work.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was the original front runner and has managed to stay close to the lead ever since. Prior to his term as governor, Romney had a successful career in the management consulting business culminating as CEO of Bain & Company before striking out on his own as a co-founder of private equity investment firm Bain Capital. Romney combination of vast business experience with executive political experience makes him a formidable candidate to oppose Obama's socialist agenda.

Currently vying for the top spot is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who in 1994 engineered the first Republican House majority in 40 years with his Contract with America. As Speaker, Newt oversaw legislation reforming federal welfare programs, passage of a capital gains tax cut, and in 1998 the first balanced federal budget since 1969. Twenty terms in the House representing Georgia's 6^th District have allowed Newt to gain an exceptional depth of experience in the inner workings of the federal government; experience that will come in handy in shrinking the federal behemoth and reducing the deficit.

Rounding out the GOP field are former Utah governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, 12-term House member and stalwart conservative Ron Paul, and former conservative Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Ignored by the media but still in the mix are former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer and former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson. Pundits may argue the degree of each candidate's conservatism, but there can be no disputing the fact that any of these candidates is imminently more qualified to be president than the current occupant of the Oval Office.

is an independent conservative blogging at www.tomroberson.wordpress.com, and doing his small part to save his country. He'd love to hear from you.

Tom Roberson