(Fill in the blank) Is Our Only Hope

There’s an unfortunate trend that seems to be making the rounds in conservative circles: “(Fill in the blank) Is Our Only Hope”. I noticed it to some degree in the last presidential race, but the intensity of the desire to replace Barack Obama in the White House in 2012 has exacerbated the trend.
If you are talking policy with these people, you get along famously. You agree on what Barack is doing wrong, you agree on what the next president should do to correct it, and then you discuss who that might be. Then the friction starts.

You find out who the (Fill in the blank) Is Our Only Hope crowd is, when you start criticizing their candidate. Now I have, in the past, and some in the not too distant past, criticized Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and Mike Romney for their obvious (to me) shortcomings as a candidate. I’m sure I will criticize others and some I will criticize again. Our common end game is that “A Conservative in the White House Is Our Only Hope”. It is early in the primary process. There is no clear front runner yet.

I am not suggesting that we should aim for some “compromise candidate” who will not stand on principle. What I am saying is that the candidate we end up with may not be perfect, or our ideal, but, is he or she a conservative who will lead the nation back to fiscal and Constitutional soundness?

A lot of what I hear from the (Fill in the blank) Is Our Only Hope crowd sounds an awful lot like people setting themselves up for disillusionment if their candidate is not the standard bearer in 2012.

During the primary season, advocate vigorously for whomever you believe to be the best and the brightest. But, if that person should be eliminated from the contest, by others who feel as strong or more strongly than you, but disagree on the man (or woman) or the positions they hold, don’t lose sight of the larger objective:

A Conservative in the White House.

Don’t become so invested in any one person that you cannot vie for the genuine hope and change so badly needed by America today. Beating Barack Obama in 2012 ought to be a cakewalk, but only if we select the right candidate. That’s what the primaries are for. Consider the fact that (Fill in the blank) may not be our Only hope. You may believe it sincerely, but sincerity doesn’t make it so. Just ask Harold Camping. He sincerely believed the world would come to an end last month. He was sincerely wrong. It may not be the end of the world if Obama is reelected, but you can certainly see it from there!

Me? I don’t have an “only hope” candidate yet. Ask me again next June…