The Political Inquirer

If Republicans decide to let Sarah Palin, ‘Nuke’ Gingrich, or Ted Pawlenty lead the party, they will only be set up for disappointment. No matter how bad the Obama administration can be, a majority of Americans will not vote for any of those three for president. If Palin runs in 2012, I expect a massive defeat that could trump Goldwater’s in 1964.

Thanks to an email from a reader, I saw an article from The Garnet Spy that argued for Mark Sanford to lead the GOP. Since late summer, Sanford has completely dropped off the radar. He was sort of rumored to be a possible VP pick in August, but since he never made McCain’s shortlist we never heard about him again. I can tell you right now why he was not on McCain’s shortlist: because this guy has principles and stands for something. McCain, Palin, Gingrich, Pawlenty, even Jindal–they are politicians. Put them in a position to run as a liberal Democrat and they probably would. Sanford, on the other hand, has a bit of the “Founding Fathers” running through his blood.

Let’s take a look at some of Sanford’s activities.

First, Sanford was the only governor to oppose the bailout package:

Sanford made his plea too, but he wasn’t holding a tin cup. He was the only governor to urge the House Ways and Means Committee last Wednesday to drop the whole idea of another bailout, or as it’s called in D.C. — “stimulus package.”

Who was for this bailout package? In the end I heard Hannity, Gingrich, McCain and even Sarah Palin essentailly endorsing it. Sure, they might have said it was “too much too soon”, but what happened to “not at all”? Only Mark Sanford stood principled on this matter.

Sanford managed to show fiscal responsibility from the get-go. Most politicians will break their promises right after being elected, hoping that the population will forget by the time voting comes back around. Not so in Sanford’s case:

Sanford has sometimes had a contentious relationship with the South Carolina General Assembly, even though it is controlled by his party. The Republican-led SC House of Representatives overrode 105 of Sanford’s 106 budget vetoes on May 26, 2004.^[6] The following day, Sanford brought live pigs into the House chamber as a visual protest against “pork projects“.^[7]

He was elecetd governor in 2003. His dedication to small, limited government didn’t end there.

Sanford rejected the Assembly’s entire budget on June 13, 2006. Had this veto stood, the state government would have shut down on July 1. The governor explained his veto as being the only way to get the cuts he desired, and that using the line item veto would have been inadequate as well as impossible. However, in a special session the following day, both houses dismissed Sanford’s call for reform by overriding his veto – effectively restoring their original budget (which indeed contained many reforms Sanford had previously called for).

And for good measure, I see that his Wikipedia entry also compares him to my favorite Statesman:

He often would be one of two members of Congress, along with Ron Paul, voting against bills that otherwise got unanimous support. For example, he voted against a bill that preserved sites linked to the Underground Railroad. He opposed pork barrel projects even when they benefited his own district; in 1997 he voted against a defense appropriations bill that included funds for Charleston’s harbor. Seeing himself as a “citizen-legislator,” he did not run for reelection in 2000, in keeping with a promise to serve only three terms in the House.^[2]

The Republican Party will likely choose tyranny, war, and big government by going with Palin, Romney, Gingrich or some combination thereof. It is early, but the decision to change the GOP must being now. It has a chance to be the party that Reagan pretended it was. Governor Sanford is the ideal choice for the Republican Party in 2012. If the Republicans pick anyone else, they will definitely not have my support and I hope they lose the next election.