>On the national stage he was a nobody until now.
>
>So was Barack Hussein Obama in 2008.

He was a dark horse (don't read anything into that) but far from an unknown. There are 100 U.S. Senators and he was one of them. He threw his hat in the ring and quickly established himself as a serious candidate. Even a dummy like me could see enough to call his election in June 2007. Hillary was unelectable and neither party had anyone else. I like John McCain, god loves him too, but he would have been a terrible President. Picking Sarah Palin as his running mate goosed his lagging campaign but sunk him with moderates.

Let's make this more constructive. Please describe the perfect 2012 candidate and what they should do. And don't say generalities like "cut spending" or "cut taxes" without saying how it would be offset. That's the part nobody wants to go near, because then you p**s people off. There is not a line in the budget that doesn't have a constituency.

PS -- Can you guys just knock off the conservative talking point of "Barack Hussein Obama"? It suggests a connection which does not exist and just makes you look like zealots.