Boehner for president?

(Note: a reader takes strong exception to Jim C.’s idea that Boehner would be a good president. He says Boehner and McConnell represent everything that is wrong with the Republican Party.)

Jim C. writes:

John Boehner would make a formidable candidate; just saw him on Hannity, and I was impressed.

LA replies:

He’s too strange. He’s always seemed strange to me, since he first emerged into prominence as one of the GOP leaders after the 1994 victory.

And he should have changed the spelling of his name to “Baynor” or something like that when he entered politics, so it would have looked the way it is supposed to be pronounced. No one’s going to vote for a man for president whose name looks as thought it’s pronounced “Boner.”

Jim C. replies:

I’d give him a second look: he strikes me as a man of the people, very intelligent, and honest. Strange is Newt Gingrich and President 106 IQ.[LA replies: Jim C. has the fixed view, which I think is ridiculous, that Obama’s IQ is no higher than 105. Though now I see he’s raised it to 106.]

LA continues:

Can you imagine going through life with a name that looks as though it’s pronounced “Boner”? And you’re constantly having to correct people who say, “Mr., uh, Boner?” “No, it’s BAYnor.” I wouldn’t do it. I would change my name.

Maybe that’s why he’s so strange.

LA writes:

I will say this for him: his speech before the vote on Obamacare last March (his was the last Republican speech) was magnificent. I had new respect for him after that.

October 5

M. Jose writes:

You wrote:

“No one’s going to vote for a man for president whose name looks as thought it’s pronounced Boner.”

How about Dick Armey?

LA replies:

Look, we know there’s a lot of anti-militarism in the country, but that’s mainly in far-left university towns that wouldn’t vote for a Republican in an case.

FD writes:

The Boehner for President thread was too much. Boehner and McConnell ARE THE REASON there is a Tea Party. It was their failure to stand up to Bush that cost the Republicans the House and Senate. It was their failure to see what was happening to the country that led to TARP. It was their failure to provide real leadership—a visible national alternative to the Democrats—that led to the passage of the health care bill. It was their failure to understand the rage at Washington that caused a massive number of the American people to support the Tea Party movement. Talk Radio and the Web gave a voice to critics of the Democrats, but the Republican leadership was nowhere to be seen or heard providing an alternative.

Even now Boehner is unable to get Republican support for Paul Ryan’s Roadmap plan which would at least enable the nation to begin to triage its finances. McConnell has done nothing to reign in the Republicans in the Senate to get them to step aside graciously when they lose primaries or punish the ethically challenged members (like my own senator John Ensign). Both Boehner and McConnell listened to Muslim fifth-columinist Grover Norquist and said nothing substantive about immigration in the snooze-inducing “Pledge.”

Both Boehner and McConnell should have stepped aside from their leadership positions for the good of the country. But they won’t and so we will miss chance after chance to make real improvements. Neither of them have displayed vision or leadership in their current roles. They are both very good number three men.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 04, 2010 10:15 PM | Send