The Replacements

For all the partisanship coursing through both politics and the media today, there are some groups that have more in common with their political opposition than common wisdom would have us believe. For example, take ANY random Republican from across the country, who is interested in the race to be the GOP's 2012 standard bearer - and any Nebraska Democrat interested in who's going to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Ben Nelson.

The Republicans have some massive problems, and not just because they are so heavily divided internally as a party. They've also got a massive problem with the candidate who more and more looks to be their Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

Sure, among GOP hopefuls, Willard 'Mitt' Romney appears to have the best chance against President Obama according to current polling. What the polls also say is that nearly 60% of Republicans aren't yet comfortable with Romney - or any of the other options - as their final choice for President in 2012.

Of course, it may not have helped when Mitt blurted out this week, "I like being able to fire people."

Not surprisingly, that quote was taken somewhat out of context when Romney said it on Monday. Just a few short months ago, however, Romney's campaign team put together a slanderous ad against the President, taking all kinds of quotes out of context. When the Romney campaign was confronted with their less-than-ethical attack on President Obama, their response at the time was a sheepish excuse that the President had actually said those words, so it was ok to take his words out of context. Now that Romney has to taste his own campaign's medicine, the flavor doesn't seem nearly as sweet.

In a collapsing economy like the one President Obama has begun to turn around, someone who has a history of being a corporate raider in the Michael Milken / Gordon Gekko mold - especially a guy who says in ANY way that he ENJOYS firing people - isn't exactly the wisest choice as national poster boy for the GOP.

To make things worse, Romney's comments appear to have lead the rest of the Republican field to gang up on the traditional supporters of the GOP on Wall Street. From Newt Gingrich, who has taken to a full-force attack against Bain Capital specifically, and the private equity industry in general, to Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul, who are proudly repeating the idea that the biggest Wall Street banks should be broken up.

All this wonderful chaos goes on thanks to Mitt Romney, the guy most likely to be the Republican Party choice for President this year.

As you can guess, many of the GOP faithful are sitting by their proverbial phones, wishing, hoping, and praying that a better candidate for President will call them.

Meanwhile, Nebraska Democrats are in a similar boat.

While both Rep. Lee Terry and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry made clear this week that neither of them is going to run for Nelson's old seat, and Gov. Dave Heineman increasingly appears like he too will sit out, Nebraska Democrats continue to look at a 2012 U.S. Senate campaign with no serious Democratic candidate.

Right now, the best chance Nebraska Democrats have is Bob Kerrey, the former U.S. Senator and Governor of Nebraska - and the man who occupied that seat for Nebraska before Ben Nelson came along. Kerrey is visiting Nebraska this week, so state Dems are more excited than ever - but Kerry hasn't made any assurances one way or another.

Thus, Nebraska Dems, like their national GOP counterparts, sit anxiously awaiting a call.

We suggest to both groups that neither one holds their collective breath on those magical calls coming through.