I'll Take A Shot

Jim Geraghty asks Why Are GOP Voters Unhappy With This Field?

Why is the expected Republican turnout lower than in 2000, when it was, in my humble opinion, a weaker field? Eight years ago, several of the contenders in Iowa had never been elected to statewide office - Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes. The frontrunner, George W. Bush, had spent at that point a grand total of five years in elected office.

I think it's because the GOP is still fundamentally Conservative and all those guys were truly and unquestionably Conservative and all of them were passionate about their ideas. This year there's only one across-the-board Conservative, and the complaint against him is an apparent lack of passion that makes one doubt whether he could beat the Dem nominee. If you have a handful of issues you're passionate about, and you see them as intertwined, and you have to sacrifice two or three of them in order to support any of the candidates, it's hard to get fired up because no one stands out.