StrongBad

Rudy Giuliani is rapidly coalescing as the Republican nominee. Anything can change, of course, but Romney is Mormon, McCain has alienated too many people, and Thompson - up until recently the only convincing challenger to Rudy - has fizzled as people have realized that he has no charisma or ideas whatsoever. So put your bets on Rudy.

Of course, this doesn't mean he's a consensus candidate. The religious right has threatened to sit the election out if he's nominated. But there's basically three kinds of Republicans around these days - businesspeople, theocrats, and war hawks ("economic conservatives", "social conservatives", and "neoconservatives"). Giuliani is the man least likely to alienate the businesspeople (look what he did for New York), and the religious right, thanks to their monumental long-term stupidity of yoking their wagon to one political party, have nowhere else to go.

And, by all accounts, Rudy is now the top choice of the neocons. This may be because the damaged neocon movement wants to hitch itself to the strong horse, but from everything I've seen and heard of Giuliani, he also naturally jives with their philosophy. Thus, the Republican candidate with the biggest neocon streak is also the most electable.

This is just about the worst possible outcome. Discriminating against gays is bad, but it isn't going to wreck our nation. Redistributing income to the rich is bad, but it (probably) isn't going to wreck our nation. However, starting unwinnable wars and alienating every other country on the planet WILL wreck our nation in the short term. People know this, people sense this, and that's why it's Iraq - not tax cuts, not health care, not gay bashing - that has turned Americans against the Republican party.

In fact, Giuliani's star power seems to be the only thing at this point that could persuade Americans to vote for another four years of warmongering. The strongest candidate is also the worst. D'oh.