Voting 1Now the Republican nomination process is in full swing and candidates are doing battle. Since Indiana is one of the last states to hold a primary, typically Indiana voters have had little to say about who gets the nomination. This year it may be different. Many Republicans are not fully committed to frontrunner Mitt Romney. Following Romney’s win Florida, he is clearly the man to beat for the nomination, but if he stumbles or one of the other candidates catches on, Indiana’s 46 delegates might be the votes that swing the contest.

Now, the contest has come down to four candidates. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum could not win his last senatorial campaign and will surely fare just about as well in this race. Ron Paul has a small, very narrow, but enthusiastic, group of followers who will vote for him whenever or wherever he runs. Paul wants to take America back to the 19th century and he will never get very many people to vote for him.

The two frontrunners are Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. These two have made the contest essentially a two-person race. Gingrich, with his gargantuan ego and flatulent rhetoric, is locked in a no-holds-barred struggle with Romney, who seems not to know when he goes to bed at night which side of an issue he will wake up on the next morning. Their fight has become so negative in a personal way, that you might doubt they are in the same party. They have attacked each other on their personal finances. Romney accuses Gingrich of lobbying while Gingrich accuses Romney of being a wealthy capitalist who puts making money ahead of promoting jobs. Their trash talk has risen to new levels of nastiness with each successive contest.

At first, leaders of the Republican Party seemed to think their venomous rhetoric was a good thing. It might indicate the fighter who could nail President Obama in the general election. Now, some top Republicans are beginning to worry that all their nastiness will turn out to be self-inflicted wounds that might cripple the eventual winner for next fall. Ed Gilespie, former chair of the Republican Party, told Politico, “I do think there is concern amongst a lot of Republicans that the nature of this debate has become counterproductive,”

Once it was thought that perhaps some more moderate – dare I say reasonable – Republicans might take up the challenge. The list included New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida. They all demurred. Why? In my view the answer is fairly simple. Over the last few years, Republican rhetoric has strayed so far from reality and the conservative elements of the Republican Party have become so deeply brain washed, so closed minded, and so firmly entrenched in their unrealistic worldview that no candidate with a somewhat moderate and levelheaded stance is willing to take on the challenge.