THE NOMINATION PROCESS—THE PROGRESS SO FAR.

THE NOMINATION PROCESS—THE PROGRESS SO FAR. The 2012 nomination process got off to a bad start from my point of view when Governor Pawlenty withdrew in the middle of 2011 after having suffered a defeat in a straw poll in Iowa in which a very few voters took part. But I had lunch with some friends this week, and somebody asked how Rick Santorum was staying in the race. Somebody else answered that it is not that expensive now because the chief expense is the cost of appearing at all the debates. One change this year seems to be that the cable networks seem to find it profitable to broadcast debates so there are a lot of them. If so, this makes it possible for a candidate not to be eliminated early on by an inability to raise money. This year it seems that both Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have been able to improve their positions to this point without raising much money. Perhaps they will serve as examples four years or eight years from now.