Why the GOP's unhappiness with its candidates is a 'myth'

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last updated 8 January 2015

The movement to coax New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie into the Republican presidential race, says Byron York in The Washington Examiner, has only enforced a bit of Beltway conventional wisdom: That Republicans are deeply unhappy with their current choices . And while that's undoubtedly true of "some GOP elites" — commentators and money men — when you talk to "the people who will actually decide the next GOP presidential nominee," says York, you quickly discover that this conventional wisdom is a "myth." Here's an excerpt:

I have been in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida in recent weeks and talked with a lot of voters. While a few are unhappy with their choices — there are always some voters who feel that way — there just does not seem to be much overall dissatisfaction with the field. Voters realize there is no perfect candidate in the race — that might be an understatement this time around — but that doesn't mean they believe there is some perfect candidate out there over the horizon, waiting to enter the race. ...

There is a difference between an electorate that is undecided and an electorate that is unhappy with its choices. It may turn out that GOP voters would welcome a new candidate — few voters will ever tell a pollster that they don't want any more choices — but that does not mean they are dissatisfied with what they have now.