Less than two weeks after quitting his job as a CNN talking head, Lou Dobbs has hinted that he may run for president in 2012. The controversial pundit has never held elective office, and is best known for his hard-line stance on immigration, but when asked if rumors of a White House run were just "crazy talk," Dobbs shot back: "What's so crazy about that? Golly!" Still, given his total lack of political experience, just how would Lou Dobbs go about running in 2012? (Watch an MSNBC panel discuss the prospect of Lou Dobbs running for president)
Use the Perot approach: Remember the last "paranoid gasbag with a grudge against Mexico" who ran for President? asks Steve Chapman on the Chicago Tribune "His name was Ross Perot" — and he helped elect Bill Clinton. Dobbs, with his "obsession about immigration, doubts about President Obama's citizenship and warnings about a North American union," is no different. Will he run? "Barack Obama should be so lucky"
"Lou Dobbs for president? Ha Ha Ha"
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Exploit the immigration platform: Even if this is a "five-percent candidacy" aimed at pushing Dobbs' "signature issue" of immigration, it would be "destined to fail," says Allahpundit at Hot Air. Barring some "shocking conciliatory gestures" from Iran and the Taliban, the "anti-amnesty position" will be nothing but an "afterthought" by 2012.
"Lou Dobbs: Hey, how about Lou Dobbs for President"
Try the Reagan route: Of course, it's "preposterous" that someone elected to nothing except "high school student body president in rural Texas" could win the nation's "top elected job," says Andrew Malcolm in the LA Times. But is it as ridiculous as the idea of "some old movie actor from California," who "switched parties" and "peddled refrigerators" being "elected president – twice"? President Dobbs "has a nice ring to it, right?"
"So you think Lou Dobbs will get the Hispanic vote in 2012?"
Join the Palin ticket: Dobbs and the former Alaska governor have one thing in common — celebrity, says Jurek Martin in the Financial Times. And as we all know, celebrities "live in their own world" – a world, perhaps, in which a "Palin-Dobbs ticket, if he could ever stoop to accept the second spot" could be a reality. Albeit one that is "simultaneously dysfunctional and bad for the nation's health."
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