Pandering

"Each time that Mitt Romney changes his position on an issue to conform to the extremist consensus among his rivals for the Republican nomination for president, its one more sign that extremists now completely dominate the GOP and that there's no place any longer for moderates in that party."  Jan Ting, www.blog.cagle.com, Nov. 7, 2011.

Is this true?  Feels true.  Especially if you listen to crowd reactions at the debates.  I've written about this before and its still baffling to me.  I'd like to think that the extremist only make up a small part of the GOP and that they happen to cheer the loudest but now I'm wondering if I'm wrong or a little naive.  Are most Republican's extremists?  Or is it that the moderates remain silent?  And as long as they remain silent, no candidate will realize that their vote is important as well. 

I believe a candidate would garner more respect for standing on their own two feet instead of pandering to whatever group they feel they need to in order to win the election.  But John McCain did that and some say he didn't win the election because he was more of a centrist. 

So here we have a group of candidates who want to be the next president and I'm not really that impressed with any of them.  Its a little depressing.  Perry's oops was the biggest thing searched on YouTube.  Is this going to be his Howard Dean moment?  Whether it is or isnt, the question isnt which candidate is doing the best pandering, the question is, do their positions make sense and is it in the best interest of the Country?  I certainly hope that between now and next November, all voters will do enough homework to dig a little deeper into what each candidate is proposing. 

For starters, the flat tax issue....