Matt Bai on the Republican Party

The leader in the pack of candidates jockeying for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination seems to change from week to week.  This week the favorites are Cain and Romney. A few weeks ago Perry was rising to the top spot.  And let’s not forget earlier in the campaign season when Michele Bachmann looked like a possible nominee.  In his New York Times magazine cover story last Sunday, Matt Bai wrote that “many Republican veterans have come around to the view that they aren’t really going to need the perfect presidential candidate, and perhaps not even a notably good one.” And  history tells us, he says, that eventually after the fringes settle down, the GOP always settles on a moderate candidate.  Bai is the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine.  We’ll start off the hour talking with Andy Kohut of the Pew Center for Research about their most recent poll on the influence of the Republican debates.

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[audio: 102011_110630.mp3]