by Clifford F. Thies

The race has the feel of not being real.

The President's net approval rating is negative and he loses to Generic Republican. His fundamentals are very bad. The Misery Index looks Cateresque. Three wars. Who knew we had 100,000 troops in Afghanistan? Or 700 casualties per year? These numbers will not be lost to the American people when it comes time to focus on the election. Obama has owned the economy since 2010 and he will own the wars in 2012.

Looking at the GOP field:

Romney continues to be the front-runner; but, he's like a default setting. His total experience in government is 1 term? And, what did he actually accomplish?

Pawlenty? Talk about a weak jaw.

Can anybody else who is in the race even be conisdered to be a serious candidate?

Among the non-serious candidates, Herman Cain's role is to splinter the Tea Party vote so as to deny the nomination to Michele Bachmann; Ron Paul's role is to splinter the Libertarian vote so as to deny the nomination to Gary Johnson; newcomer Jon Huntsman's role is to splinter the Mormon vote so as to deny the nomination to Romney; and, Rick Santorum's role is to put himself out there long enough so he denies the nomination to himself.

Newt Gingrich, like Fred thompson before him, is using the Presidential contest to impress his young wife, so at least he's accomplishing something.

Waiting on the sidelines is Sarah Palin, now joined by Rudy Giuliani and Rick Perry, each one imagining him or herself to be the savior of the party, when we all know that General David Petraeus will be the savior.