By John Seiler

On Sept. 25, I pointed out the similarities between Meg Whitman and her 2010 campaign for California governor and Mitt Romney and his 2012 campaign for president. I wrote:

“Remember Meg Whitman’s campaign for governor in 2010? You probably want to forget it. She certainly does. Its campaign theme was similar to Romney’s: “I’m rich. I’ll create jobs. Vote for me.”

“So far, it seems like Romney in 2012 is channeling Whitman in 2010.”

The meme seems to be catching on. On Sept. 30, Josh Whitman wrote in the Mercury-News:

“Super-rich, sucker-punched by a “September surprise” and still stuck courting a hard-to-please conservative base while trying to connect with everyone else.

“That’s been the story of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in recent weeks, but it also was the story of the 2010 California gubernatorial campaign of Meg Whitman, whom Romney hired three decades ago at the Boston-based Bain & Co. consulting firm.

I think a lot of it is that Republicans don’t care much about winning anymore. Getting the nomination is enough.

They also just don’t have good candidates. They had Reagan, of course, whom they constantly cite while ignoring his actual policies as president (not as governor, where he boosted taxing and spending). But Reagan was a former Democrat who always admired FDR. Eisenhower was pretty good, but he had beaten Hitler, then didn’t even decide to run as a Republican until a few weeks for declaring his candidacy.

Nixon resigned from office. Ford never was elected in the first place. The Bushes have been unmitigated disasters.

Of the losing candidates, Dole was “the tax collector for the welfare state” and McCain was unstable.  Goldwater was great, but 16 years early; he helped spawn the conservative movement that elected Reagan in 1980. Goldwater also faced a hyper-booming economy in 1964, and was stabbed in the back by liberal Republicans Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney, Michigan governor and Mitt’s pa.

Right now, Republicans just aren’t a good fit for the current electorate. That could change next year when the economy collapses.