I've thought long and hard about which of the current crop of Republican candidates I would support in his/her quest to defeat Barack Obama next year.  It's no secret that I think Marco Rubio should run.  Despite his youth he has much more significant experience and accomplishments than Barack Obama had at a similar point in his campaign for the nation's highest office.  Nobody more clearly articulates a conservative vision for the country than Marco.  But alas it appears that he has no intention of announcing a campaign for president.

The other person I'd love to see in this race is Congressman Paul Ryan.  He's shown a willingness to go toe-to-toe with Obama and the big government liberals and to take on the big issue of entitlements and how they are bankrupting our country.  But he too has said he's not interested. That leaves us with the field that's already announced.

Truth is I kind of have a soft spot for Mitt Romney because of the way he exited the campaign in 2008.  McCain was leading and Huckabee, regardless of his motivations, served to run interference on McCain's behalf.  When Romney announced that he was withdrawing from the campaign at CPAC the conservatives in the audience begged him to stay in.  He WAS the last hope conservatives had for beating McCain. Romney had an opportunity over the last few years to solidify himself as a conservative and erase some of the doubts about him.  To my judgement he has not made good use of that time.  The same old questions plague Romney.  Especially about Romneycare in Massachusetts,

Herman Cain.  Quite a likable character with a good solid head on his shoulders.  I have three major problems with him as the potential nominee.  First is his health.  It's great that he's a cancer survivor and I hope he lives a good long time. But the statistics for life expectancy for the type of cancer he had are not very good.  But even if Herman Cain were perfectly healthy I have an issue with his 9-9-9 plan.  I'm not a fan of a national sales tax.  I prefer a flat income tax of the Steve Forbes variety.  And I for sure don't want to phase in one form of taxation without first eliminating another.  Under Cain's plan one is phased in while the other is phased out.  I don't have a lot of faith in the phasing out part.  And lastly, Herman Cain has no experience in government.  He claims that will be an advantage, but to me it's simply not. If Obama is frustrated in his dealings with congress and the bureaucracy imagine someone who has even less experience than Obama did.

Ron Paul.  I couldn't support Ron Paul in 2008 and can't now.  I support a lot of his libertarian ideas on the role of government but his foreign policy approach would be disastrous.

Michele Bachmann. Honestly I don't consider her a serious candidate and I don't think most Americans do either.

Rick Santorum. Yesterday's news. He makes good points in the debates but he's a little too conservative for even my taste when it comes to some social issues.

John Huntsman.  The Republican that Democrats would love to have win the nomination.  No thanks.

Rick Perry.  Seems he was a better candidate when he wasn't a candidate.

Which brings me to the man I've concluded that I need to support, Newt Gingrich.  We all know he's a flawed man with a checkered past, but the fact is that he's the most qualified person running for the GOP nomination. His command of the issues is complete, he can easily outdebate Obama.  He was the architect of the Contract with America that swept the GOP into the majority in the House after decades in the wilderness.  He's not the perfect candidate, but to my way of thinking he's the least imperfect.  He has shown that he can connect with Americans. And the truth is that President Newt Gingrich isn't going to have much of a learning curve.  He knows how the sausage is made in Washington DC and he knows how to reshape it (he's already done it once as Speaker of the House).

A Rassmussen poll shows that Gingrich has moved into third place and is the only candidate other than Romney and Cain in double digits.  I'm sure this is on the basis of his debate performances, as he's consistently given the best, most inspired and inspiring answers.

I can't speak for the rest of my fellow Babalu Bloggers, but I can speak for myself, when I say that barring any late entries into the race I'll be voting for Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary and doing everything I can to secure his nomination.