Impatience with GOP field bubbles over

On Laura Ingraham's radio show today, Ingraham, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, and Senator Lindsay Graham expressed impatience with Republicans weighing a 2012 race -- and incomprehension as to why leaders like Jeb Bush and Chris Christie wouldn't join the contest.

”If Jeb Bush and Chris Christie and these guys think the country is going to hell in a hand basket, isn’t it incumbent upon all of them, Huckabee, Bush, Christie, whoever, to step in now regardless of whether it is personally convenient for them?” asked Ingraham. “We are going to lose the Supreme Court, the Middle East is in flames, we are teetering on the brink of utter economic destruction, state by state with the Medicaid explosion, their inability to fund these basic government services because of no economic growth, unemployment, and I’m Jeb Bush sitting down on Coral Gables, Florida and I'm thinking, 'Well I can wait another four years until I treat the country to my expertise in handling all these matters.'"

“If you agree that the country is sliding into an abyss and you have the ability to run a strong campaign, and yet you stand on the sidelines as if you’re pretending you’re on the injured reserve list, then I say don’t ever run, because this is the go-to election," she said.

Said Kristol:

"I saw quotes in this Politico piece, Thune, Huckabee, 'I'm not sure I'm going to run, this is a tough race,' what kind of attitude is that? It's a crucial election for the future of the country, the future of the size of government, the future of our foreign policy, the future of the Supreme Court, and people are sitting around, ringing their hands and saying they won't run--for me, honestly, I like John Thune, I've dealt with him, but when I see a quote like that I don't ever want to support the guy again," said Kristol. "He's making calculations because Obama's picked up two points in some approval rating? I think people need to run and I think we need to encourage them to run. Chris Christie and Paul Ryan..."



Said Graham:

"If you think you should be president it’s not about timing, it’s about ability, and if you think you have the ability to be President of the United States and lead this Republican Party back to a renaissance, now is the time because the party needs a good, strong leader, and the public in center right, and our Democratic friends are in a left ditch, and that’s a pretty good contrast.”