Watching the GOP race toward electing a presidential nominee is more fun than watching a cavalcade of clowns at a Barnum & Bailey’s circus. You just never know who or what’s going to pop up next. Here’s a look at some of the recent GOP's top candidates.   
First there is Michele Bachmann whose foot seems to find its way into her mouth more than sound political logic does. Bachmann believes that ending the minimum wage would “virtually wipe out unemployment completely.” Compared to some of the wacky things Bachmann said, Sarah Palin seems like a genius, if that’s possible.

Next, there's Texas Governor Rick Perry, who proposed cleaning up the Washington bureaucracy that he says was built off the backs of the tax payers by eliminating superfluous agencies like the Departments of Education, Commerce and Energy. But when questioned about this proposal in the GOP’s Michigan debate, Perry couldn’t remember which departments he’d get rid of. Needless to say his political stock plummeted after that.
As Perry’s fortunes tumbled, Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, became the unexpected GOP frontrunner. Cain, who callously blames poor people for their economic status, dropped out of the race amidst allegations of sexually harassing women and having a 13-year affair with Atlanta businesswoman Ginger White.   
Then there is politically-expedient former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who can’t seem to make up his mind on the issues. First, he was for Obama’s healthcare plan, which was modeled after his own plan; but when challenged about it by his opponents, suddenly he was against it. At one time, he was against the privatization of Social Security, now he’s all for it. The man changes political positions more than the second hand on a clock.
Finally, there is the former-Speaker-of-the-House-turned-K-Street-lobbyist-turned-Washington-outsider Newt Gingrich, who is the current GOP frontrunner. Gingrich wants to do away with “truly stupid” child labor laws so he can fire union janitors and replace them with poor inner-city school children as young as nine years of age to clean up after school. “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” said Gingrich. “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of  ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.” Gingrich’s comments not only reek of racism (whom do you think he was really talking about with the comments), it literally flies in the face of the millions of poor people who are working two and three jobs, or who have lost their jobs due to the economy, and still struggle to make ends meet.
If these candidates are the best that the Republicans have to offer the nation, then the choice for president in 2012 is crystal clear to me.

The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of BET Networks.

BET Politics - Your source for the latest news, photos, and videos illuminating key issues and personalities in African-American political life, plus commentary from some of our liveliest voices.

(Photo: Charlie Neibergall-Pool/Getty Images)