SMITH: Republican presidential nominees unite over most conservative issues

As we look at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination race, one thing is clear: The field is wide open. This isn't a partisan, Democratic thing to say. All you have to do is take a look at polls, where contender lists run over 10 candidates and few voters indicate concrete support for any one candidate.

Here's a quick update from my last column : Sarah Palin doesn't look like she's going to get into the race, but nobody knows except her. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, on the other hand, has talked to California fundraisers  and his wife came out in support of his candidacy, among other signs. A cursory reading of the tea leaves seems to show Perry getting in, but again, nobody knows except him.

But this leads one to an interesting observation over the Republican field: To a certain degree, one can point out significant flaws (in the opinion of the Republican voting electorate) with every candidate.

Mitt Romney is Mormon. He implemented the Massachusetts health care law, He "flip-flopped" on the issue of abortion.

Michele Bachmann's husband tries to cure gay people with medical treatment, and her only position seems to be "repeal Obamacare."

Perry is another governor of Texas, because that worked out so well the last time.

These flaws — in terms of support from the "base" — aren't as apparent when one looks at the Democratic field in, say, 2008. Every candidate supported significant economic stimulus to counter the recession, an overhaul of the health insurance system, but not single-payer or Medicare-for-all, and some sort of carbon tax or cap-and-trade system. There's ideological variance, but along a much smaller continuum.

One would think Democrats are the more ideologically united party, and Republicans often suffer from infighting and disagreement. Yet any observer of American politics could tell you this isn't the case.

What actually occurs is different; both parties have "litmus tests" for their presidential nominee. Some issues are more apparent than others. For instance, you will never, ever see a Republican presidential nominee that is in favor of abortion rights. Likewise, you will never, ever see an anti-abortion Democratic nominee.

Economically, both parties profess to lower taxes as much as possible, but Republicans always connect lowering taxes to increasing revenues, while Democrats (rightly) consider that a fallacy.

Yet, if you take a look at the Democratic conferences in the House or Senate, you find much more ideological variance than the presidential candidates. Moderate-to-conservative Democrats can and do exist, from Blue Dogs in the House (five representatives even voted for the Republican "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan, opposed by the president) to Nebraska's Ben Nelson, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Arkansas's Mark Pryor in the Senate.

Republicans, on the other hand, range from conservative to extremely conservative in the House, and a few remaining moderates to extremely conservative in the Senate. Republicans often are unanimous in opposition to presidential nominations (at least under Obama), from ambassadors to low-level Department of Agriculture positions, to the new nomination for the Secretary of Commerce.

Logically, one would think that Democrats are rarely united in votes, in both chambers. You'd be wrong if you thought that, though: Party unity is on the rise for both Democrats and Republicans. The difference is that over time, the Republicans have moved farther to the "right" on social and economic issues than the Democrats have. In reality, both have moved to the "right" — for example, the infamous Obamacare plan was nearly the same as a 1993 Republican counter to President Clinton.

Let's return, though, to the Republican presidential field. Many of these contenders came out of the House or Senate, although some are governors. Those from Congress — Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul — all are very conservative, though Gingrich and Paul have somewhat idiosyncratic views.

The rest of the field — Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain, Perry — scramble to catch up to the latest conservative position. Cain, for instance, is blatantly Islamophobic. Pawlenty proposed an economic plan that amounts to "grow the United States economy at 5 percent for a decade."

Romney is anti-abortion to the max now, though he won't sign pledges.

Republicans will converge on the most conservative positions. You don't see this with Democrats: When people like Dennis Kucinich, loosely involved in every Democratic presidential contest, propose single-payer health care, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards didn't rush to embrace it. They ignored it and continued pushing their own plans.