Republicans in 2012

Since the mood of the country has seemed to sour somewhat on Obama, I've been somewhat concerned about who the Republicans will run as an alternative.  The past election made it appear that in Republican primaries, the dumbest candidate seemed to win most often.  I would prefer that they actually find somebody with brains to run for president.  Unfortunately, the list of possible candidates who meet that requirement looks pretty slim.  Daniel Larison discusses John Huntsman, who's actually probably too smart to run.  I really liked this portion of his post:

I suppose he can serve as the “competent, wealthy Mormon executive who is not Mitt Romney” candidate, but is there really high demand for such a candidate? If Romney is the candidate with a liability on health care, Huntsman has publicly supported cap-and-trade. This is a position that is generally far more unpopular with the general public, to say nothing of Republican primary voters.

Anyway, the only other candidate I think could do a competent job would be Mitch Daniels, but I think competence is seen as a weakness with the base.  Hopefully I am wrong.