Why is there virtually no one from the Senate in the mix for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, at least judging by who's being speculated about?
Well, a lot of GOP Senators are dropping like flies 
Also, I would say that there are a limited number of rising stars. John Cornyn? No, the country is sick of Texas at the moment. Lamar Alexander is 68 and he's run for the president two times before (and has a wealth of experience in many sectors) I think he might qualify...
In my estimation, the only guys coming out of the Senate with a shot would be Kyl, Ensign, or Thune. But I think Thune is positioning himself for the Leadership, so I doubt he'd run. And Kyl is old, isn't he? If the nominee comes out of the Senate I think it'd be Ensign, but I'd be extremely surprised if it came out of the Senate.
Speaking of Lamar Alexander, why wasn't he ever successful? He ran in '96 and 2000, right? '96 seemed to be entitled to Dole, but I would think he'd have been more competetive in 2000. Was the support for Bush THAT strong? (I wasn't really interested in politics in 2000)
