But even if the choices for 2012 seem shopworn, Republicans can take heart. Whether the next open GOP presidential field is in 2016 or 2020, that election will showcase a new generation of conservative leaders, many of whom were virtually anonymous as recently as the closing days of the Bush Administration.

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It’s early yet in the 2012 presidential cycle, so Republican voters can be forgiven their listlessness when it comes to considering the field of potential candidates. It’s not unusual for presidential elections to start at an uninspiring pace, particularly when the other party holds the White House.  A year from now, however – when the GOP will almost certainly have a nominee – the fight will be joined and the dynamics of the race will have changed.

That said, the torpor of the Republican base may have its roots in a peculiarity of this particular cycle: Virtually all of the Republican candidates are old news, with the prime of their political careers long behind them. In fact, across the entire spectrum of announced candidates, only Texas Congressman Ron Paul currently holds elected office. And Paul, a 75-year-old who joined the House during the Carter Administration and ran his first presidential campaign nearly 25 years ago, isn’t exactly fresh blood. Two other current officeholders, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, may join the race in coming weeks, but only Bachmann is representative of the new generation of conservative leaders who have begun to rise in the post-Bush era.

Indeed, it’s odd that the first presidential election of the Tea Party epoch features so many representatives of the old guard. The last day that Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts was the same day that Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House.  In the improbable event that former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is sworn in on January 20, 2013, it will be more than a decade since he last held elected office. When Newt Gingrich stepped down as Speaker of the House in 1999, Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock had yet to graduate from high school.

But even if the choices for 2012 seem shopworn, Republicans can take heart. Whether the next open GOP presidential field is in 2016 or 2020, that election will showcase a new generation of conservative leaders, many of whom were virtually anonymous as recently as the closing days of the Bush Administration.

Leading the pack will be the brains and the heart of the new Republican Party: Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, respectively. Ryan, with his far-reaching plans for entitlement and budget reform and his guy-next-door affability, offers an intellectual dynamism similar to Gingrich’s but without the intemperance and rough edges. Christie, with his everyman panache, has developed a governing style that manages to balance confrontation with common sense in a fashion that Republicans throughout the nation are now attempting to emulate.

Ryan and Christie won’t be alone, however. Only a few months into his first term in the House, Florida Congressman Allen West – a decorated veteran who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army – is already developing a reputation for straight talk on par with Christie’s. Freshman Senator Marco Rubio, a fellow Floridian, was inspiring presidential speculation before he ever took his seat on Capitol Hill, thanks to the powerful speeches in which he described American exceptionalism in the context of his parents’ emigration from Cuba.

Plenty of new leaders exist outside the Sunshine State as well. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval represent a new generation of Hispanic Republicans in the west. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (one of the architects of Arizona’s law cracking down on illegal immigration) and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (who has been at the tip of the spear in combating Obamacare) have launched legal crusades with national ramifications. And new governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley are setting the standard for reform-minded executives throughout the nation.

As it stands now, Republicans must merely hope for renewed leadership in the 2012 election. For the next several elections to follow, however, they are guaranteed it.