Good guys of LOTR clueless?

[symestreem]

Originally Posted by Maédhros

4. In a world where gut feelings are as important of more important than common sense then was Gandalf not following his feeling odd?

Can you elaborate on this?

It is in the year 3001 TA that Gandalf suspects that Bilbo's ring can be that of Sauron. What if Bilbo's ring turned out not to be that of Sauron, what could the good guys have done to defeat Sauron at so late a date in the TA? What was the plan? Did they even have any?
Could they overthrow Sauron by force of Arms? No.

There was no reason to believe that the One Ring had not washed out to sea until Gandalf noticed Bilbo's ring. Remember, Sauron in the form of the Necromancer had just suffered another defeat, one which would not have been possible if he had the One Ring. At this point, there was no reason to believe Sauron would return. He needed the ring for that, and the ring was lost.
Besides, even if Sauron had gotten the ring, he had been defeated with it before. True, more elves, larger armies, etc.