Jan 08 2008
RINOs Win, Amnesty Hypochondriacs Lose, Guiliani Hits The Airwaves
Mitt Romney’s last ditch desperation act to invoke the evils of illegal immigration did not save him. McCain still won handily. Just like the hate of all things immigrant will not save the GOP. That battle is over and America is rejecting the hypochondria of ‘amnesty’. The Amnesty Hypochondriacs are just now realizing they are not the majority of the GOP anymore – and many will flirt with bolting the party. All they see (correctly) for President on the GOP is RINO after RINO. This is what you get when you go off on emotional tirades against our President and our governing coalition allies. Most of us are not surprised one bit.
Thompson is fading. Romney is fading. We have Huckabee who is a liberal on everything outside of Church. We have McCain who was against tax cuts and free speech, but who is great on the war on terrorism. What is a conservative to do?
We do have Giuliani – who cleaned up NY City, who reduced taxes in a heavily democratic city, who has promised to put judges like Roberts and Alito on the federal benches, and who is really tough on the war terror as well. Is he perfect? Nope – that ain’t happening this year folks.
Rudy’s ads starting running tonight and they bring us back to the main topic – the War on the West still raging in the Middle East. They are brutally blunt ads. They are good ads. Bush will put us on a path to win. Giuliani can continue and he will not sell us out to the Dems for votes (e.g., McCain and Huckabee). We don’t have time to muck around, look for perfect purity, or let the Dems win and surrender to Bin Laden. Get over perfection and purity and start dealing with reality. If not Rudy then Hillary?
Who is the best all around a conservative who has succeeded in the heart of liberalism (NY City) and who will chase down our enemies until they are dead? Giuliani. He is the one candidate who is good on taxes and the war, but he also doesn’t wimpishly give into liberals like McCain and Huckabee have done time and time again. He makes liberals conform to conservative values.
Anyway – a new GOP is about to emerge in 2008 and it is not the party of the amnesty hypochondriacs. There is no pure conservative coming to make the far right…, well right. They don’t have their favorite candidate in the race. Now can they help this nation win the war or are they going to sit home and pout? Are we going to defend America with all its imperfections are was all that patriotic talk just BS?
OK, so if you had to pick between McCain and Rudy – which way would you go? And don’t say neither because that is a vote for Hillary and Bin Laden wins and all those who died in Iraq would have died for nothing. Getting over disappointment and soldiering on is something we ask our military families to do – I hope the GOP and conservatives can do the same. You owe them that much for what they have fought and died for.
I like Rudy, I would vote for him..but I am kind of annoyed with him for not getting in sooner. I am afraid he will not catch up. I heard is down to 4th in Florida. They are saying, Rudy Who?
I heard HE is down, I should say. Anyway a lot of the pundits are saying Rudy screwed up. But then again, thus far the pundits have proven they don’t know everything.
I could vote for Rudy as well. Actually I would quite like to vote for him just to say thank you for returning a check for 10 million to the Saudi guy.
Terrye,
One poll does not the race make – see NH for a prime example of why the polls are wrong. Remember I said the pollsters were not getting an accurate read? Seems I was right.
Actually I wouldn’t count anybody out quite yet. I think anything can happen. AJ don’t count out Fred yet.
OK Kathie,
Fred is in until he quits!
Thanks AJ.
The reason McCain won NH is because Rudy gave up trying & Fred was a disappointment. Romney’s numbers stayed even, but McCain grabbed Rudy’s & a little from Fred; Huck grabbed the rest from Fred.
You still don’t understand the illegal immigration issue. McCain has been talking tougher on illegal immigration & need for border security first, which is what the real debate was always about, and this clearly has helped him.
I feel pretty good about how well McCain did! Although he’s done things I disagree with, I don’t forget that as a man he’s the candidate I admire the most. And most especially – he NEVER went wobbly on Iraq, he never wavered in his support even when everyone told him that support would kill his political career. That strength covers a multitude of sins in my book.
I disagree about Thompson staying in the race – when you get your pants beat off by Ron Paul it’s time to pack it in.
And on the dem side the news is wonderful – Hillary is weakened, but she’s still in the lead. (Go Hillary! heh) And Edwards is washed up. I can’t say what I think about Edwards without using language I shouldn’t.
Btw, did anyone see the news item about how Huckabee now wants to amend the consitution to block birthright citizenship? What’s kind of funny about that is that I’ve been reading several conservative blogs today and *no one* believes that he honestly supports that idea – the people he’s trying to pander to almost all see right through his pandering. It’s just a stunt to try and pull in some far right support in SC primary, and a pretty pathetic stunt at that.
Rudy is my first choice and we’ve been wearing his bumper sticker since last July. But until Rudy re-emerges I’m not as confident as I was. McCain is my close second choice, and I am thrilled that he beat Romney tonight. It’s Rudy or McCain or bust. Fred’s not on my radar, or anyone else’s it seems. He will drop out and endorse McC or Rudy and then I can like him again.
WWS, that Huckabee thing was a slime job by Gilchrist and the ever scheming WTimes. Huckabee denied the statments, which were given second hand by Gilchrist, almost immediately. See:
http://tinyurl.com/3cdqa3
Oh look, Rudy’s got a piece in the Wed WSJ — love the title:
THE RESILIENT SOCIETY
http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110011099
McCain won, but not by that much. If Romney can maintain & win Mich, then McCain will be the one on the ropes. If McCain beats Romney in Mich, then it’s over for Mitt. I have a hunch Mitt wins & it’s still wide open b/w Romney, Rudy, Huck & lastly McCain. Thompson has to win SC, but I don’t see that happening. There’s talk that he would support McCain if he drops out, which would surely help McCain if this were to happen prior to SC.
Rudy could still pull it off, but he made big mistake by not putting in more effort in NH. He had healthy high teen support, but let it evaporate. Maybe it was brilliant tactic to face McCain as main challenger rather than Romney? Unfortunately for Rudy, Romney is not dead yet, Huck is even more of a force and McCain has big mo. Huck is pretty high in the Mich polls. If he were able to pull off the big stunner & win, then it’s b/w Rudy & Huck.
Sorry I fell for the slime job – there’s so much of it going around these days it’s hard to keep track of it. I am starting to think that Huckabee may just be the perfect VP candidate.
This thread shows the quandry the GOP finds itself in.
I would support Rudy too, but like Terrye, I wish he would have opted for more exposure by entering at least one of the two early primary races.
If Hillary is the eventual candidate, I had thought at one time that it would be enough to bring the Republicans out in droves to vote. Now, I just am not so sure.
The best I suppose we can hope for is that the lessons the GOP should have learned in 2006 will wake some hardliners up. But hope and reality are two different things.
I am with whoever wins the Republican nomination (unless the unlikely would happen and Ron Paul gets it). I favor Thompson; however currently the numbers do not favor him.
Wiley:
I understand the illegal immigration issue just fine.
All of us want to see a more secure border, but the hardliners had to take the whole issue off into an us vs. them place where any deviation from their hardliner stance was seen as some sort of betrayal.
That is why I said that it was silly to say Huckabee was critical of the president when other candidates were allying themselves with the same people who called Bush, Jorge and a traitor and God knows what else.
The point is Rush and Savage and Malkin and Tancredo are not the only ones who want to see this problem addressed, they just think they are.
And what is more by getting more and more strident in their approach they are alienating voters who realize they are just using the issue for political gain.
WWS:
I saw that and the Huckabee campaigned denied it, last I heard. I think there is all kinds of stuff floating around out there about all the candidates that is less than truthful.
I’ll vote for whoever the Republican candidate is…but probably while stifling an impulse to gag. Thompson is my personal favorite, but he’s not doing that well.
In a race between Guliani and McCain, I’d go for the latter, narrowly. His national security credentials are better, and the 2010 decade will see a shift to a more maritime strategy.
Between Giuliani and McCain, I think I prefer Giuliani because he has more executive experience and was relatively successful in implementing conservative policies in an otherwise Democrat controlled NYC.
McCain – for me, the combination of (1) failure to support tax cuts – which were successful, (2)McCain-Feingold and (3) the Gang of 14 is pretty close to a deal breaker. I don’t know what the answer to the illegals already here is, but without enforcement first, I’m not interested in discussing it, and I don’t think McCain has the credibility to say, ‘ok, let’s close the border tighter than a drum and then talk about what to do with the people who are here.’ I just don’t trust McCain.
McCain is very good on the war, though not on Gitmo and taking the gloves off in dealing with terrorists.
Rudy, on the other hand, is very socially liberal and bad on the 2nd Amendment. He also has an authoritarian streak I don’t love. But, Rudy would also be very good on the war.
For me, voting for President is lexically ordered, that is, I vote on National Security/War on Islamofascism first – no other issue matters at all if a candidate is not within the range on National Security/War on Islamofacism. That pretty much means I would support either Giuliani or McCain over any Democrat this year, though I think Giuliani would be marginally better for two reasons: (1) I think electing him would send a strong message to the world that 9/11 really did matter and we’re not done dealing with the bad guys on our own terms (not the European way), and (2) I don’t think he’d be inclined to believe he could be his own general staff the way I fear McCain would.
I’m not enthusiastic about either of them, though, and would be unlikely to give either of them any money. Depending on positions taken in the campaign, I think I could even be persuaded not to vote for McCain.
That Rudy is still on peoples minds with the others gaining so much exposure really bodes well for his campaign once he starts it up as it appears he has. Watching McCain during his victory speech, I figured I could listen to him for 4 years as well. Although I do not think career Senators make good candidates. My preference at this point would be Rudy.