Posted on 05/11/2008 5:29:14 AM PDT by stan_sipple
This year’s long and contentious Democratic presidential battle will end with Barack Obama and a healed party, former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart said Saturday night.
In fact, he suggested, it actually may be the Republican Party that splinters before the November election.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain “seems to have a free ride” for now, Hart said in a Lincoln interview.
“But there’s a real struggle for the soul of the Republican Party under way.”
That clash pits a party tied to the religious right, personal social issues, neoconservative foreign policy and libertarian taxpayers against a traditional GOP that embraced balanced budgets, caution in foreign policy and a philosophy of keeping government out of private lives, Hart said.
“Sooner or later, the very, very deep division in the Republican Party is going to come out.”
And, the result, he said, may be “a lot of Republicans staying home” in November or choosing the independent course of abandoning their nominee.
Hart, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, was featured speaker at the Nebraska Democratic Party’s annual Morrison-Exon dinner.
A crowd of 450 contributors attended the event held three days before Democrats choose their 2008 Senate nominee.
Scott Kleeb, the party’s 2006 congressional nominee in the 3rd District, and Tony Raimondo, chairman of Behlen Manufacturing Co., are locked in what is viewed as an unpredictable struggle.
“I don’t have a clue who will win,” State Chairman Steve Achelpohl of Omaha said prior to the dinner.
“I think it’s anybody’s guess what might happen.”
Sen. Ben Nelson said “it’s always hard to know” when the campaign largely has been waged through 30-second TV ads.
The winner has a decent shot at defeating Mike Johanns, the prohibitive favorite in the Republican primary election, Nelson said.
“Johanns’ support is a lot softer in many places than people may be aware,” the senator said.
“The key will be to demonstrate a bipartisan message and commitment,” he said, along with “an independent-minded approach.”
Both Kleeb and Raimondo claim momentum is on their side.
“Over 2,500 people are now involved in our campaign,” Kleeb said. “We’re going to do well.”
Raimondo said he sees evidence of “very positive progress, with more and more people coming aboard.”
Hart said he believes Obama’s nomination would be good for the party and the country.
“What Hillary Clinton offers is a return to the ’90s, while Obama would take us into the 21st century,” he said.
It’s largely a generational contest, Hart said, with few major policy differences at stake.
“I believe we do need a generational change with a fresh new leader with new supporters offering revolutionary change.”
The election of Obama would “send a powerful signal around the world,” Hart said.
“Election of a mixed-race, young leader who is a product of internationalism would resonate in Latin America, Africa, Asia and elsewhere, particularly among young people.”
A general election showdown with McCain would be “a dramatic generational contest,” Hart said.
“I hope to be 74 too someday, but I do not believe I should be president then.”
Both McCain and Hart will turn 72 later this year. McCain would be 74 in the middle of his term.
What Obama and Democrats need to recognize, Hart said, is that this election actually could be decided during the summer months leading to the national nominating conventions rather than this autumn.
Once the GOP convention has ended in September, only eight weeks will remain before the election, he said.
How’s that Monkey Business holding up? Dont you love Democrats who tell us that the GOP should be like it was in the old days when the Demoncrats could run them.
And everyone knows that Gary Hart is an expert in presidential politics... what would he be expected to say? Certainly not the truth, he’s a Democrat.
Both parties are in real trouble. I’m afraid there’s an excellent chance that both parties will re-assemble themselves and take positions further to the Left.
Considering how Hart’s own run for the nomination went, they should have his picture in the dictionary under “DOH!”
If 72 is too old for President, why not for Congressmen?
How do you get any further to the left than mccain.
Sorry. When did that exactly change? McCains head is still buried firmly up Ted Kennedy's ars!
Just think. If Hart had been a decade later and sailed under the MSM radar screen like almost all RAT Party MSM favorites, he could have been Bubba Clinton. Same mantra.
I know this for a fact: I was one of those who put Bill Clinton in office TWICE by voting for Ross Perot. I will never do that again! I learned my lesson. I will vote “lesser of of two evils” even if I have to hold my nose doing it.
Can we get the whole list of arrogant DEM has-beens quoted today—just as a reminder what “stellar” leaders have been they are. How about Dukakis, Mondale, Mcgovern, Kerry, Ferraro, Gore, Carter, Stevenson from the grave (Ok, the last one is a little tough but I know he voted last election).
>>>How do you get any further to the left than mccain.
Idiotic and very tiresome meme.
Lancey Howard posted the American Conservative Union ratings for 2007. Quoting his post:
McCain: 80 (This is up from his 65 in 2006, and close to his lifetime rating of 82.)
Kyl: 100
Feinstein: 0 (Check out California’s reps - - in that state, with few exceptions, a House representative is basically either a zero rat or a one-hundred Republican. It’s the same with Colorado. Weird...)
Shays (R): 20
Castle (R): 20
Isakson: 96 (This Georgia senator has been a pleasant surprise.)
Durbin: 0
Obama: 7
Jindal: 88 (2007 was Jindal’s last year as a House rep.)
Snowe: 28
Collins: 36
Kennedy: 0
Kerry: 4
Coleman: 64
Hagel: 79
Reid: 0
Clinton: 0
Dole: 92
Voinovich: 48 (Pathetic - - way down even from his low lifetime rating of 71.)
Inhofe: 100
Coburn: 100
Smith (Oregon): 48 (Again, pathetic, and way down from a low lifetime rating of 72.)
Specter: 40
Lindsey Graham: 88 (Not too bad...)
DeMint: 100
Warner: 60
Barrasso: 100
So to summarize
Obama 7
Clinton: 0
McCain: 80
http://www.acuratings.org/2007all.htm
The GOP has been fracturing for a long time with its incremental march towards socialism.
Yeah, Gary Hart really didn't need to say this, since republicans are doing the heavy lifting for dems anyway.
There we have it, straight from a Demonrat horse's err...mouth. Obama is a revolutionary [i.e. a Marxist who will overthrow all our traditions]. He will bring America into line with all those wonderful Third World socialist regimes.
This guy makes Dukakis look like a political genius.
I always expected him to wind up as a game show contestant on some obscure program.
Yes, and the very tiresome idiotic reply I expected. Go vote for some amnesty program and help support his good friend Ted.
“How do you get any further left then McCain”?
Have you not seen nor read any of Obamao’s policy proposals? From Abortion to the Second Amendment to Taxes, To losing in Iraq to pretty much any mildly conservative position, Obama is to the left of even Hillary.
I think he put "libertarian taxpayers" on the wrong side of the "against" - we're the ones who want the Goldwater-style, pre-social spending GOP back, remember?
You asked a question, you got an answer that was accurate, and concise, and spot on, if you do not want such a response, do not post a question.
Either way, small potatoes compared to higher tax rates on income, and on investment income, Obamao wants not the GWB tax cuts not only to sunset, he also wants to raise Cap Gains tax rates from 15% to 28% or higher on investment earnings.
Obama is a pure socialist. His first job, that has been described as community organizer was for the Gemaliel foundation. What he actually did was train community activists in the Saul Alinsky organizing methods. The Black Liberation theology that is taught at Wright’s Church is Marxist, also, and is based on the same Alinsky principles. According to Obama’s half sister, Obama fist became interested in socialism back at Occidental College, where his socialist contacts recommended that he could be more successful in his poloitical career if he transferred to Columbia.
Exactly, Obamao is a pure socialist demogouge, for all of McCain’s flaws, Obamao makes McCain look like Barry Goldwater by way of comparison.
When those folks in a Houston Obamao office put up the Che’ Flag, they were quite accurate in their assesment of Obamao.
The two, Libertarian Taxpayers, and Balanced Budgets are not mutually exclusive at all, it is known as “Reducing Govt Spending” even Klinton grasped that workable plan with the help of a Republican Congress.
I’m afraid this campaign is going to be a very negative/counter driven one, it won’t be about what McCain is offering, it will be driven by what Obamao is proposing in the way of those issues, for example Evangelicals may not be wild about McCain, but Obamao’s embrace of Gay Marriage as a Civil Right will (or could) turn them out to vote against Obamao by voting for McCain...
>> I’m afraid there’s an excellent chance that both parties will re-assemble themselves and take positions further to the Left.
It’s already happening.
>> Both parties are in real trouble.
No, “Left == GOOD” as far as Government (i.e. Parties) are concerned. It’s US — the “citizen class” — who are in real trouble, FRiend!
This viewpoint is not at all unfounded:
“But there’s a real struggle for the soul of the Republican Party under way.”
That clash pits a party tied to the religious right, personal social issues, neoconservative foreign policy and libertarian taxpayers against a traditional GOP that embraced balanced budgets, caution in foreign policy and a philosophy of keeping government out of private lives, Hart said
Who here would disagree with that analysis??
>>>help support his good friend Ted.
Interesting. I post based on actual policy the objective evaluations and comparisons from a respected conservative source and the answer of first resort is grade-schoolyard ad hominems. McCain while he hasn’t got a perfect score has a high conservative rating while both the democrat candidates score in the single digits. Therefore to claim he is no different then either of them is either deranged or dishonest.
I really don’t think McCain has much to fear from the crackpot fringes, left or right. Which reminds me, did you know Cindy Sheehan has endorsed Ron Paul for president?
He’s kind of wrong. What the Repubs have is a RINO problem. A “Maverick” problem. And they went and nominated one of ‘em and expect the base to vote for that which they hate.
Operation Monkey Business.
“Democrats who tell us that the GOP should be like it was in the old days when the Demoncrats could run them.”
How is that any different from Juanito and his aisle crossing? He’s cross the aisle so much that he’s practically BECOME the enemy in every way except that shiny big “R” after his name.
“How do you get any further to the left than mccain.”
Change the “R” to a “D”.
I’ve heard many a “moderate Republican” on non-political oriented talk shows saying for some time that the party is moving away from the “religious right” if people will just be patient.
I’ve read FR since 98, even though I didn’t post for years, and one thing always struck me. Freepers often forget that the conservative base is not the only powerful force in the Republican Party, as much as we’d like it to be.
I believe sincerely it is a race to see which of the two parties will rupture due to the drastic differences in priorities between the major factions. The Dems are more obvious right now because the Feminist vs. African American faction differences are so in your face. But the posts on this very forum show divisions are equally strong on the right. We just don’t have such obvious faces to associate with the divisions.
Ummm, where the heck have you been? It's already occurred.
“Both parties are in real trouble.”
I do believe that one is correct. However, I think both parties are starting to undergo a “transformation”. The democrats to the extreme left and the pubies, just imploding, leaving it up to us to “reform”.
Both parties have become very very similar, you really can’t tell them apart. And that is dangerous for our country.
Clinton had enough political sense to keep Dhimmah Carter up in the rafters of the Dem 1996 convention.
MonkeyBusiness Hart did a good job mixing up the GOP “factions” as if all the ones he dislikes end up on the same side
Someone speculated that, while unlikely, that for purely health reasons, John McCain might drop dead before the convention. Not to impugn McCain, but to speculate: then what would happen?
Unlike the usual candidate selection process, which is dominated by big money and the “country club” RINO set, most of the convention delegates are conservatives. Since there are no superdelegates, they could force a vote that would make a real conservative the Republican candidate.
Much to the horror of both big money and the country club Republicans.
And while they might refuse to vote for a conservative for President, preferring a liberal Democrat with more of their values, they are too small a faction to matter. Especially because a true conservative would woo lots of Reagan Democrats.
Granted, the RINOs would try every trick in the book to steal the convention, much like they did in Nevada, at the national level it is unlikely they could pull it off.
The record shows that mccain more than once was willing to do that.
I'm NOT accusing you of wishing such a thing, however, that is not something I would “speculate” out loud. It just feels dirty.
Interesting stuff, good post.
right, what ever you say monkeyboy...
Sadly, that was not a mistake; the author is pushing the liberal idea that the only way to balance the budget is to raise taxes.
He should have told us earlier. We could have taken a pass and saved the money
I don't care what anybody thinks of Hart. He totally nails it here.
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