I think that just as if Fred were to win, the conservative base will rally around him unlike we’ve not seen since Reagan. I sense a real hunger to dispatch with the political niceties and vagueness and “moderation” that Rudy, McCain and to a lesser extent, Romney represent.
Hunter’s challenge is to convince primary voters he has what it takes. Those that know him best believe 100% that he does. But now he has Fred to deal with as well, making it an even steeper uphill fight for the nomination.
However, no matter who wins the GOP primary, I believe the facts on the ground in Iraq will assure a GOP victory over the cut and run crowd who are pulling for defeat. The dems hvae positioned themselves out on a limb, and Bush, Petraeus and Co. are slowly sawing that limb off.
I agree with you on most of this. I’m not sure if you were alive during the 1960 election (I wasn’t), but I’m really going to be curious about what would happen in debates for example between Duncan and, say, Obama, and if it would be a similar situation than Nixon had against Kennedy.
Also, someone who has been alive longer than I have might be able to shine some light on how previous candidates—at least candidates before Reagan—were supported, like Nixon’s runs, Goldwater, Ford, even Eisenhower and Bush 41.
Sidenote here: I have the sheer misfortune of being friends with a lot of DUmmies and Kos Kids, and they are under some delusion that Hillary will stumble at the Hawkeye Cauci and that Obama will be the nominee. In a lot of ways Obama scares me more than Hillary does. One of them is that you never know which election cycle will bring out the youth vote. I mean let’s face it, kids my age for the most part, aren’t real bright. Check out a block of MTV programming sometime. We’re stupid.
I’m preparing myself for just about anything at this point, and can the adults in America see what us stupid kids won’t? (That Duncan is the guy?)