Posted on 12/08/2007 8:02:01 AM PST by Brices Crossroads
I really could not have predicted that the Iowa race would happen the way I now see it unfolding. With Romney cratering in the Newsweek poll and Huckabee heading for the stratosphere three weeks before the caucuses, there is a new dynamic here. (Huckabee 39; Romney: 17; Thompson: 10) Many GOP voters, including those for whom the War on Terror, Immigration or crime are the big issues, think Huckabee would be a disaster for the party, is unelectable and would drag the GOP down in Congressional elections next year if he were the nominee. The question has quickly become one of who can stop Huckabee.
Let me give you two reasons that Fred Thompson appears to be the one, one having to do with the horserace and the second having to do with acceptability. First, the horserace: Romney is cratering in Iowa. Rudy is not a factor from an organizational or ideological standpoint. Neither is McCain. Once downward momentum has begun to afflict a frontrunner the way it has Romney, it is next to impossible to reverse. That leaves only one candidate who can be the alternative both from an ideological and an organizational standpoint: Thompson. If Thompson comes in second or overtakes Huckabee, he becomes the anti-Huckabee candidate and the de facto winner of the caucuses because he had been predicted to finish as low as fifth. (I cannot believe the MSM is still obligingly tamping down expectations for him. May they continue to do so.) Bear in mind that a huge number of Iowans have not decided and, in a caucus format, are capable of being persuaded at the caucus events themselves. Both of these dynamics favor Thompson, who is setting up shop in Iowa until January 3.
The second reason why Thompson is so well positioned here is acceptability. The knocks on Fred are nearly all style, fire in the belly and other intangible pap. They have nothing to do with the issues on which most GOP voters agree overwhelmingly with Thompson. As Rush Limbaugh has often said, elections are about issues. On the issues, all of them, Thompson agrees with the vast majority of GOP primary voters and is acceptable(i.e.- does not scare) any of them. The same cannot be said of Rudy and Huckabee.
I am getting weary of those who say the concerns are because of the MSM.
THe skydive by THompson is not from the MSM.
And I’m one of the guys that says Bush II has been a strong president. He picks his fights carefully. No he didn’t didn’t lock horns at every opportunity provided (they are provided hourly) but he did get his plan executed. And he did change the world.
There are 1 billion people in the world without electricity in their dwellings. Most are in the regions we are exploring. Noone else but the top nation could lead in this kind of exploration and conquest. None has in history. Only the leader takes the risk. Bush to his great credit was able to take a risk that would seem highly implausible in the current state of extreme risk aversion in our society.
well, elections are also about the personality of the candidates. They have to be able to sell thier conservatism to the country. I haven’t decided on Fred or Huckabee or Romney, but I did find out that Arkansas’s tax burden to it’s citizens went down overall after Huckabee’s term. Their states ranking on taxation went down quite a bit.
Protect our borders, let our servicemen do their jobs effectively, don’t hose the economy. Those are the major ideas. What I DON’T want is to annex what amounts to be a third world country. What’s our benefit?
Women don’t generally marry people 24 years older than them unless the guy is very successful. That’s why most of the old dudes you see with younger ladies are celebrities or otherwise wealthy. That’s Fred. Nothing really wrong with it, but it is something that separates him from the average American, a reward for being an elite. Whatever the particulars of Fred’s situation, and I hear his wife is a great lady, it doesn’t compare favorable to Huck or Mitt who both have Beaver Cleaver home lives.
Please ask you wife who should pay for the illegal aliens college education. So your wife and mother would steal from the American taxpayer is not something I would be proud of. They are the problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbKA4HqjpeA&feature=related
Since our paychecks are confiscated for the illegals education 1-12, health care, food stamps, welfare, housing, etc., how much more should we have to pay for? Are we offering them doctorate degrees? Masters degrees?
I can remember when Americans worked their way through college.
Except in his case, the legs are hollow, and subject to change.
If my first choice, Mitt Romney doesn’t make it, I’m switching my support to Rudy. Rudy CAN and WILL beat the Hildabeast (or Obama).
Huckabee, OTOH, would be a disaster for the GOP. He cannot win. Can you imagine how the Dems will use the Dumond issue against him in the election? He is going to get creamed.
The GOP better get there collective act together and nominate someone other than Huckabee. Like I say, I know Rudy can win but I think Fred can too, if he can come out swinging and start to inspire more people.
Oh man you just need to think about the laws a unified americas congress could pass as a condition of the treaty in order to sell it to the rest of us. It’s obvious we are going to have to be bought off in some capacity. I figure it to be cheap, interest free land grants and a logical economic expansion plan that’ll get my 401K share investment in companies like Home Depot, Halliburton and McDonalds really flies!
So, after 125 posts here, we are still back to square one, of going to the polls to cast a ballot for the lesser of the evils......
Huckabee cannot win a national election. The press will make mincemeat of him within a month of the nomination. They will characterize him as Elmer Fudd and Elmer Gantry rolled into one, with bad teeth.
really flying.
It was personal for 3000 people when Thompson failed to connect with any of the GOP activists in Orlando.
You know this from ALL 3000?
Rant on....
If the number of farmers in Iowa is shrinking because the farms are getting to be quite large, Iowa needs to expand to keep up the number of farmers. Maybe they can annex southern Minnesota—the people there might welcome an escape from dealing with those cold Minnesota winters.
I will vote for him if he is the nominee though.
As Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe put it: "Romney’s very public migration rightward over the last few years is . . . intended not to hide his real views but to liberate them.
John J. Miller, the national political reporter of National Review, has written that “a good case can be made that Romney has fought harder for social conservatives than any other governor in America, and it is difficult to imagine his doing so in a more daunting political environment.”
ok if you say so.
What you said clicks so perfectly.
“I’m sorry, but every time I hear Huckabee, I am reminded of Jimmy Carter.”
The danger is that when the GOP race gets down to the final two, Thompson will no longer be in the running, because Huckabee will have drawn away too much of his support, and the choice will be between Huckabee and the survivor of the Rudy McRomney trio.
I have no idea if you’re just being sarcastic or what, but I’ll admit I’ve never heard your viewpoint expressed this way. lol
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