Posted on 10/13/2011 12:19:05 PM PDT by casinva
I have good news and bad news for conservatives. But the good news and the bad news are both the same thing: We have six very impressive, lifelong conservative candidates running for the presidency.
They are the smartest candidates, the most principled candidates, the most patriotic candidates, the most persuasive candidates, and the candidates with the best ideas.
The problem lies in the fact that conservatives do not have a single favorite candidate.
(Snip)
William F. Buckley used to say that he was not for “the most conservative” candidate. He said he was for “the most conservative candidate that is electable.” Unfortunately, conservatives today are not following Buckley’s wise advice and strategic counsel.
The GOP establishment behaves almost entirely pragmatically. They typically try to find the Republican most likely to be elected and back that candidate (irrespective of what that candidate believes) in order to ensure party insiders retain control.
(Snip)
On the other hand, many evangelicals and tea party supporters are behaving as ideological purists. In their effort to choose the most conservative candidate (irrespective of their ability to win) they are violating Buckley’s principle and as a result are unknowingly helping the GOP establishment...
There is only one scenario where this can be stopped: Evangelical and tea party conservatives must immediately unite behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Rick Perry is the most conservative candidate who is also electable.
On all three legs of Ronald Reagan’s winning issue coalition, economics, social issues and foreign policy, Rick Perry should be the conservative’s choice.
(Snip)
Principled politics is an art form. Participating in it with as many candidates as there are now is like a complex chess match. You must capture the tension between principle and pragmatism. Rick Perry captures it perfectly. He is the William F. Buckley candidate.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
You are welcome RE the Perry-Walker ad by the State Tea Party, a new division of the Tea Party Express. If those bozos would just do a google search, they would have seen it was that Tea Party organization that was promoting Rick Perry in that ad and comparing him to Scott Walker, not Rick Perry and not MSNBC. Wish people would use their noggins, or at least their fingers, a little more. LOL
And also...
Yes indeedy we have some upset posters today! I’ll give ‘em a little slack though. I know I’ve been testy when I’ve been nervous. Notice I’m not testy anymore! ;-)
All well and good , but if Perry does so lawsuits against every opening of a gas or oil field or coal mine will bury the desks of liberal judges, and progress will be stopped for years or decades anyway. Is Perry willing to become an Obama style semi-dictator by executive order to stay all those suits?
Regrettably, we need a tough guy now.
I thought that same thing, or perhaps another spot for Sarah Palin in a Perry administration so much 'fueled' by energy and energy independence. (Sorry for that pun there; I couldn't help myself, lol)
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Cain’s already naming VPs.
Who is he naming? I had not heard that.
I do believe I heard Cain say in this last debate that he had already lined up two people who were willing to be the Federal Reserve Chairman for him. He just didn't name who those two were.
Oh, I'm sorry I missed this. I saw it earlier and did not realize this went with Cain's VP choices.
So Cain has these guys already waiting for his VP nod?
And have they both already told Cain they would accept the VP slot should Cain go with whichever one he chooses next year?
I assume so since Cain is making this public knowledge that one of those two will be his VP if he is nominated.
Interesting turn of events and certainly a different way of handling these things.
Hang it there Rita, gets kind of tough in here sometimes.
:)
We have met those kinds of lawsuits here in Texas and dealt with them swiftly. In fact when filing lawsuits they are beginning to set certain deadlines for when the EPA MUST RESPOND or we get a default on the grounds of how it affects our economy.
LOL. The Mexican Windsock needs to go back to Texas
That's odd, I seem to recall Ricardo Mentalblock defending his executive order to Texans as if he were defending the Alamo. Little Michele Bachmann slaps him in a debate, then suddenly the EO was "the wrong way to go" and he should have had an "opt in" instead of an "opt out"
The Perry-Myths continue, unabated I see. Rick Perry did not “just” give in state tuition subsidies to “some” illegals.
He rejected E-verify for ALL ILLEGALS. He rejected the Secure Fence Act for ALL ILLEGALS. He refused local law enforcement agencies to check for immigration status for ALL ILLEGALS. He supported the McCain Amnesty plan for ALL ILLEGALS. He kept the Texas HHS from verifying legal status before dishing out bennies for ALL ILLEGALS. He ran a sanctuary state for 10 years for ALL ILLEGALS.
Yeah, we were told that was a sign of his listening to the people, not a flip flop at all. Talk about spin. Gardasil, for me, is a bigger issue than his pandering to illegals.
Just a question. If Cain dropped out, it’d be about 85/15 towards Perry in my opinion. I just wanted a Perry supporter’s opinion.
>> The problem is that he is not electable.
The only point in your post where I disagree. Republicans seem to have a fondness for circuitous speech.
OK, I’ve been thinking about your hypothetical.
I was able to re-frame the question so I could actually envision a scenario I could consider and answer for the fun of it.
Can I give it a shot with “prognostication”? I may not be good at this, but it seems kind of fun! :) Just if anyone else disagrees (or agrees) with me on my guess, feel free to let us know what your answer to this hypothetical would be.
Hypothetical: If Perry had never entered the race, who would we be supporting now in this race?
My guess:
Newt, close to 100%.
While Rick Santorum would be close to Perry’s social conservatism, and some of us may have more seriously looked at Santorum for that reason at the beginning, I would think those who now support Rick Perry, if they had not had Rick Perry to chose from to begin with, would now mostly all be looking towards Newt.
Why would I say Newt? Constitutional awareness, appreciation of and leadership approach towards the founding fathers vision of American government, maturity of leadership, and a restorative approach to government transformation and to smaller government principles. In those ways, I would think Rick Perry and Newt are very similar, and those basic principles of leadership are very strong in Perry supporters, I believe.
Just my opinion, and I am certainly not speaking for those who support Rick Perry. I’m just GUESSING about those good folk.
However, I can tell you that at least for my husband and I, if Rick Perry had never entered the race, we would both be ardent Newt supporters.
I’m not sure why you asked that question, but it was an interesting one, and I did not discern any bad motives with your question, so I answered. Hope it helped with whatever you were pondering.
I just sent an answer to your question (post # 134) and then saw this post. I may have given you an answer to the wrong question. Sorry!
Well you can check that post out too anyway. It was actually fun to write, even though I did change your hypothetical! :)
As for Cain dropping out and who they would go towards, I have no clue. I can’t figure out how they think at this point.
After the last debate here on FR, when so many Cain supporters were starting to drop him from their radar (too recent to be in the polling cycles yet, so we’ll see if that really happened), it seemed like about 1/3 of his disenfranchised supporters were considering migrating over to Newt, about 1/3 to Perry, and the rest seemed to either wanted to wait to think about it, didn’t know what to think, or to possibly give Cain another chance but with an eye for what he does in the near future. That last 1/3 of concerned folk were just not sure what to do at that point that night.
Check out my other answer to you (the one after I told you I couldn’t envision it at all.) It was actually fun thinking about it and writing an answer, even if I have no idea if I was right or not!
Thanks for the interesting time here with your question!
Perry is ithe BEST and will make a great President. Thanks for the article.
You're right; I would, too.
Unfortunately, Cain has stated he wouldn't agree to be Perry's VP. Thinks he's too good or something. How come we all notice the arrogance of the Kenyan King but don't notice Cain's arrogance?
Well, I do.
Both of you hinted that Rush is about ready to endorse Perry, or you think it’s clear that he wants to do so.
Do you listen to Rush?
After the Bloomberg debate, Rush said that Perry had performed an A-rated magician act of disappearing on the debate stage.
To my non-Perry-washed ears, that sounds like piling on for sport.
You wouldn’t know.
Hey, go back to Herman
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