Posted on 02/09/2007 9:38:39 AM PST by areafiftyone
} When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speak at the California Republican Convention this weekend, some party leaders from Solano County will be there and listening carefully.
Approximately 1,300 delegates from across the state are expected to fill the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sacramento beginning today through Sunday. Among them will be Mike Gomez, the chair of the Solano County Republican Party Central Committee, and Lynda Rose McMahan, chair of Solano Republican Women's Federated.
A busy itinerary awaits the group in the state capital, including the selection of new party leadership. Gomez said one candidate, Ron Nehring, is running unopposed for chair, while the vice-chairmanship is hotly contested.
"I think it's going to be a good convention," Gomez said. "To me, it is always interesting and exciting when we elect new officers."
Situated between major election cycles, this convention is an opportunity for the party to strategize and organize. Local party leaders said it is chance for California Republicans to regroup after a shift of power in the November 2006 election, as well as prepare for the upcoming battle in 2008.
McMahan said, "I'm hoping a sense of unity comes out of it; that we find out what we did wrong in the last election and go about changing it."
While she is unable to attend, Cathy Ritch, the second vice chair of the Solano Republican Central Committee, said "I think it is going to be an important meeting."
"It's a chance for us to get together and look over what happened in the last election," she said. "We're really at a crossroads."
Giuliani, dubbed "America's mayor" after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has made headlines recently with his burgeoning presidential aspirations.
"I'd like to hear what his philosophy is and how he would deal with what's going on in Iraq differently than what President Bush is doing," McMahan said.
Republicans will have to produce a turnaround in Iraq, McMahan said, to be successful in 2008.
Gomez said he is also looking forward to the lunch with Giuliani on Saturday. He wants to hear the celebrated mayor's views on national security and the kinds of programs and policies he would implement as president.
"I'm anxious to hear him speak," Gomez said. "At this point in time, he's the one who holds the most interest for me."
Ritch said about Giuliani, "He'd be my favorite candidate if you asked me right now."
As for Schwarzenegger, McMahan said she likes that he is bold and understands the necessity of compromise in politics. However, she and Gomez have concerns about his health-care proposal.
"I do have some questions," McMahan said. While she understands what Schwarzenegger is trying to accomplish, she said, "I'm just not sure that his proposal is the best way to go about it."
Other business awaits the convention's delegates, including a vote on resolutions opposing tax increases and another titled "Voter ID for Honest Elections, which supports a measure requiring would-be voters to provide a valid photo ID.
McMahan said she had not had a chance to peruse the resolutions, but Republicans generally oppose tax increases. Concerning the other issue, she said, "I think everyone should have to show ID when they go to vote."
Additional information about the convention is available on the California Republican Party's Web site, www.cagop.org/.
I don't think FR allows the interactivity. I could capture a static map, but not sure that's what you want.
With the primaries only a few months away, your powder has dried up and been blown away.
You ask that tongue in cheek, but it's worth considering--would conservatism still be a part of the Republican party? Would Republicans have kept their testicles? Would America be any different in 20 years? Would conservatism as we knew it under Reagan be as moribund as it is now?
You have your answers, but a lot of conservatives are coming up with different answers.
The first vote won't be cast for almost a year. Y'all are out showing your true colors way too early. You'll be lucky to have a single soldier standing by the time the real war starts.
Well, one knows a politician by the company he keeps, and Mr. Giuliani has around him the financial people who created the libertarian-conservative Manhattan Institute. He relied heavily on the institute's policies while governing New York. He will rely on libertarian-conservative policy makers in his race for the White House and once there.
One also knows a political leader by the action he takes. As mayor, Mr. Giuliani took on the nanny state that city government had become, reducing the dependency that had one in seven New Yorkers living off government support. As for New York's huge welfare rolls, he more than halved them and had more than 100,000 welfare recipients finding work annually by 1999. He cleaned up the crime-ridden streets, cutting crime by 64% and murder by 67%. By cutting spending and taxes, he turned an economic basket case into an economic marvel. In eight years he reduced or extinguished 23 taxes. Every year he was in office, New York City's economy grew faster than the nation's.
Then came September 11 and he displayed to the nation the traits he had so successfully displayed in reviving his city. He was decisive, efficient, prudent, and — something only those at his side in Gracie Mansion already knew — brave. After the first plane struck the World Trade Center, he instantly rushed to the scene. Arriving just after the second plane hit he re-established governance nearby as the towers came down. He was in genuine peril but coolly oversaw the rescue work and communication with the outside world.
He had already demonstrated his awareness of the danger and nihilism of terrorists. In 1995 he expelled Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat from commemorations of the United Nations' 50th anniversary sponsored by the city, saying, "When we're having a party and a celebration, I would rather not have someone who has been implicated in the murders of Americans there." Mr. Giuliani's knowledge of international terrorism has steadily grown to the point that he is now acknowledged as one of the world's foremost authorities on terror. That alone in these times should commend him to the majority of the American electorate.
Still, he has another asset, noted by Steven Malanga in a comprehensive essay on Mr. Giuliani's achievements published in the winter issue of City Journal from which I have derived many of the above statistics. "Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall," Mr. Malanga writes, "has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber."
As an urban reformer and seasoned warrior in the struggle against international terror, Mr. Giuliani will be a formidable candidate for the presidency. Surely conservatives of all stripes will recognize this. What they need to hear next is where the mayor stands on conservative social issues.
Mr. Tyrrell is founder and editor in chief of the American Spectator, a contributing editor of The New York Sun, and an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.
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R. Emmett Tyrell is probably the most staunch conservative in America. He was around before FR and any other conservative web site I can think of.
I have made no bones that what Rudy did on and after 9/11 was very good. I have great respect him for that. I think that other economic issues were also a part of the city prospering. Just not done "single" handedly.
I never knew much about Rudy before his announced presidential bid. I never paid attention as I do not live in NY. Now that he has drawn my attention it will be the biggest election decision I have faced.
If he wins the nomination do I pull the lever for him? If so it would be the first time I would have forfeited many of my strongest beliefs. It is too early right now and I will concentrate on my candidate.
Given Rudys history I would be a fool to support him now.
Put that in Breaking News, Pollyanna, and see what kind of reaction you get.
Good luck trying to find that perfect Republican/conservative. It's not going to happen.
Duncan Hunter for President, who as a supposedly unelectable unknown outpolled Rudy on FR by 50%. In fact, the three mediot annointed "front runners" got a combined 25% on FR, which doesn't exactly bode well for their chances at nomination.
Consider the precedent: I won the chance to run against Brown after a Republican primary campaign that was very bitter at times, largely because of the lingering split between conservatives and moderates in the state party. My principal opponent in the primary was George Christopher, a former mayor of San Francisco who tried simultaneously to portray me as a right-wing extremist and attack me because I'd admitted having been in Communist front groups - without mentioning that I'd resigned and declared war on them as soon as I'd realized what they were. - Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan himself could not get elected in today's climate. Here are the negatives that you all would give him:
Seeing as you are weak on history,
Johnson carried California by a million votes, and Reagan was given little chance of winning the governorship in 1966. Strategists for incumbent governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown were so convinced that Reagan was their salvation that they smeared his primary opponent, former San Francisco mayor George Christopher, to help Reagan win the primary. Christopher, meanwhile, attacked Reagan as a "Goldwater Republican" and sure loser.
Gosh, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Divorced, married Nancy while she was pregnant, signed gun control legislation, gave us amnesty, ran from the terrorists in Lebanon, gave us two pro abort judges, and raised taxes 4 times while president.
Ronald Reagan admitted his mistakes in life, among which was being a Democrat. As to Lebanon, he had this little thingy called the "Soviet Union" to concern himself and the US military. As to judges, not all are predictable and he had a Democrat Senate for six of his eight years in office. As to taxes, amusing that you omit the cutting he did, rendering your post dishonest spin at best.
Ronald Reagan himself could not get elected in today's climate. Here are the negatives that you all would give him:
Divorced, married Nancy while she was pregnant, signed gun control legislation, gave us amnesty, ran from the terrorists in Lebanon, gave us two pro abort judges, and raised taxes 4 times while president.....
Rudy would appoint much tougher judges than Reagan did. Rudy would all around be a much tougher president on the big issues than Reagan.
It's a shame to see someone like Tyrrell jump the shark, and not just that, use his considerable skills to shill for a leftist like Giuliani.
Yeah, the mediots sure know how to pick em for us.
If that statement were true, one would think that some reputed "True Conservative" would be making those gains instead.
Oh I think we've got enough time, especially once the field narrows enough to get Hunter some face time. But you just give us a little hand and keep right on pushing those closet Marxists, OK?
The hubris of the Rudyphiles grows. Care to list the Republicans that Giuliani appointed to the bench as mayor?
Maybe you can help us. We've only been able to find two...out of a possible sixty.
I agree and can't ask of you anymore than that!
Given Rudys history I would be a fool to support him now.
That's your right, no doubt about it.
Needless to say, the nominee will get the nomination through a majority, the rest will really have a problem: Do they vote for the nominee or force a RAT in the WH who will definitely force the defeat of our troops, our GOP/Conservative agenda and destroy this country!
The RATs started already, case in point: if you you're a meteorologist who don't believe in alWhore algorithm’s global warning, you should be fired!! LOLOLOL See, just a taste of socialist science at its best, a sign of things to come if the RATs have anything to do with it.
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That's okay Mia - I knew you were good at this stuff so I figured you might be able to post the map with interactivity. I didn't realize they don't allow it. Thanks anyway.
It's good form to provide the link when you post articles such as that on a thread.
Who do you think is going to believe that kind of pap?
The three issues that should decide this next election are the War on Terrorism, keeping this economy exploding, and the border.
Rudy defied the law and the Congress to keep NYC as an open sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of illegal foreign nationals. Who do you think you're kidding?
Rudy will do a better job then Hilllorat.
What, at implementing socialism?
Oh, I thought I did.
http://www.nysun.com/article/48257?page_no=2
Tyyrell has led the conservative cause for years and years.
They said the same about Arnold. California is now $70 billion deeper in debt, with gay marriage inshrined over the objections of a near supermajority of the voters, full blown Kyoto, and socialized medicine on the way. Giuliani will go for the NAU, an issue so critical that no compromise can be tolerated; I'm not trading a "Republican" president for the dissolution of representative government any time soon.
Yeah. Which makes it particularly sad to see him pimp for a liberal now.
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