Posted on 02/14/2007 7:41:24 AM PST by pissant
Duncan Hunter bump
If all other arguments fail to impress, then you need to seriously consider this one:
Hunter can't win because he's never been tested in an election before. Most House seats are gerrymandered heavily, and essentially represent feudal territories held by the equivalent of dukes and barons.
A governor is someone who's won election across all the various counties, rural and metropolitan.
Now, its not that he can't, through force of his own personality, forge a campaign and prevail. He can't win because no donor with any political savvy would risk serious money on a candidate coming from the House.
Unless you are independently wealthy, and I mean very, very wealthy, your campaign runs out of gas.
It's not about Hunter, the man or his policies. It's about Hunter, the House member with no organization or money who thinks he can win the WH.
My advice to Hunter is run for Governor in 2008, win, do a good job, then run for the WH.
Not entirely true. He was tested in his very first election, at which time his district skewed heavily Democrat.
Your points in general are not bad ones. In an ideal circumstance, I would tend to agree with most of them; however, I honestly don't think we have the option of waiting. I believe that our form of government will not survive if the next President is a Democrat. Not with Islamic terrorism knocking at our door. And I don't believe any of the current frontrunners have what it takes to beat the forthcoming Democratic ticket, whatever it's composition may be.
I've made the point before, and nobody has really challenged it yet, that massive amounts of money will not be as critical this election for one simple reason: the DVR. What requires the most money is the production of TV spots, and buying the time to air them. The popularity of DVRs now means that an awful lot of people are going to be zipping right through those commercials and never hearing the message. That means that the smart money will be spent in other areas; areas that can be effectively saturated with considerably less money.
I would also ask you to consider that voices such as George Will, Rush Limbaugh, and Laura Ingraham are acknowledging the outside chance that someone like Hunter could surprise everyone. Obviously, they think the chances are small, and I wouldn't even argue that point myself. But as long as he is the best man for the job, and I see huge problems with the frontrunner candidates' abilities to win, I lose nothing by supporting Hunter in the primary season and encouraging others to do so.
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