Posted on 02/15/2007 3:12:25 PM PST by pissant
Conservative blogger John Hawkins (Right Wing News) announced today that he is consulting for presidential candidate Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).
For those who haven't followed his efforts in the Congress, Hunter introduced the Right to Life Act, which would legally define "personhood" as the moment of conception and, therefore, guarantee all constitutional rights and protections, including life, to the unborn without utilizing a constitutional amendment. (more information here)
Hawkins' involvement in the promotion of Hunter tells me that the candidate is a consistent ideological conservative in addition to his solid pro-life record. In fact, prior to being approached by a media group connected with Hunter's campaign, Hawkins had written positively concerning Hunter, promoting his candidacy through an interview and Town Hall Column (we noticed).
Second, the utilization of Hawkins reflects the emergent influence of bloggers on the political process and the demonstrated results. During the last presidential election cycle several writers were enlisted to help publicize political campaigns through blogging efforts. Some, like Hawkins, were upfront and announced the financial incentive they were receiving. Others didn't and were heavily criticized. However, the growing practice of enlisting bloggers reflects a positive track record and the complimentary advantage blogs provide to traditional campaign marketing efforts.
Finally, press reports about Hunter have been dismissive, if not negative. There was a time when this may have proven fatal to a campaign. Hunter's media group realizes that those times are over and their candidate's position on the issues can reach voters without an exclusive reliance on MSM
I hope your scenario is wrong. I can't fathom the idea of such an unpatriotic beeyatch ascending to the presidency.
I think Guiliani could beat her, but at the cost of the GOP as a viable party.
Yes you did! LOL
As Antoninus summed up the candidates looks:
Hunter: Your dad or father in law
McCain: Sporting Goods manager - at KMart
Guiliani: Flower delivery guy
Romney: Lead actor in "Superman - The Musical"
Sober up! We had better not think the blogosphere is gaining on the LSM. Nor should Duncan Hunter think he can get front and center by going around them, sadly, still the kingmakers/breakers.
***That's the first intelligent submission I've seen on this angle. I happen to agree with you that the LSM is still in the catbird seat, but there are ways to get facetime in the media. One way I suggested was to have Bush ask Cheney to resign due to reasons of ill health -- Cheney takes one for the team since he has no interest in running for pres. Then Bush nominates Hunter for VP, and even if Hunter doesn't get ratified, the exposure makes him a household name. This is just one scenario out of several where the exposure could happen quite rapidly.
Wholly crap! That is absolutely nuts!
I like it!
One catch in your giddyup there, tho.
As soon as Cheney resigns, while trying to nominate the successor some moonbat will try to off Bush and put Nancypants in the Ovum Office.
Nasty piece of work, there, yikes. But then it would be a catfight between Pelosi and Clinton, showing america the yuck factor; and Hunter could come in and sweep the entire field of all this detritus.
Ah yes. Americans do love a catfight, though, don't they? Jerry Springer. "Vote them off the Island" shows...etc.
Thanks Pattty
The flaw I see in your scenario is that I don't think the nation - at least our form of government - would survive the Hillary administration.
have you seen his sight lately? If not it has changed.
Come on now keep this place decent.
Say gang, I think I just found a good running mate for Hunter:
http://www.house.gov/blackburn/
Good. He needs a lot of appearances to become better known to the voters.
While I'm not exactly thrilled with how Rice runs the State Department I admit it's probably a very difficult job, and having said that if Hunter chose her as his VP I would vote for them in a heartbeat.
See my post 173. She was on Cavuto today spearheading an effort to shut down B of A's bank services for illegals nonsense.
To be candid, I don't know much about Rice's politics and I would enlist her support because of her star power. And the MSM wouldn't bash her as much as most of the other choices.
There is some stark beauty in such a plan.
1) I've always admired GWB's poker playing skills, and if he pulls this rabbit out of his hat, we'd all know he was da master.
2) It could happen at any time, and doesn't take much effort nor money nor time nor political capital, other than the fact that Cheney would have to go along with the plan. My read on Cheney is that he's a team player who would do it, and welcome the chance to go home fishing early.
3) GWB gets 6 years of a truly loyal VP who isn't running plays behind his back, then 2 years of a guy who's running his own agenda for the most part, so there doesn't have to be that normal friction that happens at this time in a presidency. Now, I'm assuming Hunter gets the nod. Of course, WHOEVER George Bush nominates would become the heir apparent. It would be a rather large political gaffe if GWB didn't nominate the one candidate who has the most support in the conservative base. But if that's what he wanted to do, it would be as good as done by tomorrow.
4) Even if Duncan doesn't get ratified by congress, the publicity gives him tier 1 status. (already discussed)
5) Duncan gets some nice rides on Air Force 1, can wave at Nancy Pelosi more often.
6) This "appointment" is worth more than a supreme court nomination, and GWB doesn't have to consult with anyone in order to go through with it. I never heard of Harriet Miers before Bush nominated her. Now, everyone knows who she is and she can do a lot with that.
I don't know hardly anything about Congresswoman Blackburn. Judging from the front page of her website it seems she and I share some of the same priorities. But to be honest I think it would be an extreme longshot to run two Representatives of the House on the same ticket(even if they were both exemplary human beings). Enter someone with the 'star power' as Kevmo put it like a Secretary Rice and you could be going places.
As for the scenario of Bush dumping Cheney to give a Republican a good platform to run for President I don't see that happening. If Bush did decide to dump Cheney I think the person he would most likely replace him with would be Condi Rice and she already has a platform should she decide to run.
I agree with you for the most part, although I frankly think the bias against House members is something we'd be well served to leave to history, since it may prove to be a counter-productive limitation that deprives us of some exemplary candidates.
I'd be fine with Condi, but as yet have seen no indication that she's willing to run. I also haven't personally examined her enough to know how deep her conservatism run, and I'd be concerned that we might be setting ourselves up for a party split later on if she runs for the top job. However, there's no denying she would be a very powerful part of a ticket, and I certainly wouldn't object.
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