Posted on 03/13/2007 5:25:25 AM PDT by Ouderkirk
The] "Hustle" may have been a line dance we did back in the days of disco, but today it's what GOP leadership and a complicit media are trying to do to the voters responsible for the Republican Party's successes since Ronald Reagan.
Realistic chances of winning notwithstanding, there are no fewer than 13 Republicans in the contest for the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. But to hear party leadership and the media spin promote the candidates, one easily gets the impression that John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are not just the only candidates, but that McCain and Romney are the opening act for Giuliani as he awaits his coronation.
This is a ruse, a con, and in brief, an attempt to hustle the voters. GOP leadership is trying to "Bob Dole" us. They have, in effect, met in the smoke-filled back room of a private club and decided amongst themselves who they want in 2008. Their problem is how to deceive the voters into believing that said pick is of the voters' choosing.
Their solution: hand pick the candidate, truncate the primaries, shove the candidate down our collective throats vis-à-vis the media's promoting, interviewing and discussing (ad nauseum) McCain, Romney and Giuliani, but in such a way as to always have Giuliani shine brighter. Then, when he has garnered the nomination, we the voters will be told, "Yes, it is true he is a little more moderate than we may like," but if we don't vote for him, Hillary will win and hell will freeze over.
To which, allowing that same has no basis in theological truth, I respond, "If there be a hell on earth, and it freezes over because I vote my conscience and Hillary wins, I'll walk on ice until the party lets the voters truly have a say."
Now, my scenario may not be completely accurate, but you can bet I'm not far off base. One thing is for certain – of the 13 Republican candidates, only three of them are being touted – and don't tell me it's the fault of the other candidates, because a week ago this same media (Fox News included) was trying to convince us that the corpse of Anna Nicole Smith was newsworthy.
I watched as Republican pundits, Fox News, GOP talking heads, and other cable news shows all downplayed the tremendous success of presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., in the South Carolina straw poll. McCain finished two votes ahead of Giuliani, who in turn finished four votes ahead of candidate Hunter.
Even though Hunter finished in a statistical dead-heat with each, garnering 24 percent, of the vote, Giuliani was declared "the clear winner" and "the presumptive Republican presidential favorite." While these comments were without question a slap in the face to McCain, it was Hunter who they chose to disparage the most.
After all, went the reasoning on Fox News, Hunter had his son campaigning for him the entire week before the straw poll – to which Hunter, in classic fashion responded, "You know, I woke up to ... one of the commentators saying that the only reason that Hunter beat all those guys in South Carolina is because his Marine son has been there for a week. Well, I looked down at that army of consultants – everybody who was vertical in South Carolina was hired by the other guys – and I said, 'You know, that is a good match-up: One Marine versus 550 consultants.' We did have the advantage!" (From Hunter's speech given at Conservative Political Action Conference, Washington, D.C., March 3.)
My point is this: Giuliani is being touted as the "Nation's Mayor" and "the presumptive favorite" by the media and most of the GOP armada, but there are a dozen other candidates, and none more honestly conservative than Duncan Hunter.
But the armada and the media don't want you to know that. They want the voters to think there is a choice of one, and if we don't go along with said choice the sky will fall. They will tell us that our picks/choices can't win and we have to go with their guy.
It is not, however, about whether or not their choice can win – it is about whether or not their choice is fit to win. I've seen Rudy as a prosecutor, I've seen him as mayor, and I've seen him dressed up in his blond wig with heavy eye shadow and makeup, strutting about in drag (1997 mayoral spoof of Victor/Victoria).
Now, I'd like to see the media and the GOP armada of talking heads consistently acknowledge that there are a dozen other candidates, and only one of them a true conservative.
BINGO!
There you are - the voice of reason. Hope you are not soon lost.
OK then do it but I am telling you form now you are not going to get Hunter as the nominee, though from conservatives perspective Hunter is my favorite.
You don't agree that supporting a ro-abortion candidate is supporting abortion? Hmmmm.
You could have supported Hitler with that lack of conscience! You keep on like Rudy is God's gift, and still manage to hold your nose at every new revelation, and think that everything is still OK. When do you plan to see the light? How long after it's too late will you wake up to the fact this guy is BAD!
I am trying very hard to figure out what you mean in the first half of your sentence.
Yeah, that's pretty obvious.
Just stop it man, you are going way over the board.
You just don't get it do you? The more you act like an extremist the more people are turned off by you and your kind.
I mean that Duncan Hunter will not be the Republican Party nominee, absolutely not.
By those two nasty comments you made to me you have PROVEN to me that it is not RUDY who is bad it is YOU who is BAD!
You are not alone. I am in agreement with every post from you on this thread.
Thank you. It is amazing that some “conservatives” accuse the Republican leadership of forcing Giuliani down the throat of Republican voters, where in reality that is not the case, but on the other hand they are the one who want to force their candidate down the throat of Republican voters.
To my mind, this opinion piece represents the worst sort of political spin.
Rudy has not been "anointed" by anyone.
Rudy is a high-profile candidate.
Rudy is known throughout the country only as "America's Mayor", and a hero of 9/11.
Rudy's home base is in media-capital New York.
Given those facts, why is anyone surprised that he gets a lot of press? But the beneficiary of some insidious back-room deal to anoint the party's nominee? Pure political anti-Rudy spin, to my mind.
Who did NOT expect Duncan Hunter to show well in South Carolina? But who DID expect a northeast social liberal like Rudy to run neck-and-neck with a pure Conservative?
To my mind, the only conspiracy theory here is the one being perpetrated by Massey. There is plenty of time for Rudy's warts and skeletons to erode his popular support, and if there are enough of both he will be denied the nomination. So be it. I will vigorously support WHOMEVER my party nominates [oddly enough, this makes me a troll or an anti-conservative. Who knew?]
And I have another question, not answered in the column anywhere that I can see. Why? Why Rudy? To my mind, this whole conspiracy theory is a house of cards. A ruse, in it's own way, to perpetrate the idea that Rudy's popularity is a chimera; that the momemtum he is building has no grass roots support. I think neither is true.
What I do think is that hard-core Conservatives are shocked that Rudy's stance on social issues have not torpedoed his Presidential ambitions already. I understand that confusion - I'm a bit confused by that myself; I thought the party would be much less tolerant of Rudy's past statements about gun control and abortion.
Apparently, however, like me, the first and TOP priority to most Republicans SO FAR, is beating Hillary/Obama and the Islamic extremists. Social issues take a back seat; we can deal with them later.
Jusy my two cents.
If Rudy wins, our country will be led by a man who not only supports abortion, he believes in federal funding for abortion, and actively supports pro-abortion organizations by speaking at their events and praising them.
After years of working to convince the American people that abortion is murder, we will have supported and voted for a President who says otherwise.
That vote will be a vote to support abortion, and hurt the pro-life cause.
It is not unreasonable for people who feel strongly about this to consider the blood of the children as being on the hands of those who will work so hard to elect a candidate who will advance the cause of abortion, when there are so many candidates available who will not.
If we were having this conversation next October and Rudy was our candidate, you could argue that you were voting for the better of the two candidates on abortion.
But right now you are actively trying to suppress support for pro-life candidates, and doing everything in your power to ensure that the only republican who can beat Hillary is Rudy.
There's a big difference between reluctantly supporting a candidate because he's the only one who can win, and actively tearing down good men so that your candidate is the only one who can win.
Now, it is true that it's hard to win an argument with a Hitler reference. But Hitler was a strong leader, who promised his citizens strength, leadership, and primacy in the world. At the expense of the murder of other people who he considered to be not really human.
40 million humans are dead in this country because some of OUR leaders don't consider them to be really human.
Rudy is one of those leaders.
Oh believe me I thought long and hard about the candidates running and I have seen what they have done while in their respective offices. And not one can stack up to what Rudy has done. But that's my feeling about it.
Actually I was making fun of World Net Daily - a very NOT CREDIBLE news source. Most people on FR think the same way about it.
Exactly. Giuliani has the ability at this stage to be quite like Hitler, and Guiliani's postions are not that much different than pre-WWII Hitler, just the names are changed.
WND is a goofy source, but the article is spot on!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.