Posted on 05/05/2007 4:12:43 PM PDT by Unmarked Package
America is not purple. It is very red and it is very blue.
For those of us who have been arguing that there is little difference between Republicans and Democrats, last night was a reminder of the stark differences that still divide our country. The GOP contenders were so much more conservative in tone and content than last week’s Democratic pack that we should all expect another divisive general election.
Republicans were so much more hawkish on matters of war and peace. Last week, Hillary Clinton got praised from pundits for promising “retaliation” against any power that nukes two American cities. Last night, John McCain promised to follow Osama bin Laden to the “gates of Hell” while Mitt Romney simply said, “He will die.”
That’s a far cry from Obama’s promise to face terrorist attacks by focusing on first responders and studying the lessons of Hurricane relief.
Republicans also struck a tougher tone against illegal immigrants, abortion and foreign types running for president. The Democratic field all defended the practice of partial birth abortion, while Republicans were overwhelmingly pro-life. That may be why Rudy Giuliani’s worst moment for Republican voters was when he said overturning Roe v. Wade would be “okay.”
Okay? Good Lord, man. Get yourself a pithy two minute abortion answer and repeat it in front of the mirror a hundred times.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Last night’s debate also showed a huge gulf between the reporters who cover such events and Republican voters who follow campaigns. I hope it is not a shock to anyone that most journalists covering D.C. politics relate to Democratic world views much more than those held by Republicans. My peers do a great job of putting their biases in check (myself included, I hope) but many are tone deaf when figuring out why Republican primary voters would embrace a guy like Mitt Romney who is now pro-life, pro-family and pro-everything-that-evangelical-voters-could-want-him-to-be.
During the debate I was flooded by e-mails from Republican activists and voters who told me Romney was dominating the debate. Meanwhile, my friends from D.C., Manhattan and L.A. were calling him “creepy,” “fake” and “scary as hell.”
By that reaction alone, Mitt Romney carried the mantle of Reagan off the stage last night. Like Romney, the 40th president was derided as a jingoistic right-wing nut. The greatest Reagan moment for the former Massachusetts governor came when he was asked what he hated most about America.
You could almost hear the Gipper’s laughs rising from his grave outside the auditorium.
“Clueless,” he would chuckle. “After all these years and all those Republican victories, the press still doesn’t get it.”
But Mitt Romney did, and he delivered an answer that would have made most angst-ridden reporters (and Democratic candidates) wince. It was an unapologetically delivered sermon on American Exceptionalism. The sort of speech that made media elites roll their eyes at Ronald Reagan while American voters were electing him in landslide margins.
And while most media commentators missed Romney’s victory, they also underplayed John McCain’s stumbles. That’s probably because McCain still scares reporters less than the Sam Brownbacks of the world. Regardless, this first debate was not good for John McCain, a politician for whom I have great respect and admiration. Reporters gave his uneven performance a free pass. GOP voters may not be so forgiving.
I’m not saying that Romney is Reagan anymore than I’m predicting the collapse of John McCain’s campaign. But there were clear winners and losers in last night’s contest. Among those Red State Republicans (who will elect their party’s next nominee), Mitt Romney won while McCain and Giuliani failed to meet expectations.
That may not be how it looks in Georgetown or the Upper West Side, but that’s how it is playing in Kansas. And what’s the matter with Kansas? Not a damn thing.
I’m a Kansan and I’m most definitely not for Romney.
There’s no doubt that Romney gained the most from the debate and was very polished and assured. Can he keep up the momentum?
Fred! Will take Kansas
Red & Blue is crap and we all know it.
Calling the red states blue, and the blue states red is simply more evidence that the media is determined to regularly redefine words, ideas, connotations, and just about everything else.
I am honestly confounded and frustrated by the fact that the next President of our Nation is going to come somehow out of this motley crew.
The only one that I have any respect for at all is Romney, and that man sold his soul to the Devil some while ago.
Too bad for me that moving to the South Pacific is simply not an option.
I suppose that I’ll have to work harder in order to give myself more options.
That’s the best analysis of the debate so far.
“Mitt Romney carried the mantle of Reagan off the stage last night. Like Romney, the 40th president was derided as a jingoistic right-wing nut.
The greatest Reagan moment for the former Massachusetts governor came when he was asked what he hated most about America. You could almost hear the Gipper’s laughs rising from his grave outside the auditorium.”
He nailed it.
Don’t bet your home on that one!!!
I really liked his comments about cloning/stem-cell research. I hope a lot of Americans were listening.
Romney cannot be trusted. Any Republican who wins election in a state that has not had one single county vote Republican in a Presidential election since 1988 is no Republican.
Romney is nothing more than a prevaricating actor (the reason he looked so polished during the debate was because he rehearsed his fake answers through the whole thing) that wouldn’t even be a realistic choice if it wasn’t for the media deliberately hyping him up. Romney’s candidacy is a ploy by the media to plant their own candidate as the Republican nominee so that if it comes to between Clinton or Obama and the Republican, they win either way. Romney is no more deserving of hype than any other governor like Huckabee or Gilmore, but he gets top billing while the latter two get has-been status.
And they say there’s no liberal agenda in the press.
That's his strong suit, organization and planning, which equals momentum.
There is always repentance, and forgiveness and redemption.
No matter what you have done, Christ can get your soul back from Satan if you repent and believe.
While not a full-fledged supporter, I can get behind a Romney for President campaign. Romney has the business experience, he is pro-family and pro-life, and he's very sharp. People will say he's too "polished" or "just like Clinton" but I disagree. He's a very smart person who can think on his feet.
I agree. Someone we all know and respect put it perfectly:
Does anyone believe that Ronald Reagan would have been as successful without his actor’s good looks, smart attire, self-deprecating humor, and grandfatherly charm? Mitt Romney has the intelligence, verbal communication skill, wit and handsome countenance to be the best ambassador and salesman for conservatism in a generation and I include Ronald Reagan in that comparison. ~~UP
"Any Republican who wins election in a state that has not had one single county vote Republican in a Presidential election since 1988 is no Republican."Mitt Romney's record of fiscal and social conservatism in Massachusetts working with an 85% Dem Legislature (see my tagline) is more impressive by far than the record of Republican Gov. Rick Perry in my home state of Texas with a Republican Legislature. That's why Romney is such a remarkable figure in U.S. politics.
"...(the reason he looked so polished during the debate was because he rehearsed his fake answers through the whole thing)..."Romney has a history of excelling in debates where the format is unscripted and adversarial. The format of last week's MSNBC/Politico GOP debate, with so many candidates on stage and little time to respond, is actually a setting where Romney is least likely to stand out. This is a man who can hold his own very well with 40 Senior Fellows at the Hoover Institution in a 90-minute exchange on Middle East foreign policy.
Talk radio host Hugh Hewitt interviewed professor of military history and noted author Victor Davis Hanson who observed Mitt Romney's ability to discuss Middle East foreign policy at length with experts at the Hoover Institution:For another example, FReeper Obilisk18 provided this research regarding Romney in debates:Hugh Hewitt: What I like is that he’s a voracious reader, not only your books, but things like The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, Mark Steyn’s America Alone. I think this is pretty rare these days, to find curiosity at that level, and at that sort of voracious appetite for information. What do you talk about with him?Victor Davis Hanson: Well, we talk about history just like you and I talk about. We talk about foreign policy, he talked about the plan or the effort to democratize the Middle East, the shortfalls, the problems, the liabilities, and you know what? He came to the Hoover Institution and got in front of 40 senior fellows. And in that room there were Nobel Prize winners, a lot of egos, too. And he held court with them, and there were a lot of hostile questions, and he went for an hour and a half, head to head, with these people. When he walked out of that room, I think everybody was impressed with him. He didn’t pull any punches, and he could argue and was as logical as any Hoover fellow, and I was more impressed with him than I was with my colleagues.
(The Hugh Hewitt Show, March 13, 2007)
"Indeed. I've been searching Lexis Nexus a bit recently, and I ran into some information that supports this wholeheartedly. Some key quotes from a Herald article on the final 2002 debate between Romney and Shannon O'Brien (a fine debater): “Nearly 44 percent of likely voters said they watched the debate. Among that group, Romney holds a 7-point lead over O’Brien, while voters who didn’t see the televised clash back O’Brien by a 5-point margin.” And then most illuminating this: “Among independent voters who viewed the debate, Romney holds a whopping 63-19 percent lead. Romney’s lead among independent voters who said they didn’t watch the debate is at 10 points, the same level as five days ago.” That’s a 34 point swing. 34 points. In one night. There are barely words to describe the depth of that shift. Get Romney before the American people, against a Democratic opponent, and you’ll be weeping with joy."
You have got to be happy after this debate!
“Any Republican who wins election in a state that has not had one single county vote Republican in a Presidential election since 1988 is no Republican.”
That only covers the clinton and bush years. Hardly enough time to draw such stark conclusions. Plus, Romney also lost an election during this period so you gotta give him credit for that.
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