Conservatives not cozying up to GOP's big 3

signonsandiego.com ^ | May 27, 2007 | By John Marelius

[Jim Robinson]

The three front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination are trying desperately to ease the suspicions among the party's hard-core conservatives that each of them arouses for different reasons.

Rudy Giuliani promised to appoint “strict constructionists” to the court. John McCain mended fences with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. Mitt Romney said his past support for the right to have an abortion was wrong. While there are signs that these efforts are having varying degrees of success, many conservatives are withholding their support in hopes that somebody else emerges.

“What conservatives are looking at here is a group of less-than-perfect candidates,” said Lee Edwards, a historian of the conservative movement at the Heritage Foundation. “A lot of them are waiting for Ronald Reagan, and there is no Ronald Reagan.”

Reagan may not be available, but former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia are talking about joining the race.

Danielle Vinson, a political science professor at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., said either man could find a receptive audience in her state's crucial primary, which will be third in line behind Iowa and New Hampshire next January.

“I think right now (that) if somebody else would come along in South Carolina and cut through the noise generated by the big three, they'd have a chance,” Vinson said. “I've heard more Republicans, especially evangelicals, expressing unhappiness with the current field.”

The seven other candidates in the Republican field can boast of more solid conservative credentials, but they are attracting only isolated pockets of support because few give any of them a chance of winning.

[rob21]

Believe me, I would love nothing more than to see the First Amendment restored, but as long as our First Amendment rights have been taken away, we need to make sure that it hurts the rats as well.