Duncan Hunter Buzz, A Plan to Support the Man

My own thoughts... | 11/07/2007 | DoughtyOne

[DoughtyOne]

During this Presidential pre-Primary and Caucus season, we are evaluating who the best Conservative man for the job is.  Many of us have expressed support for Fred Thompson as the most viable Conservative candidate.  And of those of us who have, I have seen many express a noticable preference for Duncan Hunter, who in fairness we have deemed not be looking viable at this time.

While there is still time, I would like to suggest a reasoned strategy to help create buzz for the best candidate out there.  What I have in mind would continue until the mid to last part of December.  Then at that time we could re-evaluate what the status is, and continue our effort or move our support to the more viable candidate.

I do not want to drag down a good man.  I don't want to continue to support a lost cause.  I don't want to split the Conservative vote at Primaries and Caucuses.  So this does need to be handled in a timely planned manner.

At this point in time it seems to me the two most important questions should be, in our heart of hearts who is the best Conservative candidate with the most consistant record over the last few decades, and how best can we help that candidate achieve more visibility and there-by traction?

From my observation, Congressman Duncan Hunter is the most tested long term Conservative candidate on the radar.  As mentioned earlier, Hunter is barely on that radar, but he is there.  And acknowledging his presence and credentials, it seems a must for me to mention that we have the ability to help the man.  And that being the case, I think we should.

It is important to Conservatism's principles that we create the maximum buzz for Hunter that we can.  We should talk him up whenever possible.  We should provide a link to his site whenever possible.  And we should be ready to explain our own persoal top five reasons we support him, on a moments notice.  We should do it on this forum.  We should do it on other conservative sites.  Whenever there is a poll, I want to urge folks to vote for Hunter.  I still believe that he can catch on if our members will spread the good word far and wide.  And Hunter is the good word this pre-election season.

I do want to acknowledge an important issue before I end these comments.  Fred Thompson is an important viable and supportable fall back position to Duncan Hunter.  It is important that when we get the word out about Hunter, that we make sure to mention that Fred Thompson is also a good man, a man we will gladly vote for if we need to.

Ideally, I would love to see a Hunter/Thompson ticket.  Being realistic, we may have to settle for a Thompson/Hunter ticket.  Well, that's a ticket every Conservative should be able to support in good concience.  And the best way to get that ticket, is to spend some time talking Hunter's numbers up.

Don't settle for my five good reasons to support Hunter.  Go to his site and determine your own best five reasons, the ones most important to you.

Then go out there and talk him up and keep Fred front and center too.  These are good men folks.  As Freepers we should be proud to support either one.  I still think Hunter is the solid choice, if Conservatism is the guidepost.

Those of you who do not support Hunter or Thompson, I'm not here to convert you.  If you can't see the value in these men, I understand.  I would ask that you develop your own thread to talk up you candidate, and not spend time here talking down ours.  No offense intended.  Take care. 

Thanks folks.

Hunter/Thompson 2008

Hunter:           http://www.gohunter08.com/
Thompson:   http://www.fred08.com/

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for your comments.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m with you bud. There are people out there that this doesn’t matter to, but then that’s their choice I suppose.

I appreciate the post.

[truth_seeker]

“How big a fraction of the national electorate do YOU believe the base is?”

Define “base.” Base of what?

[Kevmo]

If Thompson were to crash and burn, and I don’t think that will happen, then I’d probably gravitate to Hunter,
***I think he is crashing and burning.

Over at Intrade, Fred has been dropping like a rock. From 35% down to 5.5%, considerably below Huckabee & McCain.

http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/common/c_cd.jsp?conDetailID=462622&z=1194474228503

2008.GOP.NOM.THOMPSON(F)
Fred Thompson to be the Republican Presidential Nominee in 2008 M 5.7 6.4 5.5 91924 -1.9

Also, Fred has a contract for dropout, last price was 5%, current ask is 40%. There is no dropout contract for Hunter.

Dropouts from 2008 Presidential Race
DROPOUT.DEC07.(F)THOMPSON
Fred Thompson to drop out of 2008 Presidential race on/before 31 Dec 2007 M 1.0 40.0 5.0 0 0

The forum at Intrade has some reasonable explanations and conjecture for this “Fredfall”.

http://www.intrade.com/forum/

[John Valentine]

I am not one to argue against facts, bout I will say that Fred Thompson is a great buy at intrade at this kind of price.

The reason there is no dropout contract for Hunter is that there is no uncertainty about this outcome.

[Kevmo]

The reason there is no dropout contract for Hunter is that there is no uncertainty about this outcome.
***Interesting take, and a good point. What I don’t understand is why all the candidates don’t have dropout contracts when they’re first opened. Tommy Thompson, Brownback both would have paid off and you could guage the efficiency of the market. I thought Hunter would be a bargain at 0.1% but his numbers do not move, so it would be a long term play. Recently, the Intrade market was quite accurate in predicting the Ron Paul upswing, and it was also accurate in 2006 for being the first indicator that there was a problem in the election for Republicans. I’m still not completely sold on it as a utility but it appears to be more accurate than modern MSM-biased polls.

[wardaddy]

I love Hunter but when the time comes he goes to Thompson’s camp.

Ya’ll can remind me if I’m wrong.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m making note of it now... heh heh heh...

I’m not betting against your take on it.

[John Valentine]

Putting your money where your mouth is is a kind of truth serum. I give these markets like intrade a lot of credibility, not necessarilky as predictors, but certainly as barometers of where things stand, and as trend indicators, and Fred Thompson has certainly beeen a bear market of late.

Now that he is better engaged on the campaign trail, I expect him to trend back up. His early support is still there and can be re-won.

[Lexinom]

“Mirror image policy with regard to trade” - excellent, excellent term!!!

With you on everything else.

[Kevmo]

Putting your money where your mouth is is a kind of truth serum.
***Again another interesting comment. I was thinking a few days ago that Ron Paul trading in the 9’s was just nuts, that the Paulestinians had invaded Intrade and there could be a way to make money off of them by shorting just before the primary. But his ability to pull in $4M in one day surprised me. Also, if I was thinking the same thing there must be dozens of others who thought likewise and this has a way of countering the tendencies of some candidate or his followers to try and astroturf the market. So it has its own self-correcting mechanisms, unlike biased MSM polls.

[Clara Lou]

Rudy is at least a patriot, if a liberal one.
You have managed to come up with at least one way that I can agree that Rootie is different from and better than Hillary.

[pissant]

There is no doubt that Rudy is a patriot. All the GOP field is definitely such, even Ron Paul. But the same can be said for many democrats (though certainly not all).

The problem for Rudy is his lack of conservatism. Patriotism alone does not make for good decisions. Understanding the constitution helps, and Rudy has never understood the 2nd Amendment and has trouble with the 4th and 5th Amendments as well. Top that off with a lifetime of cheerleding, not just supporting, but cheerleading, for abortion and illegal aliens and hate crimes laws and what you end up with is, maybe, a fiscally conservative liberal.

[AuntB]

Works for me.

“HUNTER IS A GREAT MAN”....Laura Ingraham 11/07/07

[AuntB]

That was my take as well until someone told me Hunter’s age. I’m not sure he would run in eight years. BTW, I don’t remember it at the moment or I’d mention it. He’s older than I had originally thought.

In 9 years Hunter will be 5 years younger than Ron Paul is now.

[AuntB]

Unfortunately the strategy by Duncan supporters seems to be to dump on Thompson, meanwhile Huckebee is scooping up a lot of social conservative support.

And there's what's difficult to put up with. Every time Fred's record or words are posted, it's a 'dump'? What annoys Hunter supporters is that some insist that we support someone without looking at their past words and records. And Huckabee is getting his just deserts by most of us, so that won't fly.

[DoughtyOne]

I didn’t realize that. Thank you.

[AuntB]

With all due respect, and reference to my tagline, I still believe that the republican party apparatus will not allow a Hunter candidacy. None of the conservative hopefuls have, or will receive in future, support from a party that is so much more comfortable with Rudy and would likely run and hide if faced with another RR.

I agree completely. But they were going to shove amnesty down our throats, too and they haven't managed that yet. McCAin has even had a conversion. They need to hear more from the 'loud people'.

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t mind, in fact I support bonified posts about people’s records. What does bother me considerably, is the posting of articles with dramatic headlines that simply are not substantiated in the body of the report. I saw one against Fred the other day that was rediculous.

We need to be aware of our canidates records and views. I do wish some folks would use a little better judgement about what they post and what extrapolations they make from those posts.

I don’t have any reason to suggest you’re doing anything that I would not approve of, so don’t take this wrong.

Thanks for the post.

[AuntB]

I saw one against Fred the other day that was rediculous.

I'm sorry to hear that. I missed it. News needs to stand on it's own and changing titles is never a good idea.