Posted on 01/08/2008 4:51:36 PM PST by outofstyle
Whatever the final results of Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary, the Republican Party endured four damaging days in the run-up to that climactic confrontation.
The two debates over the weekend (Saturday night on ABC TV, then Sunday evening on Fox News) showed our candidates at their worst..... The problem wasn’t the performance of one candidate, but the negative and niggling tone of all of them – especially in contrast to their Democratic rivals. A few more weeks of this nit-picking, negative nonsense and we will turn a difficult general election campaign into an impossible one......
LOOK TO THE FUTURE, NOT THE PAST
The twin GOP debates featured fiery, extended exchanges over picayune details of little or no concern to the average voter. Did Mitt Romney really raise taxes in Massachusetts or did he just raise $240 million in fees? Did Mike Huckabee’s article that used a phrase citing the Bush administration’s “arrogant bunker mentality” indicate he wanted more negotiations or, as he now insists, more troops to do a more aggressive job? Did Mitt Romney read the article before he commented on it – or afterward? Did John McCain favor “amnesty” per se or merely “a form of amnesty” (as Mitt Romney now qualifies his attack)? Did Romney’s attack ads accuse McCain of amnesty, or not? Did Rudy make New York a full “sanctuary city” fourteen years ago or merely make accommodations for humanitarian reasons, like emergency medical care or reporting crimes? Did McCain vote against the Bush tax cuts because he loves high taxes (even though he’s never voted to raise taxes in 25 years in Congress) or because he insisted on linking cuts in taxes with cuts in spending?
These quibbles make all our candidates look like losers....
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
No. They actually provide valuable information to allow us not to buy into phony packaging by the candidates he listed in this excerpt. (Romney, Huckabee, McCain)
Who in Hell put Melville in charge??
Medved is a real sob...I can’t stand that guy..glad Rush never has him sub anymore
“These quibbles make all our candidates look like losers....”
That’s because the candidates he was talking about: McCain, Rudy, Romney and the Huckster are losers. And we’re all losers if any of those losers gets the nomination.
There are only two conservatives in the race. A vote for anyone else is a vote we will have to regret for years to come. If there weren’t anyone else, fine, I understand “lesser of evil” calculations, but there are two fine conservatives in this race. There is no excuse to vote center-left unless center-left reflects your politics.
The leader of the Republican party is below 40% in the polls.
Republicans lost congress a year ago.
The most moderate Republican will be lucky to scrap in by the skin of his teeth if the Dems blow it and foreign events break our way perfectly.
Your precious conservative virtue has exactly nothing to do with it.
Our party took the country into a messy war and failed to win it rapidly - though we are winning it belately.
There will be consequences. I don't like it, but I live in the real world.
This isn't a reason to adopt bad policies or abandon sound principles. But the fantasist belief that if only we don't we are sure to win, is a childish delusion.
those are two incredibly scary pictures there.
the huckabee family photo makes me wonder where they could be hiding those boys these days.
And the McVain photo makes me fearful that global warming will become his next crusade and he won’t stop until he has destroyed our industrial base like he did the campaign finance system. (he also seems to be unaware that this sign is Canadian....)
Romney non-positive flip/flop campaign == GOP Suicide
Let’s all talk in feel-good psycho-babble!
The campaign staffer who thought up Obama’s “change” mantra is the same guy who thought up MA Dem Gov Cadillac Deval Patrick’s equally ambiguous slogan “Together we can!” Together we can WHAT?
It’s verbal lobotomy...
I agree that the “quibbles” are just a part of politics. This party needs it. We haven’t had a good debate on what we believe in a long time. This could be the best thing for us.
Agreed. With "conservatives" like Medved, who needs a democrat opposition? I stopped listening to him when he became a sob-sister on behalf of illegal immigrants, never stating the damage allowing them to stay here does to the body politic or citizens and foreign nationals legally here.
Go back to the democrat party, Mikey. Your fifteen minutes of fame are over.
“And the McVain photo makes me fearful that global warming will become his next crusade and he won’t stop until he has destroyed our industrial base like he did the campaign finance system. (he also seems to be unaware that this sign is Canadian....)”
Where is McCain on the “Fairness Doctrine”? I bet McVain would like to shut up Rush, Laura, Hugh, et. al..
So Thompson wants to simplify tax brackets to two or three. I assume the commitee vote from 1999 was either on CFR or a two- or three-level tax bracket, though I don't know; perhaps I missed it higher up in the piece. I was looking for specific charges against Thompson's record, things that might betray him as inconsistent or dishonest.
I skimmed because I know enough of the other four candidates' records to be convinced that policy-wise, they have zero compulsion about liberal application of government to solve everything from health care to "global warming." They are not conseratives, therefore I have no confidence in their ability to recognize conservative judges, let alone appoint them.
On the other hand, at the top of the story, Medved refers to picayune details of little or no concern to the average voter. Did Mitt Romney really raise taxes in Massachusetts or did he just raise $240 million in fees? Did Mike Huckabee’s article that used a phrase citing the Bush administration’s “arrogant bunker mentality” indicate he wanted more negotiations or, as he now insists, more troops to do a more aggressive job?
These are "PICAYUNE details"?
Yeesh.
Dont give McCain any ideas, he did enough damage with the CFR bill!!
Yeah, there's a reason for that.
Go FRED!
I declare that dood in the middle in the streaked shirt looks like John Candy double.
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