[pissant]

I do remember Rush getting his panties in a twist about that one.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I think he probably likes him and I like him too. However, he just isn’t a great public speaker. There’s more to being a good/acceptable president than just merely having a correct voting record. One needs to have some ability to persuade other people. Or as Ronald Reagan once said , “if they can’t see the light we’ll make them feel the heat”.

[McGruff]

I’m sorry but everybody knows Duncan Hunter is not going anywhere in this election. Let me say he is a great patriot and a good man but he’s not gonna be president and there’s nothing his supporters can do about it. VP or senior level cabinet position maybe if he plays his cards right.

[Ol' Sparky]

Maybe its because Mitt Romney is essentially Rush’s boss (Romney’s Bain Capital bought Clear Channel which employs Limbaugh).

[libbylu]

Hunter has never gotten any traction is probably why. I like him but he has never had traction and apparently not the money to campaign.

[WildcatClan]

[WFTR]

Rush Limbaugh has never had a job that involved producing anything except words. He's never made anything, and people whose lives have revolved around talk and hype sometimes don't understand physical reality. Duncan Hunter's career as a lawyer and a Congressman has been about words, but his early work farming and his service as an Army Ranger were about physical reality. He has an understanding that is beyond Rush Limbaugh, and that understanding causes him to take stands that Mr. Limbaugh can't understand and therefore resents.

Bill

[Young Scholar]

1) Because Rush is only concerning himself with candidates who are still a factor in the race.

2) Because Hunter is not even that strong a fiscal conservative: he’s mediocre on spending (notice his B grade from NTU, probably one of the best rating orgs out there), and he’s obviously opposed to free trade. Even with media attention he would never excite the fiscal conservatives in the party.

[arturo]

National Tax Limitation Committee: 88

National Taxpayers Union: B

Look at those scores! Hunter is a liberal!

[eleni121]

In general Rush doesn’t get it on the Muslim threats including the Dubai thang and oil. OTOH Hunter didn’t get it on 1999 when he voted for the bombing of Serbia supporting clintoon’s ridiculously immoral actions regarding Kosovo.

Rush is lovable..in so many ways ways, not all..dittoes Hunter.

[cripplecreek]

Rush has sponsors period and he says what he's paid to say.

Michael Reagan tells the truth.

As Ann Coulter wrote in her new book, the best-qualified of all the candidates is Rep. Duncan Hunter. During the debate he was the candidate who provided the best information about the economy and had a first-rate suggestion of what we need to do.

He keyed in on what must be one of the most important economic issues – trade.

He talked about our shocking $800 billion trade deficit, and what the Chinese are doing to us. Duncan understands that when anybody cites Ronald Reagan as a free-trade advocate in defense of our present trade policies, they need to remember that in my dad's playbook, protection of the American people came before anything else.

Take the case of Harley-Davidson. My father protected this American manufacturer of motorcycles against lower-priced Japanese imports. When he acted in behalf of an American company, Kawasaki and Honda reacted by moving their plants to the U.S. and created American jobs for American workers.

His policy was so successful that although he gave five years of protective tariffs to Harley-Davison, they didn’t even need that long a time before they could turn their company around. Given a level playing field they proved their superiority as an American manufacturer.

Ronald Reagan did the same thing with semiconductors, and the auto and steel industries. He also forced the Japanese and others to open up their markets to American products so that trade would be fair. When that didn’t happen he would impose tariffs on those products coming into the U.S., thus protecting American manufacturers.

Sure, he was a free trader who wanted too open up trade, but he always sought first to protect the sovereignty of the United States and its manufacturing base. He did not confuse free trade with giving the store away.

The effects of our current trade policies and the horrendous trade deficit they have produced are a gun pointed at the heart of our economy, and the Republican who can stand up and tell the truth about this problem and its solutions will be the one who emerges from the pack. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelReagan/2007/10/10/where%e2%80%99s_the_fire

[Just another Joe]

I see people on this thread saying that they are glad that Duncan Hunter doesn't seem to be able to gain traction.

I guess their motto is give us a Liberal (AKA - DEMONcRAT) or give us a RINO (AKA - liberal Republican't).

It's so sad that conservatives won't support a conservative.

[plain talk]

Rush probably forgot about him. I’ve almost forgot about him. Hunter has had a long time to break out into the mainstream but just hasn’t done it. Takes more than just being right on the issues to become President.

[fetal heart beats by 21st day]

Rush is big on NAFTA and rips to shreds anyone who opposes it.

He is unaffected by its damage.

[aruanan]

I was surprised to hear Rush Limbaugh the other day say that there was no 'Thoroughbred' Conservative in the 2008 Republican nomination Field for President.

No, he said there was no conservative in the "top tier" of candidates but Thompson, and this is true.

[Kirkwood]

Hunter isn’t running.

[Alberta's Child]

He was shocked that the administration approved the deal,” said Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), a senior member of Hunter’s committee and a close friend. Saxton worked with Hunter to introduce legislation blocking the deal and revising the foreign-investment process to ensure national security.

This is exactly why I lost so much respect for many conservatives during that Dubai Ports World debacle. In the midst of all the controversy over the deal, nobody -- including (no, PARTICULARLY) Republicans -- ever pointed out that the Bush Administration had done exactly what the law required it to do at the time (i.e., before the adoption of the "revised" law described above in the quote I posted from the article).

[restornu]

What good is DH if he can’t get his campaign off the ground?

Nothing personal!

In order to qualify you have to generate a base and come to the table with something!

[Little_GTO]

Connecting the Dots

I was going to post this on another thread, but it fits in here too.

There are a number of complaints about both Rush and Duncan Hunter on this thread. Maybe Duncan Hunter isn’t running the best campaign, but maybe Rush isn’t shooting straight with us either. Maybe Duncan Hunter’s campaign manager is doing the best he can, but is thwarted by the RNC at every turn. I have posted some comments on other threads about these issues but will try to tie it together here. Other people on this and other threads have made some of the points included below. Since I can’t read everything on FR, some of my theories may have been posted already in articles or comments by others.

Rush has stated many times that President Bush (43) is conservative on some issues but is not “a conservative”. President Bush (41) started the ball rolling down hill when he promised a “kinder & gentler nation” followed by President Bush 43’s “compassionate conservatism”. Both Presidents Bush were not “movement conservatives’ as Rush likes to call them. However, both Presidents Bush were able to get the endorsement of the conservative elites.

The endorsements of Mitt Romney by well-known conservative leaders William F. Buckley (thru NRO), Paul Weyrich, David Keene, and Bob Jones III have baffled me. Most of us have seen the articles posted here about Mitt, along with links to YouTube videos of the Romney flip-flops, etc. Romney isn’t really a conservative; he is a liberal to moderate Rockefeller Republican. Why are all these conservative icons endorsing Willard? My theory is that President Bush (43) has anointed Willard as his successor with the blessing of President Bush (41). President Bush (41) was probably pals with Willard’s father, George Romney (interesting read). The tip-off came when Willard gave his Mormon speech at the GHWB Library. With a White House blessing comes the gentle arm-twisting of conservative leaders, such as, Buckley, Weyrich, Keene, Jones, and Limbaugh. How can you say no to the White House?

In addition to anointing the favored candidate, the White House can also use its influence to knock out candidates it really dislikes. How does this happen? I can’t say for sure. It could be someone on the president’s staff having dinner with a media executive or background discussions with reporters. The president also controls the RNC and can make things happen using the party as cover.

The prime targets of White House wrath would be candidates they have crossed swords with on one or more issues. If one of the president’s senior advisors (Karl Rove) told you (Tom Tancredo) never to “darken the door” of the White House again (May 13, 2002) due to your stance on illegal immigration, I think that qualifies as crossing swords. If you (Duncan Hunter) get a bill passed to build a border fence and co-sponsor a bill to free two border patrol agents wrongly convicted by one of the president’s old pals you’re in deep trouble.

How would a Republican presidential candidate feel the wrath of the White House? I’ll throw out a few ideas. I’ve used the term “blackballed” a few times on this forum to describe the situation. Could the RNC quietly tell state party officials and contributors not to help several candidates because their position on immigration is hurting the party? This would make it hard to get support at the state level, such as access to donor lists and volunteers. Remember, Duncan Hunter said, “Don’t complain, work harder”. His motto may apply to more then just his lack of exposure in the debates. His campaign may be getting the cold shoulder straight from the top at the RNC.

In the debates themselves, would the “willing accomplices in the media” be happy to keep the number of questions to candidates that opposed amnesty to a minimum? Many of us complained that Hunter along with Tancredo received far fewer questions in the debates then their rivals. If the candidate doesn’t drop out is the next step to exclude him from a debate based on low poll numbers? This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy since the candidates were ignored in previous debates. Keep in mind that Roger Ailes (Fox News) is a friend of both Rush and Rudy.

We know that deep down the president wanted to pass the amnesty bill. Rush said that “powerful forces” sent people to “get his mind right” about immigration. Rush didn’t buckle to the pressure then, but maybe now feels he owes the president, Karl Rove and his idols in the “conservative movement” a favor. Maybe that’s why he never mentioned Tom Tancredo’s name and only mentioned Duncan Hunter’s name a couple of times. Rush never spoke up about the unequal treatment the conservative candidates received during the debates. Rush was also silent about ABC and Fox excluding Duncan Hunter from the debates. As one poster on another thread stated, “Rush treated them like Terri Schiavo”. Fred is harder to marginalize since he is a TV/movie star and more conservative then the remainder of the pack. Since Fred was the only candidate remaining with anything close to conservative credentials, he eventually said something positive about him. However, in the same breath he will usually say nice things about Willard. The bottom line is that Rush has been in the tank for Willard all along. I don’t know if he owes the president a favor or if its loyalty to a friend and mentor (William F. Buckley) to back Willard. The problem is that Rush, along with Ann Coulter and other conservative leaders lose credibility when they try to tell us a candidate is conservative when they are not.

The other problem(s) for Willard and Rush are the remaining candidates. Even though Rudy is an acquaintance from Rush’s days in NYC he can continue to not mention him. Besides, it would be hard to sell Rudy to his audience. If you can’t marginalize them by ignoring them, you attack them. It’s easy for Rush to attack McCain since he has done it before on many issues. Not that McCain doesn’t deserve being attacked over amnesty, the gang of fourteen and opposing tax cuts. It is also easy for Rush to attack Huckabee. Mick Huckabee can be portrayed as a cross between Gomer Pyle and Forest Gump. Sometimes the Huckster makes it all too easy.

Mike Huckabee is the joker in the deck. The one person they didn’t count on emerging from the pack. No one could see him coming except a few Freepers that noticed this thread. Mike Huckabee is reliably pro-life, pro-gun and anti homosexual agenda. That’s more then can be said about Willard. If Hunter and Thompson go the way of Tancredo, it might be worth climbing on to the Huckabee bandwagon, warts and all. Besides it would make great blowback for Bush Inc., and the conservative and media elites, including Rush, for trying to sell us Willard packaged as shinola.

Duncan Hunter first, Fred Thompson second and Huck third. After that, I don’t care. If the conservative elites had backed Duncan Hunter from the beginning, we wouldn’t be here right now. At this point it might be worth McCain or Huckabee getting the nomination just to see Rush and the conservative elites have a collective fit. If Willard isn’t the nominee, where can they go? Whom are they going to vote for?

[Grizzled Bear]

Ignore the foolish my FRiend.

Too many Republicans complain about GW's globalist actions (open borders and sucking up to the Democrats) but want to replace him with more of the same.

Some learn by listening. Some learn by observing. Some have to piss on the electric fence for themselves (and some must do so more than once).

[SoCalPol]

Rush is a typical rich country club Republican from a family who are a big fish in a little pond.

Rush is not 1/8th the man Hunter is.
Hunter from a blue collar family and worked himself up.
A war vet and major career in Congress.
His son 3 tours in current war and Marine Capt.
Hunter also married to same wife vs. Rush’s 3 failed marriages