Posted on 01/31/2008 8:06:27 AM PST by SmithL
Simi Valley -- Florida was big. Florida Republicans not only went for John McCain over Mitt Romney, but also, when you add the McCain vote (36 percent) to the now-withdrawn Rudy Giuliani vote (15 percent), you see a shift: A majority of Republican voters are straying outside the ever-pure conservative base. While conservative talk show hosts and a slice of the GOP base demand all-or-nothing from GOP candidates, Republican voters in general clearly understand that, in a democracy, the all-or-nothing equation has only one sure outcome: You get nothing.
Especially when your party does not represent the majority of voters.
In his gracious victory speech Tuesday night, Sen. McCain told Team Romney that "the margin that separated us tonight surely isn't big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair."
Wednesday night's CNN-hosted Republican presidential candidates' debate was more combative. At the heart of it lies a divide on how far a party should go. Asked which type of Supreme Court justices he would nominate, McCain picked two of President Bush's nominees, John Roberts and Sam Alito.
Romney then trumped McCain's mention of Roberts and Alito by adding two more combative conservative picks, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Once again, Romney was conservative squared.
Looking on were Republicans who don't want to lose their iron grip on the GOP. Jon Fleischman, publisher of the influential conservative blog, the Flash Report, told me. Romney has to "define this race as a conservative versus a moderate" race. And for Fleischman, only the most conservative conservative wins.
But doesn't Romney have to appeal to centrists? I asked Romney California campaign Chairman Tony Strickland before the debate. Strickland countered that Romney does appeal to voters outside the GOP. "He was governor of Massachusetts, which is not exactly a bastion of conservatism,"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Republican voters in general clearly understand... not a damn thing outside what is spoon-fed them from CNN.
There fixed it.
The media has been pimping Juan for quite some time.
Very little attention has been given to Mitt.
I think too many people in the race to start with hurt the base.
It seems to me, the media has been in control of the GOP.
If you tell a lie over and over and over...eventually people believe it.
Welcome to BRAVE NEW WORLD
Even if people believe that Mitt is an insincere conservative, I hope Republicans come out in droves and vote for him. At least it would wipe the smirk off the face of the MSM for a little while.
“Republican voters in general clearly understand that, in a democracy, the all-or-nothing equation has only one sure outcome: You get nothing.” Yea, so you compromise and you get the same result, i.e. nothing but the godless Marxist Global agenda woven into your policy decisions. This path will lead to further decline and ultimately the only solution to the “cold” culture war will be to take it “hot” or to give up altogether. You can’t compromise with evil endlessly that you don’t at some point become part of the evil itself and that path leads only to shameful death of the soul.
Huh????
The politics of voting against a candidate is just as unproductive as partisan voting. Vote your conscience. If you are a conservative, vote for a conservative, regardless of your or their party registration, As we've all clearly seen in California, voting for a liberal to achieve partisan victory elects a liberal.
Here we go again. The Conservatives are now the RINOs.
I keep waiting for the Democrats to become “centrists.”
There it is in a simple nutshell.
The RNC and the GOP K street boys have wanted to marginalize the conservatives for some time now so that they can get on with the agenda.
I’m certain that they thought that they were a bit farther along the last year or so, what with all of the creeping big spending, entitlement bills being passed and signed, and so they went for the home run - McCain/Kennedy amnesty and the permanent changing of America into a multi cultural part of a Global entity that needs to allow the free flow of inexpensive labor and manufacturing wherever it is best utilized.
Now this does indeed lower most to the lowest common denominator, but that is of little concern to any of the people who believe that nationalism is secondary to the realignment of order being crammed down our throats.
And it is.
Why, McCain was furious when a college proposed a bill to make English the national language.
Rove had stated regarding the immigration bills that, “Conservatives will follow” and he was correct, but premature.
This election will be proof to the GOP elite that they no longer need to factor in the conservatives, especially if they can get some of the new hispanic voters with more socialist give aways that are certain to follow.
We have been marginalized if McCain is nominated, and we had best deal with that reality.
I will not vote for McCain over anyone at all.
I am seeing the indications of a 57 seat Senate and a stronger democrat seating in the house and that is enough to pass just about anything that hillary wants.
Should the democrats be obtuse enough to nominate Obama - which I do not predict - then the paradigm is changed, because, unlike so many starry eyed forecasters, I believe that Obama can be handily beaten in the general, due to a number of intrinsic factors.
IMO, the GOP learned absolutely nothing from 06, seeing it as more or less a setback or speed bump to their plans, but nothing that has caused them to change plans.
So one group or the other is wrong. - Either the GOP McCain/Kennedy types can be ascendant in this country without us, or they cannot.
They can be, and will be, but only if we let them.
In fact, McCain would not rule out signing an amnesty bill, resorting to mumbling nonsense at the pointed question.
It is up to us to understand this dynamic being played out and to plan for it rather than deny that this clear trend, does in fact, exist.
This is it, in a nutshell:
A majority of Republican voters are straying outside the ever-pure conservative base. While conservative talk show hosts and a slice of the GOP base demand all-or-nothing from GOP candidates, Republican voters in general clearly understand that, in a democracy, the all-or-nothing equation has only one sure outcome: You get nothing.
The combination of Liberal Republicans and True Republicans who have been conviced by the Media that a Conservative cannot win has left us with this mess!
You nailed it.
This is why this election cycle has been so frustrating. The battle is not between Republicans and Democrats. It is within our own party.
The Moderates and Liberals are both working to marginalize Conservatives.
I will not vote for McCain over anyone at all.
Agreed. McCain's nomination would tell me that cynicism, political oppurtunism and self-aggrandizement were now the standard operating procedures of the party of Ronald Reagan. It would tell me that continuing to support the GOP is ultimately a waste of time, and if both parties were now in the business of buying votes, wouldn't I be (at least in the short run) better supporting the democrats who'd buy my vote at a higher price???
This is what a McCain nomination will signal to me.
Wrong. Some people just don’t know, and are TOLD McCain and Giuliani are conservatives and vote that way.
Duh! Since there isn't an "ever-pure conservative" candidate, or much of a conservative for that matter, Republicans aren't given a choice. Our "choices" were fed to us at the 2004 Convention with Rudy911, McKeating, and SchwarzenKennedy and they were nurtured and supported by the RNC from that time forward.
Great post.
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