Just what I have been thinking ever since the GOP primary ended for all practical purposes when Fred, the last reasonably conservative candidate in the race, was forced out by failing finances and his own lack of energy and enthusiasm for the race. Fred may not have won over Obama or Hillary if he had been nominated but at least he would have given the general voters a clear choice, which is something that won't be nearly that clear with McCain as the nominee.
Somehow the conservative majority of the GOP has to find and back several truly conservative candidates for the 2012 primaries who can attract both GOP primary voters and general election voters in November, including a large segment of the middle ground independents. If we don't, as a close observer of national politics for the past 50-plus years I predict that the GOP will become stuck in the position of being the perpetual minority party within the next two election cycles.
He did NOT have “failing finances”. He had moles in his staff and he couldn’t root them out.
“Somehow the conservative majority of the GOP has to find and back several truly conservative candidates for the 2012 primaries who can attract both GOP primary voters and general election voters in November, including a large segment of the middle ground independents. If we don’t, as a close observer of national politics for the past 50-plus years I predict that the GOP will become stuck in the position of being the perpetual minority party within the next two election cycles”
Take a moment to reconsider the conondrum you have described in the above paragraph.
John McCain stands a fighting chance of beating both Obama and Hillary precisely because he has the power to attract [in your very words] “a large segment of the middle ground independents”. And he attracts those “independents” because they are, by nature, wishy-washy people unable to make up their minds or take a stand. They are the “waving wheat” voters of America, bending to and fro from one election to the next, driven by the the prevailing “political winds”.
Again, using your very words, “truly conservative candidates” would have scared away the “waving wheats”, particulary as the media tries to whip up the winds of change for “the first black president” or “the first woman president”. At least in this election cycle. as “the Republican brand”, per se, is going to be a difficult sell this November. Our prospects for Congress - not very good - should give pause for thought insofar as that goes.
Even though I don’t care for him myself, Mr. McCain is poised to be a better pitchman for that brand than the other guys would have been (I voted for Romney in my state’s primary, though I would rather have supported Tom Tancredo, or Fred Thompson). In hindsight, I should have recognized Romney as a loser - like it or not, his being Mormon will probably forever deny him presidential office. The country truly ain’t ready for that just yet. (Aside, are we ready for an Islamic president? If it’s not improper to ask that, are we ready for a black one?)
You’re right about the GOP: they acted like they were the “minority party” even when they were the MAJORITY one! Perhaps someday they’ll learn, but I doubt I’ll live to see it.
And you’re also right that the time is NOW to start looking for “conserative timber” for 2012. But I ask: who is there? And, of “who there is”, which of them can be persuaded to give it a shot? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Jim Robinson opened this thread. If you’re reading, Jim, I’ll ask directly:
Look around you (out in Fresno). How does the place look today, vis-a-vis how it looked thirty years ago? Vis-a-vis FIFTEEN years ago? I think you’d have to say that things look pretty different. What has changed are not only the faces around you, but the faces of demographics and political reality.
And it’s changing many other places, too. The United States of America that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980, DOESN’T EXIST ANY MORE. It has changed that much, and with those changes, have come a new political environment.
John McCain is not causing those changes.
The reason he is the Republican nominee this year, is BECAUSE OF those changes.
We had better learn to adapt to them. Or, as epow asserts, we are doomed to become the perpetual minority party.
- John
I don't fully believe the Republican Party will make it to 2012. I see absolutely nothing from Juan that is a definitive indication that the is anything other than a democrat playing off on the war. The only reason he has some appearance of being slightly better than hildabeast or hussein is that they are respectively a globalizing Marxist-Leninist and an America-hating stealth Islamist.
But that is not the point and I do not believe it ever was. So, what is the real impetus behind the MSM and hidden agendas push for MxCain to be President?
Good question. Hint... what is the one event that can bring about the absolute end of America as we know it?
Juan will bring us amnesty which will in the not-so-long term produce about 120 million illiterate to semi-illiterate third world invaders that were born and raised in socialist to near communist countries. They will be amnestied citizens and will vote for whatever Democrat promises the biggest government handout. At that point Judicial appointments, Right to life, Second Amendment, etc, in the context of election issues will mean absolutely nothing.