Posted on 04/24/2008 9:04:17 AM PDT by Between the Lines
How a man treats his family is a window into his character. Alan Keyes is a narcissist like Bill Clinton. It's all about him. Daughter becomes a PR problem, dump her. Ever wonder why he hasn't run for dog catcher, or Mayor? It's because his foolish narcissism compels him to start at the top with his first elective office.
I seriously encourage the Constitution party to use the following strategy in the election. It is a strategy that should not be objectionable to them, but should yield far better than normal results.
Importantly, it is *not* hypocritical.
To start with, the party should “bullet list” its platform agenda. It may have 30 or 40 major ideas it wants to advance.
Second, it should poll the public *about* these individual platform items, to determine what the TOP 10 items are, that the Constitutional party advocates, and that the public also strongly supports.
Then, the most important thing: emphasize to the public *both* what you and *they* want, in the format of the Republican “Contract With America”. In a way, it will look much like the 10 Commandments, but will be campaign platform items that are popular with the public.
This does several impressive things. First and foremost, it is a clear and unambiguous message. No waffling, no confusion, no doublespeak. It is the guidon of the Constitution party.
Second, it catches their eye, because most of the public will already agree with it. It will say to them that the Constitution party is very mainstream and should be paid attention to. That it is a reasonable alternative to the two old parties.
Third, it IN NO WAY compromises your other platform items. You still believe in the rest, and will tell people if they ask. But for the time being, you want to give the people what the people want—FIRST.
You message is short and sweet and clear as a bell. As such it will penetrate the fog and haze of elections. People on the street will actually have some idea of what the Constitutional party stands for.
And it will bring in votes and new members.
Now that being said, a presidential candidate is the *last* candidate to elect, not the first. I would propose putting your resources behind congressional candidates in districts where the incumbent is weak. Neither of the big two candidates will feel as threatened by a Constitution candidate as they would by each other.
If Constitution party candidates can get elected to a bare minimum of six seats in the US House, it will be in a position to wheel and deal to advance its agenda. It can do this by casting the deciding vote between the two major parties. If they want the vote of the bloc, then they have to give the bloc something in return.
Ironically, this is not duplicitous, because there are many things voted on in congress that the Constitution party doesn’t really care about. So they can sell their deciding vote to whichever of the major parties is the winning bidder.
These are the two things that would give the Constitution party the boost it needs to win the power it has to have to advance its agenda.
alan who?
It won’t be Hitler or the black militant so I guess it will be the old man.
Regardless of Jim's stated principles of the forum, too many here view this as a GOP forum, in the mistaken belief that the GOP is their only hope for "conservative" governance.
I am pretty fed up with the "party system", but it is the way it is. Personally, at this stage of my life, I will support a third party candidate, only in the hopes of starting a grass roots movement with the ever dimming hope that we will get back to "Constitutional Conservatism".
Keyes won’t even get a hundred thousand votes. He’s a loon and an opportunist.
Well we agree on what the choices are if you want to have some influence. You are focusing on background, which I agree is important, but not as importat as the future. What actions, good and bad, can we expect from the three candidates. McCain would be best on Iraq, best on judicial appointments, best on budget restraint. He would by better on cultural issues. We won't be worrying about a one time 10% "reperations tax" under McCain. We may worry about it under Obama or Hillary.
Thus, warts and all McCain is the best of the non-vanity candidates.
If you still have not adjusted to the mental concept of voting for the "lesser of two evils" and want to cast a protest vote Keys and the Constitution Party will do just find. I have no problem with that, only if it is a close election that Obama ends up winning I would feel bad for enabling him..
The Republican Party enabled him by giving us McCain as our only choice.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007494/posts
Constitution Party stunner: Chuck Baldwin KOs firebrand Alan Keyes
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Thank you for the update and the link!
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