Posted on 04/27/2008 1:08:39 PM PDT by The_Republican
While the eyes of the political world were focused on Pennsylvania last week, I played hooky for a day at the invitation of the Lee County Library and bumped into a story as revealing in its way as the latest round in the struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Among other things, it explains why John McCain found it useful to spend last week touring poverty-stricken areas in the South, where Republicans rarely go.
On the same day that Pennsylvanians gave Clinton a victory that still left unclear who will eventually be the Democratic nominee, voters in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District failed to settle who will fill the seat left vacant when Republican incumbent Roger Wicker was appointed to the Senate.
The seat has belonged to the GOP ever since the retirement of the legendary Jamie Whitten, a conservative Democrat, who held it for 53 years. Wicker succeeded him in 1994 and established a Whitten-like hold on the district, winning with 79 percent and 66 percent of the vote in the last two elections. President Bush carried it easily in both his races too.
And yet, the Republican hopeful in last Tuesday's special election, Greg Davis, has been forced into a runoff on May 13 against Democrat Travis Childers. Childers actually led 49 percent to 46 percent and came within 400 votes of a first-round majority that would have sent him to Congress. Four other candidates diverted just enough votes to force the runoff.
As a mayor and former state representative from the district's largest population county, Davis was the early favorite. He had the endorsement of Gov. Haley Barbour, Sen. Thad Cochran, Wicker and the man Wicker replaced, Trent Lott.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
I am always amused when liberals give Republicans advise. You know they are only looking at their self interest.
Replace McCain?
Grow a pair of testicles?
Stop acting like Democraps?
Nay, the GOP needs a new candidate for which I will vote. I will vote for local offices and the Congress. I will not cast a vote for McCain. This is the time and place for me to stand my ground. I will do so.
LOL! When I saw the author was David Broder, I went straight to the comments...no need to read anything he has to say.
This area has undergone a big change in recent years, because of folks moving out of Memphis to the 'burbs'. It's beginning to resemble Northern Virginia, in that regard.
If the GOP doesn’t get a new candidate I think it will face the formation of a strong third party.
My M.O. too. Comments trump Broder always.
AV
What better strategy could there be than Clinton or Obama for President.
“The message to Republicans could not be plainer: In a time when the public has soured on President Bush and the GOP, the old appeals are just not enough. To have a chance, Republican candidates have to expand their reach and reframe their message”
Jorge abandoned “the same old appeals” as soon his he was sworn in the first time. Then, 9/11 came along and all that followed served to mask what he was doing other than the war on terror.
The red states re-elected him in 2004, and he said he had political capital and he intended to spend it. Well, he’s spent it, or squandered it to be more accurate, and that’s what brought about the disaster of 2006: Jorge and Carlos brought it about with their Tex-Mex/country club Republican view of the USA that few Republicans actually share, and that served to demoralize part of the base.
The solution is to get back to a more conservative Republican agenda, but that seem pretty far off with McCain the almost accidental nominee. And he doesn’t understand much of anything, except he might be the beneficiary of Dems. who won’t vote for the black candidate, which he will instantly proclaim to be the return of the Reagan Democrats.
And Broder actually gets paid for writing his stuff?
The only way the RNC sells McCain to the South is if the ‘Rat nominee is black AND a communist AND a gun grabber AND a pro-abortion zealot.
...or else Hillary Clinton.
The headline is right. Here is the strategy:
* Win the wars in the Middle East quickly even if we have to use everything we have short of nuclear weapons.
* Pardon Ramos and Compean, the border patrolmen jailed for shooting an illegal alien drug smuggler.
* Support elimination of all regulatory and environmental barriers against the production and refinement of energy of all sorts: nuclear, oil, natural gas, coal, wind, etc.
* Support elimination of the income tax with the fair tax as Huckabee and others have proposed. Suspend taxes on motor fuels until the prices go down.
* Seal the borders as quickly as possible. Use Federal troops until the Border Patrol reaches the necessary manpower. Deport any and all illegals when caught by local police even for spitting on the sidewalk. End birthright citizenship.
* End the ethanol subsidy program immediately and let the ethanol producers compete in the free market with food producers for corn.
* Prevent the Pentagon and civilian agencies from outsourcing any purchase of materials and equipment from outside the United States.
* Eliminate any business deduction for salaries paid to foreign manufacturing workers for any company based in the United States and distributing in this country. Eliminate any depreciation deduction for foreign manufacturing facilities. (BTW, Canada and Mexico are as foreign as China and India.)
Any Presidential candidate who runs on such a platform will win not only the entire South but at least 40 states and over 55% of the vote.
Now the RNC is finally wising up and tying Childers to Pelosi.
That would suit me just fine. The GOP is yesterday's news.
What happens on the down ballot will be up to the local people district by district. The question will be: Will they be dumb and repeat the sucide of 2006? At the top, McCain will be able to fly over the south in a chopter and wave. That will be the extent of his campaigning in Dixie. My money is on barack mcgovern being such an unmitigated disaster that he will swing a few close races to us.
Now why would conservatives support the sellout party? I cant see the reason for doing the same ole thing election after election expecting a different result.That would be crazy.
But the dem nominee is. . . oh, never mind.
There is nothing wrong with "the old appeals." The prolem is inaction or even abandonment of the old appeals and the principles they were based on. I will probably vote Republican at the local level; but I will not be voting for McCain.
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