Could Iowa Conservatives Undermine GOP in 2012?

"We've gone so far to the social right, particularly in caucus attendees, that unless you meet certain litmus tests you have a very difficult time competing in Iowa," said Doug Gross, the party's 2002 gubernatorial nominee. "I think you'll have some candidates who won't compete here unless they perceive that's somehow changed."

"I would not encourage a moderate to come right now and participate in the caucuses," Roederer said. "It is a danger for the party, and it is a danger for the future of the caucuses."

Or as conservative state Rep. Christopher Rants put it: "Huckabee won the caucuses, but he couldn't go the distance. Maybe some people will bypass Iowa."

Of course, candidates who meet the standard laid down by social conservatives seem eager to swoop into the state. Later this week, 2008 caucus winner Mike Huckabee will hold events in the state as part of a book tour, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has planned appearances a couple of days later.

Both are targeting those social conservatives, a competition that's intensified with the emergence of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin was little known in Iowa until last summer, when she was named presidential candidate John McCain's running mate. She drew big crowds at events in several Iowa cities in the last six weeks of the campaign.

"She connected with a lot of people," Roederer said. "The person who has to be the most concerned is Huckabee. He was the only social conservative back then."

In a telephone interview, Huckabee played down speculation that he was starting early in Iowa due to conservative pressure from Palin.

Today's Republican Party has gone stupid. They think they must be liberal to win. If they are going to be liberal, they might as well call themselves dimocrats. If they are going to appear as liberal, socialist, leftists as dimocrats, then why have a second party? They would be just a carbon copy of the Marxists. People would just say, well there is no difference, so we might as well just vote for the Dimocrats as they are in power anyway. These idiots still do not know why they lost the election. They listen to the mainstream media, fall for the BS they spout, and shoot themselves in the foot. I quit the party a few years back. I am sick of them. I voted for McCain only because of Palin, otherwise, I would have just stayed home. I did not agree with McCain on nearly all his positions. He supported nothing that I supported. He was an idiot and fool. He continues to prove that every time he opens his mouth. His day is done. He needs to retire and take most of the RINOs in the republican senate with him. Their stupidity is the reason they are where they are today, and their inability to grasp it only means they will remain out of power for decades to come.

“However, Iowa is a podunk state that does not deserve the voice it gets in elections.”

I get tired of uninformed people who say stupid things like this. Have you ever been to Iowa? I thought not.

Usually these comments are from media people from large East Coast cities, who have only been within 50 miles of either coast.

Many people are jealous of the attention that our state gets in the political process. Sometimes I get sick of it myself.

The value that our state (and other small states early in the process); is to get the candidates out in front of people face to face. Meeting people face to face and answering questions is a very valuable part of selecting candidates.We are a test lab.

We DON'T select the candidates for any other state. We just start the winnowing process; nothing more. If our state is totally out of step, then our selections will be overruled by other states, later in the process. If a good candidate doesn't do well here, they will do well later down the road.

I posted this in my blog today and started creating the website yesterday.

Have all the Republicans thrown their spine out the window?

The Republicans just don’t get it. Why are they losing seats? Why are WE losing representation? Simple, the Republicans have thrown away the Conservative platform, they run as Conservatives and when elected they govern like Democrats. The Right is staying home and allowing the left to drive us further down in hopes that the Republicans will come to their senses. It ain’t happenin.

The Republicans are making deals in DC as to who is going to be in charge and what do we get? Another RINO…. Promising leadership positions for a vote, pork, patronage etc…. They are giving away the store just like the Democrats and who is paying? We are.

When the time was right to help this economy and expose who was at fault, why this economic collapse is happening, the Republicans hid behind a rock and voted to spend almost a trillion dollars to “Bail Out” the economy? Over 80% of the people were and are against this. But, who cares? They don’t

The leadership at the RNC is licking their wounds trying to figure out what happened. This alone should tell you that we no longer have anyone with a clue. They want to get rid of the Reagan era and usher in a new big government agenda and duplicate the Democrats after all the Democrats are winning right? My God, I could go into a rant listing everything they they have done and continue to do wrong. First, have all the Republicans throw their spine out the window?
McCain? Where was he? He should have been the leader to stand up and say NO! Instead he paused his campaign and ran to DC to say, Yes, we need to do this and do it now? That was when he lost the election. The Republican candidates including McCain sat back and allowed the Democrats paint them with a broad brush, blamed them for everything and NO ONE fought back. When Palin attempted to they said she had gone rogue on them. Now it is her fault we lost. Please, if it wasn’t for her the O man would have swept every state.

So how do we get the Republican Party back? How do we steer this ship that uses to small of a rudder like the Titanic? Simple, we install a new larger rudder. We need to turn this shipwreck back on course to take back and save this country from the socialist direction we are headed.

The people in this country and the Republican Party do not realize the power they have, the real election is in the Primary. The Primary is where election are won and lost. We have been fed the fact that who ever the “Party” endorses is the candidate to vote for. So for years we have had to choose between the lesser of two evils. I personally am sick of it. I am tired of voting for evil no matter how lesser they are from the Democrat opponent. So do we have to sit back and allow the Republican leadership tell us who to vote for? NO, we need to tell them the type of candidate and leader we are looking for. The days of backroom deals and it’s your turn to run have got to end. A new era is beginning and “The People” are back in charge, the leadership from the President on down have thrown us overboard for political expediency, political correctness and their addiction to our money.

We need to organize at the grass roots level in every state starting with the states that have a RINO representing them in Congress. Now is the time to look for the cream of the crop in a candidate that can and will run in a Primary against them in 2010. Let them know we are coming and we are coming to take this Party and Country back and right this sinking ship.

The Republican leadership doesn’t have a clue, we do and we will take over from here. Thanks for your effort but you have failed us for the last time and it is time to change. Yes we can.

This is the page on the website I just started http://www.primarychallenge.org/PrimaryChallenge2009-10.html . How can you help? Get a hold of all the Conservative and Right leaning writers, blogs, forums and talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingrahm, Boortz, Beck etc…. We need to get people like Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter talking about this. They all complain about the direction of the Republicans, well here is their chance to help effectively. We need a media contact list to get ahold of the people above and start building chapter in each state.

This is the beginning, just the beginning but if you are concerned as all of us are with the direction of this country, then jump in with your feedback, advice and be a part of this.

http://www.redcounty.com/erie/2008/11/have-all-the-republicans-throw/

“He was just meant to block Romney from winning, and give cover for McCain. Say what you want, but Romney is way more conservative and a team player than McCain has ever been and would have been a much better candidate. With him at the top, and Palin as VP, I bet they would have won.”

This is all true IMHO.
OTOH, the 36% that voted for Huckabee scored very high on “I have to vote for someone who shares my religious values”. The Iowa caucus was all about the religious voters going for the ‘good Christian’ Huckabee over that scary rich Mormon. I knew full well the CLusterhuck would deliver the nomination to McCain (if he won NH, which he did), but the Iowa voters were too caught in their own bubble to notice.

(And please, dont bring up the Romney is a RINO stuff, because we ALL know that Huckster was even more liberal than Romney on fiscal, defense, education, tax and spend, and other matters. Neither was perfect. Romney lost not other that but over the mormon thingee.)

Truly a sad day for the GOP, and it is perhaps God’s comeuppance that such an act of prejudice gave the first black man with a muslim name in the White House. Maybe a message to US???

MAYBE NEXT TIME we’ll be a wee bit more open-minded about the Mormon thing ... ya THINK??!?

“I don’t see how you can be a social conservative with that kind of caveat. Homosexuality is WRONG, and children should be taught that it’s WRONG.”

Adultery is wrong, but do you have to make it illegal? There’s a lot more other stuff I am worried about my kids doing besides that stuff.

I’m a social conservative, and I support traditional marriage, but we need to knock off the gay-bashing. They are who they are and they wont change no matter how you feel about it. The morality of such acts is not a matter for govt to interfere with, if you believe in limited got and freedom. Live and let live.

Mainer said: “I’m pro-life, pro-school prayer, pro-second amendment. I believe in God. I also don’t have a problem with adults engaging in consensual activities. So am I a social conservative or not? “ I am too, and I would say ‘yes’.

Social conservatives believe in the social order and in maintaining traditional values.

I think the problem is this. You might believe it is okay for adults to engage in consensual activities, but where it crosses the line for many conservatives is having the State putting the moral stamp of approval on it by giving it legal status (gay marriage). That is the same argument as saying “I believe abortion is wrong, but it should be legal”.

Right or wrong, once it is made legal, in many people’s minds it is now moral (those that don’t use the Bible as their moral compass). Once it is perceived as legal and therefore moral, then that many more people will choose to participate who might have refrained before, and will continue to agitate for the right to teach children & propagandize in the media about a lifestyle that is repellant to the majority in our society. So I would say having the State step in and grant a right to marriage to a group that actually has no right to marriage, is an example of the State being anything BUT limited and instead trampling on the rights of most of us.

To the question, do you have to make adultery illegal, the answer is no because there is not a group of people who call themselves “adulterers” who have painted themselves as victims and are agitating for special rights to be granted to themselves, to have special provisions in the law made to advance their status as a group, to teach in public schools that adultery is a great thing, etc.

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