#2. Newt is delusional....
That is probably so, but he is right on this. You cannot, repeat cannot, win a national election with a far right or far left candidate. Obama fooled the moderate indy electorate into thinking he was a centrist, so he got the leftist vote and the moderate vote just as Clinton did. Reagan and the Bushes got the conservative vote and the centrist vote. That is the formula for winning elections. A Palin, DeMint or similar candidate faces an almost impossible handicap to win the Presidency.
I will agree you have to win the middle, but becoming the opposition, for power only is worthless, you may win but we all lose in the end.
Wrong.
To be right on this we’d have to accept the Clintonian attack phrase of “right wing” which places Hoffman’s positions as well as our own as extreme. This is not the case.
Bush 41 got the conservative vote by riding Reagan’s coattails. You left out the part where he lost because he betrayed conservatives. Bush 43 learned from daddy’s mistakes. He emphasized conservative values and kept departures from that philosophy low key. He won a second term. THEN he betrayed us openly. You saw the fall out in the ‘06 and ‘08 elections. Reagan is the ONLY one who ran as a conservative, won as a conservative, tried to govern as a conservative although he made his mistakes. And the only one who produced coattails for the next GOP candidate because of it. He was labeled extreme, too old and senile by even members of his own party.
To end, it was Newt himself that ecame one of the Republicans that has wanted to bury Reagan in the past. Instead he spends his days with Sharpton, Pelosi, AL Gore and Hillary. The man’s day as an authority on conservatism and it’s politics is done.
How can you say that Reagan could get elected but Palin cannot? She is not some far right wacko, out there on the extreme edge at all, whatever other criticisms people have about her.
Oh, please. John Kerry very nearly pulled it off in 2004, and Obama's success speaks for itself. They were two of the most far-left members of the Senate.
Do you really believe that Palin and DeMint are so “far right” of the populace in general? Which issue(s) would Palin and Demint advocate that would repulse the majority of American voters?
You are absolutely wrong. The largest plurality, forty percent of the electorate, describe themselves as conservative, and I can guarantee you that to a person they are more conservative than any current national figures, including Palin and DeMint. These two are centrist, but just happen to come closer to conservative than most other politicians.