Congressman Miller is still the only Catholic on a Republican presidential ticket to this day.
You know you’re getting old when you can remember when George Will was relevant.
To be fair, there is awful lot to loath about George Will. I’m not certain how he even makes it into the conservative fold.
Who's seat is it George? (hint: Ted Kennedy)
I have never liked George Will, he has been the token fake Conservative for ABC News as long as I can remember.
Apologies Sir!
The Palin worshipping crowd needs to read this again and again until they get it:
The more attention Palin receives, the fewer Americans consider her presidential timber. The latest Post-ABC News poll shows that 71 percent of Americans -- including 52 percent of Republicans -- think she is not qualified to be president.
John McCain, at his best, is no Barry Goldwater. If you think Sarah Palin bears any relationship whatever to Bill Miller...you’re simply not paying attention. And a year after the Kennedy assassination, it was unlikely that anyone was going to beat LBJ, and I think frankly even Goldwater knew it.
Maybe obscure figures like Sargent Shriver, Geraldine Ferraro, and William Miller were exceptions. Agnew, because of scandal, and Cheney, because of health reasons, may also be exceptions, but it would be surprising if the thought of running for President hadn't entered Palin's mind at one point.
**Yet Sarah Palin, who with 17 months remaining in her single term as Alaska’s governor quit the only serious office she has ever held, is obsessively discussed as a possible candidate in 2012. Why? She is not going to be president and will not be the Republican nominee unless the party wants to lose at least 44 states**
Well, Obama won with less experience in all 57 states, so why be h8tin’ on Sarah, George?
First, George Will endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President last election cycle. He wrote several columns claiming Giuliani to be the most Conservative of all candidates running. Besides the fact that Rudy Giuliani is obviously not a Conservative, this is yet more evidence that the echo chamber in Washington and New York is loud enough to deafen even Conservative ears like Will's and Hannity’s to the actual sympathies of the Conservative Majority on the GOP side, most of whom are not found in Washington D.C. or Gotham.
Rudy Giuliani garnered about 1% of the GOP vote (his own party), and lost even his home state. This is Will's idea of a candidate best suited to defeat Barack Obama. I submit to you that the answer to how a GOP candidate wins a national election will not be found by someone who cannot name ten NASCAR drivers, and who (as Will has) openly mocks the idea of having as an asset on candidates'’ resumes’ the governing of less densely populated states. The GOP cannot win without those states, and no state is easy to govern.
Second, Will has mentioned, and ridiculed, Sarah Palin on his show on almost every Sunday since the election, and has written a litany of columns dismissing her as a potential Presidential candidate. Why, I ask, does a not-serious candidate and non-contender warrant so much of Will's attention? I submit to you it is not because Will genuinely believes she's can't win - it is that he fears she can (and might) win. Palin is a populist - the antithesis of what Will wants in a Republican candidate. In this column and many previous, Will has shown an open contempt for grassroots Conservatives and populist uprisings. Remember, this is the same columnist who once lambasted Ronald Reagan for playing the role of populist.
Third, his memory is selective on the success of populist uprisings. Reagan won as a result of a populist uprising, an uprising Will mocked as it was happening. Carter, as Will indicated, was a result of an uprising against the GOP because of Nixon. And what, if not a populist uprising, was the tidal wave that blindly swept Barack Obama into the Oval Office? No, George Will is being purposefully selective here with his history; Populism has produced three of the past six Presidents, and if Ross Perot had stayed in the race in 1992, it would have propelled a third-party candidate and thus fourth populist favorite into the White House.
George Will epitomizes the Country Club Republican - the type of GOP pundit who is embarrassed by the mispronunciation of the word “nuclear,” and who has no patience for working-class rhetoric. He wants an aged Moderate - a fiscal Libertarian with no connection whatsoever to Social issues who won't mispronounce words, and who wouldn't be caught photographed in blue jeans.
The man who favored Ford, GHW Bush, Dole, and Giuliani does not have an adequate track record at predicting electability. And though I believe he is worthy of respect for his unapologetic defense of basic Conservative principles throughout the years, he makes for a lousy prophet of the electorate.
The simple truth is that the Moderates who vote in 2012 will go solidly for Obama no matter who we put forward. That is a painful, brutal truth that I think even many Freepers have to wake-up to. We can pretend the photogenic speech-giver enjoying unanimously positive press will lose the most easily swayed voters in America, the Moderates; but it is pure fantasy to think that anyone we put-up on the GOP side is going to win more of the Moderate voters than a Democrat with personal appeal. Our only chance for unseating the incumbent Obama is near-100% turnout on the GOP side - in other words, our pathway to victory lies in exactly the kind of populist uprising Will so detests.
Elitist Dumb Bastard
btrl