Get Involved. Support Free Republic.
Posted on 11/05/2011 10:52:15 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
DAYTONA BEACH -- At the Florida Tea Party Convention Saturday, you could find buttons calling for Marco Rubio to be on the presidential ticket, t-shirts declaring that Barack Obama has made communism cool again, and freeze-dried foods to last up to 25 years in case society collapses.
Scarce among the hundreds of conservative activists gathered in Daytona Beach? Any enthusiasm for Mitt Romney, the man widely expected to win the Republican presidential nomination.
“The party establishment has wanted Romney all along, and they’ve been pushing him on us,” lamented James Koll of Fort Dodge, Iowa, who said he would support a third-party or write-in a candidate before voting for Romney.
His brother, retiree Don Koll of The Villages in Central Florida, nodded in agreement.
“Some of these Republicans think they have our votes in the bag no matter what, but they don’t,” he said, complaining that no top-tier Republican candidates came to the tea party convention. “They’re turning their back on us, and they will pay a price.”
It’s one of the most critical questions facing Republicans determined to oust Obama: Is the president polarizing enough to energize the Republican base?
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
“I have a friend who listens to Savage and I tuned in again this past week, and I couldn’t make it to the first commercial. He’s everything people say Limbaugh is, but Limbaugh is vivid, fun, smart, and his show moves. Savage spent the whole section with this tortured logic showing how he was doing so well in the ratings while Limbaugh’s “were stagnant,” yet Limbaugh’s were much higher. Then he talked about his gay little dog. Who wants to hear that borefest?”
LOL!! I hear you. But Savage did have Cain on a month or so ago...and was really respectful to him. The fact that Cain went on that show tells me that Cain is taking his case to the fed-up portion of the base, and essentially telling them to support him and DEFINITELY not go Third Party of he (Cain) wins the nomination. It was a very good interview.
“Yeah but will the rest of the GOP AND independents vote for Cain over Obama?”
Yes...not an issue. They hated Reagan, but helped give him two LANDSLIDES. They may not be crazy about Cain, but they will take him over Romney.
We tried the “Democrat lite” route in 1996 and 2008. How did those two elections work for us?
Why can’t the Romney moderates come along? Even ask Romney to be VP. Conservatives are always the ones asked to compromise. Whether it be from liberal democrats to liberal Republicans. Put them in the box for once and make them decide what to do. If they must go Obama then so be it. It makes it even clearer who the traitors are. If we are working hard for more in the House and especially the Senate, we would still be gaining.
Why can’t the Romney moderates come along? Even ask Romney to be VP. Conservatives are always the ones asked to compromise. Whether it be from liberal democrats to liberal Republicans. Put them in the box for once and make them decide what to do. If they must go Obama then so be it. It makes it even clearer who the traitors are. If we are working hard for more in the House and especially the Senate, we would still be gaining.
I don’t understand some of the Freepers here. They say they want a common-sense plain-speaking candidate; they just don’t want him or her speaking too plainly - or simplistically.
For me, it is not a matter of semantics but trust. Palin and Cain are not Reaganesque communicators, but I can trust them to do the right thing. I trust Bachmann and Santorum as well. They all love this country which is the first priority.
But there was something else that Reagan had besides conservative conviction and communication skills. He had authenticity and likability, and Cain has that in spades.
And that's what you'd be doing by voting for Romney. Once you get through all of the lies that make up Romney's current positions one thing becomes VERY clear: Mitt Romney would be the most left wing Republican since Teddy Roosevelt to hold the office of the President.
Voting a progressive into the White House lops the head, arms, and legs off of the entire tea party/conservative movement.
Palin has the Reaganesque quality for sure. I fail to see it in Cain. I just don’t see him as being above average and that really came across in last night’s one on one debate.
I must have been watching a different debate from you. Newt was his usual impressive policy wonk self, patting himself on the back with every opportunity. Cain had broad policy outlines and a vision for everyone having ‘skin in the game’. He is likeable and does not have the long trail of baggage that Newt does. Cain would hire people like Newt for the details.
Everything Cain recommended pointed towards ridding the country of the liberal plantation. Improving the economy helps that along, versus Newt’s requirement for making the unemployed take training. If there are no jobs, for what are they training?
The TEA Party is the new establishment. Without them the GOP is done.
I understand where you’re coming from, but consider this also:
Zer0 has done damage, it’s true. But this is with Republicans being united against him. Imagine the greater damage he could have done without this opposition. Now think about a Myth Robbney presidency. He would be a near-0bama in philosophy, yet the opposition in Congress would be ONLY true-blue Tea Party Republicans. Imagine all the Romneycare-esque socialist legislation that will sail through under the new “bi-partisan” GOP.
Given the balance of those outcomes, if we continue to fill Congress with more GOP muscle, we may be better off with a Zer0 that Congress is willing to fight, instead of a socialist RINO who Congress has NO opposition - none from Dims because the agenda will align with theirs, little from a GOP reluctant to fight “one of our own”.
I continue to struggle with this. I hope we are able to get someone good nominated, but that hope is fading.
The GOP moderates will come along if the conservative wins the nomination. Until then they are welcome to support their guy just like we can support our guy. That’s why we have a primary election to ultimately decide this.
BUT in the general election.. will non-GOP independents come along and vote for a conservative? Right now I think those voters are up for grabs. Obama’s ratings among those key independents is very bad. So those voters are ripe for the picking. But they wont be automatic. The GOP will have to present a plan on how to fix unemployment, fix the budget, and fix the mortgage mess. Not sure if Cain’s ideas are going to win those voters over.
Now Reagan was a different breed. That guy even got moderate Democrats to vote for him. He was a leader, everyone trusted him, and only the far left disliked him. That type of candidate does not exist in the current GOP field.
Didn’t Reagan fight against the moderates for 15 years? He did not gain the independent/moderate votes by joining the moderates either did he?
You folks can keep saying that, and all it amounts to is being proud of keeping Obama in office.
How can putting Romney in the White House lop the etc. off the Tea Party, which has somehow survived (uh, BEGUN) under one?
I know a lot of folks around here think otherwise, but choices in life rarely are between black or white. I’ve never seen someone in the White House who’s a true conservative—nope, not even RWR, who was as close as we could get. I’ll push a conservative in the primary, but I’ll vote for the lesser of two evils in November.
You sit home and help Obama continue to wreck this country as an Occupy Your Living Room protest. Not me. I love this country too much to pout.
I know...but things were very different in ‘08 than they are now. A lot of people stayed home, or they bought into Obama’s hype, during that election.
This time, I believe with all of my heart that the silent majority is alive and well, and we are very disgusted and angry.
That doesn’t bode well for the democrats.
The thing that puzzles me is that the dem leadership is behaving as though the ‘10 midterms never happened. They will live to regret that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.