Posted on 05/01/2012 1:42:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
With President Barack Obama's officially starting his campaign this Saturday, many are wondering whether the GOP front-runner and former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, has a real chance at winning the general election. But I know a way he could pull it off, and my wife, Gena, even dreamed about it.
I said that I would vote for whichever candidate won the GOP nomination. As of this writing, it appears to be Romney. Truthfully, I believe that Mitt has the skills and organization to defeat Obama and stop his fundamental transformation of America. We all know what four more years of increased socialistic decisions would do to our country.
By all reasonable rationale and political forecast, in a couple of months Romney will reach the necessary delegate count and become the Republican Party's official nominee. And before the GOP fractures with a third-party candidate (as it did in 1992 and 1996) and hands over the election again in doing so, I want to propose to Romney a way to rally the GOP base and even, I believe, those who dislike him.
Typically, this is the time when we all speculate about the GOP nominee's choice for vice president -- his running mate -- and we pray to God that his decision is so magnanimous that it instantly will rally the entire spectrum of political preferences at his side. Of course, that's a political pipe dream and, I believe, a shortsighted, typical campaign technique in a unique election war that requires a very unconventional strategy for winning. With existing polarities (indeed, divisiveness) in the GOP and conservative base alone, choosing the right VP is alone not going to be enough, inasmuch as a Super Bowl team couldn't rally its fan base based upon just a controversial quarterback and a great wide receiver.
For those optimistic statisticians who would point out that just last week a Fox News poll showed that the race between Obama and Romney is dead-even -- with 46 percent of society favoring each -- I would remind them that those numbers are equal despite four years of President Obama's reckless decisions against our republic and despite the fact that his re-election campaign hasn't even unleashed its billion-dollar war chest against Romney. (That sum makes Romney's effectual $20 million he used to destroy Newt Gingrich's candidacy back in the Florida primary look like chump change.)
If the Obama campaign machine and its mainstream media minions are already pigeon-holing Romney as "extreme" and "right-wing" (are you kidding?!), imagine what they will say and do to his likely more conservative running mate. (Does anyone remember the plight of Sarah Palin with Sen. John McCain in '08?)
I think Romney and maybe even most Republicans are underestimating the difficulty of persuading conservatives, evangelicals and libertarians, let alone the rest of the country, to vote for Romney, despite the prospect of the sultan of socialist swing's remaining in the Oval Office. General election apathy and depression in the fall could take their toll.
It doesn't take a political scientist to see that if liberals such as former President Jimmy Carter say they would be "comfortable" with Romney, conservatives, evangelicals, libertarians and others are going to have a gigantic struggle rallying around Romney. But if he would take the following course of action, they might find backing him much more palatable.
Enough talk. The idea is this, and it is not my idea but the action of President Abraham Lincoln.
A book that highlights Lincoln's brilliant action is titled "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian. In addition to topping charts and receiving scholarly acclaim, the book itself is political genius and outlines the crucial strategy needed not only to rally the present GOP base but also to win the White House and save our republic. (I also wrote about this unifying strategy in a former column, "The 8th Miracle To Save America," which can be read at http://www.creators.com/opinion/chuck-norris/the-8th-miracle-to-save-america.html.)
Goodwin's prize-winning treatise details how Lincoln brought together his candidate rivals by appointing them to key positions in his administration when he became president.
Let me re-highlight a few critical points from Goodwin's book review in The New York Times:
"The party in the 1860's was a coalition of politicians who only a few years earlier had been Whigs (Lincoln, Seward, Bates), Democrats (Blair, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Vice President Hannibal Hamlin), Free Soilers (Chase), or had flirted with the short-lived anti-immigrant American Party, or Know Nothings (Cameron and Bates). In addition, several cabinet members personally disliked each other: Blair and Chase, Seward and Welles, Chase and Seward, Blair and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who replaced Cameron in January 1862. Lincoln's 'political genius' enabled him to herd these political cats and keep them driving toward ultimate victory.
"How did he do it? Goodwin deals with this question better than any other writer. Part of the answer lay in Lincoln's steadfastness of purpose, which inspired subordinates to overcome their petty rivalries. Part of it lay in his superb sense of timing and his sensitivity to the pulse of public opinion as he moved to bring along a divided people to the support of 'a new birth of freedom.' And part of it lay in Lincoln's ability to rise above personal slights, his talent for getting along with men of clashing ideologies and personalities who could not get along with each other."
Whether you agree with Lincoln or not, his team of rivals worked, propelled his leadership and ultimately unified the country.
Isn't our divided country again ripe for a new "team of rivals," made up of past presidential candidates and other vetted, qualified and esteemed national leaders, rather than merely a dynamic duo fighting the Obama campaign machine?
Lincoln recognized the wisdom of Jesus when it came to collective success: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
The question is this: Will Romney?
Next week, I will not only elaborate more on this concept of a team of rivals and the people I believe should be a part of it but also share the inspiring dream Gena had, which we both hope comes true.
Yes, and what do you propose to do about it when the vote fraud declares Obama the winner even though Romney won more non-fraudulent votes and more Electoral votes. You do know the Democrats have more registered voters in some precincts than there are eligible voters? You do know the vote totals are being handled by a company run by firends of Obama? Why don’t you join others in enforcing the laws BEFORE the election?
Yes, and what do you propose to do about it when the vote fraud declares Obama the winner even though Romney won more non-fraudulent votes and more Electoral votes. You do know the Democrats have more registered voters in some precincts than there are eligible voters? You do know the vote totals are being handled by a company run by firends of Obama? Why don’t you join others in enforcing the laws BEFORE the election?
They have no proposals other than wetting themselves in fear and thinking that voting for Romney somehow saves us from Obama’s war on what is left of the Republic.
They refuse to consider that Romney is a chosen vessel to lose large and make Obama’s election look legitimate.
The Ruling Class knows where the power now lies, and they will do anything to continue to share in it. Even if it means exterminating Conservatives and boxing them into a corner to vote for Obama’s hand-picked opponent.
What do you propose to do about Romney nominating the same types of liberal Supreme Court Justices as Obama, after you helped to elect him into the Office of the President?
Frankly, I don’t trust you.
You’re all over the FR boards encouraging people to not vote for Romney, and that’s fine. That’s your view.
You cross the line, though, when you howl like a Soros moonbat and try to depress voting. Sowing the seeds of surrender is typical of Marxist infiltrators on FR.
You registered on FR in 2000, and you suddenly appear on FR with bile and vitriol and encourage people to sit home and not vote. If you had an ounce of concern about the Republic, you would be telling people to get out and vote for conservatives down the ticket. That would include voting for conservatives at the state and local level. You’re not doing that in any of your posts.
I’m not buying your crap. You smell like a Soros troll.
Yes, even Kabuki theater is far more subtle.
You owe him an apology. No one said anything about sitting home and not voting. On the contrary, we are saying you have to vote and do far more than just casting votes that will not be counted or will be counter-productive. It is very wrong of you to suggest otherwise.
That would make you an abject lying sack now wouldn't it? Care to post where I have stated that Conservatives "should sit home and not vote"??
I would expect you to post your charge wherein I have stated and/or suggested as such, and since you will not be able to find it anywhere, my question to you is; do you have any honor to admit you were wrong, or will you do as all liars do and justify the lie?
If you had an ounce of concern about the Republic, you would be telling people to get out and vote for conservatives down the ticket.
You obviously have a reading comprehension problem then, because I have strongly advocated the voting of staunch conservatives. REPEATEDLY.
As to voting "down the ticket", I guess you choose not to see that the Ruling Class GOP-e is working hand-in-hand with Obama to marginalize and render Conservatives irrelevant in the GOP.
But you go ahead and vote straight ticket and practice insanity again.
The rest of us are moving on with a different strategy than doing what the Ruling Class masters have boxed you in to a corner to lap up like a dog.
If that don't scare the Be-Jesus out of ya then nothing will.
Try starting with post #2.
I don’t see one word from you encouraging people to vote for conservatives in state and local elections, or down the ticket in national races.
“I have strongly advocated the voting of staunch conservatives. REPEATEDLY.”
Prove it.
“Im not buying your crap. You smell like a Soros troll.”
FRiend, the contrarians and Paulistians are feeling emboldened with the turmoil in the GOP and are coming out of the woodwork. BOLO.
I’m talking about primary votes.
6 million to 5 million as of April 10, 2012, when Santorum quit.
6 million conservatives versus 5 million Romney voters, be they moderates, be they RINOs, be they sly and sneaky democrats, be they people with stinky feet, be they however the heck you want to characterize them, there were only 5 million of them and 6 million of us and we didn’t use that fact, we didn’t unite, we didn’t vote as a block...
There rest is all whining, moaning, kvetching and complaining.
“What do you propose to do about ....”
I’ll just folow your lead and have a hissy fit.
Which would then make you something more akin to the Soros troll you accuse me of being.
Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Supreme Court Justice David Souter
Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger
All of the above were Republican appointments who consistently voted with the liberal bloc.
Do you really think Romney is going to appoint strict constructionists?
Do you think a Sandra Day O'Connor is all that much better than a Sotomayer when both vote the same way?
Liberal Democrats initiate leftist programs. Liberal Republicans institutionalize them.
Interesting website...thanks.
Like everyone did in 2008?
And we know more now than we did then.
Russia funded Obamas campaign.
Wikileaks emails reveal that McCain knew there was massive vote fraud and did nothing.
Obama attorneys admit in NJ court that his BC is a forgery.
And here we sit, beating up each other because some of us refuse to vote for selected, not elected, Romney.
That remark is totally uncalled for. No one is having a “hissy fit” except you folks who refuse to face reality like an adult. Political warfare is nothing new or unusual. Unfortunately, there are all too many people who refuse to learn history and learn the lessons of history. You should try reading about Bleeding Kansas, the LeCompton Constitution, and the horrendous vote fraud, border raids, and illegitimate government. So many of you folks like to talk about reality as if you had some kind of personal ownership of it not shared with anyone who disagrees with you. You folks like to turn a deaf ear to whatever you don’t want to hear or confront. You might want to consider the fact that you cannot hide from the ugly realities of people who mean to do you harm and do so surreptitiously and boldly in the hopes folks like you will find every excuse in the world to deny its existence. Yet, you complain about the threat, while you refuse to even consider or listen to any other alternative to your own head in the ground solutions. Then you go around claiming someone else is having a “hissy fit” “or calling people names” or insulting people or...anyhting but acknowledge the need for another soultion bedise the ineffective bumps into the same old walls.
Wouldn’t it be much more productive to not bear false witness, listen politely, forbear perceptions of misunderstanding, and generally give the same kind of cooperation you would ask others to give to you?
The vote fraud in Kansas led into the Civil War in which more Americans died over a dispuite about interpretations of the Constitution in any other war before or since in American history. It might just be worth a little of your time and patient consideration to avoid the same types of consequences today.
OK. I’m on board. What do we do?
We are being deliberately led down that path by the Ruling Class and the MarxoFascists. The Ruling Class more useful idiots for Obama's true believers at the moment. I know you understand that and that Marxist history showcases such bloodshed is needed to solidify control, I just wanted your comment to get a second reading for emphasis of how close we are to the consequences history lays out for us.
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