Posted on 08/06/2012 12:10:45 PM PDT by xzins
Here’s a test to apply to the names of all potential Republican vice presidential candidates: if the Washington Republican establishment, like the GOP congressional leadership, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, defense industry lobbyists and Capitol Hill political consultants, all applaud the name, Governor Romney has picked the wrong candidate and is in danger of losing the election.
It is not a done deal yet, but if you look past the front page articles on the Olympics and the latest crime news, you will find articles reporting that Governor Mitt Romney is on the verge of announcing the name of the vice presidential candidate he wants to join him on the Republican ticket.
And the names that are floating around sound like Governor Romney is all set to unite the 25% of GOP voters who constitute the Bush-Romney wing of the Republican Party.
That leaves behind the 75% of grassroots conservative Republican voters who backed Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann in the primaries.
Many of these activists still haven’t forgotten -- or forgiven -- the carpet bombing campaign that Romney ran to destroy first one conservative challenger and then another during the primary election season. And they have seen nothing from the Romney campaign that indicates the Governor has an inclination to move beyond the smears to embrace any of the conservative ideas their candidates ran on.
While the media and establishment Republican insiders float names like Condoleeza Rice, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio’s establishment GOP Senator Rob Portman -- conservatives are seething.
Because it looks like conservatives are being shut out, not just of the process of selecting a running mate, but even of speaking at the convention.
Moderate GOP Senator John McCain, Bush family acolyte Condoleeza Rice, and big government conservative Fox News personality Mike Huckabee are all speaking -- but none of the high profile speaking roles announced so far are going to small government, constitutional conservatives.
Governor Romney and his establishment Republican advisors and consultants seem to think that the boogie man of four more years of Obamanomics is enough to energize conservatives – it is not.
This is a “base election” where the result will be decided by which Party’s base is most energized. That’s why Obama has embarked on his class warfare campaign, endorsed same-sex marriage, issued an Executive Order to implement the Dream Act (to pander to Hispanics) and why he continues to sit on the Keystone Pipeline to curry favor with environmentalists.
Governor Romney, on the other hand, has done nothing to appeal to conservatives, even when he was handed 20 million conservative supporters through Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day he ignored them, by saying, “That’s not something that’s part of my campaign.”
Governor Romney and his campaign team just don’t seem to grasp that all the energy in the Republican Party lies with small government constitutional conservatives and Tea Partiers, and to win they need to energize conservatives, not just get their votes on Election Day.
To energize conservatives, Mitt must choose a vice presidential nominee who conservatives see as a conservative, not one the establishment thinks is safe, but one who conservatives will accept as one of their own – a small government constitutional conservative.
In 2006, some 4 million conservative voters stayed home because they were turned-off by the outrages of the Bush-era Republican establishment leaders – many of whom are now Velcroed on to Governor Romney – and Republicans were wiped out at the polls.
In 2010, the Tea Party and small government constitutional conservatives became the face of the GOP and Republicans won an historic – perhaps even realigning – election.
So-called moderate Republicans are, at best, 25% of the Republican vote, and when moderate establishment Republicans were the face of the GOP, Republicans routinely lost presidential elections and were a powerless minority on Capitol Hill.
Now the three-legged coalition of Ronald Reagan has been broadened by the addition of the constitutional conservatives of the Tea Party. Working together, the four legs of this new conservative coalition have created a powerful political movement whose energy won what should be a 21st century American political realignment – the 2010 elections.
Conservatives look to Governor Romney’s choice of running mate as an indication that he shares their commitment to small government constitutional principles and will campaign and govern as a conservative. Establishment figures like Tim Pawlenty, Condoleeza Rice, Ohio Senator Rob Portman or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are no conservatives and are recipes for a demoralized conservative base!
Defining moment by Romney
There are a small percentage of “Conservatives” for whom there is only an extreme solution to the illegal immigration problem.
I believe that once the border is closed, there are a variety of workable options, that encourage self-deportation.
I believe a Marco Rubio VP selection would garner more votes than it loses, to those with views so extreme that this is a deal breaker.
His apologists are busily declaring that nothing matters in this campaign but the economy. Same thing they said when it was McCain’s turn to lose.
Dump this loser before he takes the GOP down with him.
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory or just playing the same old music , just slower.. hard to say why some are so fascinated with wishy washy and moderate candidates.. or why the GoP is so far adrift from the people they say they represent.
Who better to add balance than Colin Powell if not Condi? beyond that .. don’t get your hopes up.. and don’t be surprised.
The Republic is under ‘attack’ from without and within ..
Time for the TEA Party to ride to the rescue .. again. ;-]
GiDDYuP!
Did Romney say that he wanted to become POTUS or is he an undercover agent for Bambi?
Received an 8X11 picture of him through the mail with the request for a donation.
Now why in hell do I want a picture of a man that I have never met nor seen?
It seems to me that if you intentionally run a candidate you know will divide your base, then that can only mean you do not want to win.
I think he's dead wrong on gays in the military, though.
As Rush says, I live in real-ville. We cannot dump “this loser.” He has enough delegates, most of whom are legally required to vote for him, to win the nomination. We can close our eyes, put our fingers in our ears, go “LA LA LA” and wish our guy or gal had won, but it doesn’t change reality.
Reality is we are stuck with Willard.
Reality is we have a Marxist in the White House now.
Reality is that with Obummer’s penchant for ruling by fiat and bypassing congress with the help of a fawning press, the next four years will be MUCH WORSE than the prior if he is re-elected.
Reality is that not voting or voting for a third party candidate will help the Obomination get re-elected.
Reality is that if you think you will “teach the Republicans a lesson” by not voting you may be doing your country irreparable harm, possibly leading to a violent second civil war.
Here's the problem in a nutshell ~ the GOP-e and the Stupid Party have encountered a minor rift of sorts and it's Romney's and his running dog lackeys first task to REUNITE the GOP-e with it's smarter half, to wit, the Stupid Party.
Free speech isn't part of his agenda either.
I think its sad that so many here are thrilled that so many Obama voters are switching sides. Those radical leftist views are going to infect the party and kill it.
He can be left to his own devices, and if he gets that nomination, that's what it's worth if he has none of the working party base with him.
So, where can a real convention be held real quick? Well, there's the big stadium in Indianapolis ~ huge place ~ three days there and we could have a candidate.
In a way, it’s a subtle form of party infiltration and is encouraged much as is illegal immmigration.. to what purpose.. uhhh. Mars is the limit.. for now.
Time for a FResh pot of TEA.. maybe next election cycle or the next if we’re lucky enough to have one.
Got one of those and went down the street to the Jamaican root worker lady ~ she said just put some bird poo on it and set fire to it ~
I'm actually less worried about him on matters of policy because Obama has moved left so hard, that it makes the decision an easy one -- at least for me. I don't like Romney's position on some issues, but Obama's positions are generally so much worse. Obama is willing to kill our pseudo-capitalist system deliberately, based on his belief that the government can "do it better". Whatever other valid criticisms there are of Romney, I still think he's a much bigger believer in capitalism than Obama ever was. And the social issues won't go anywhere anyway.
But I don't have much faith Romney can pull this off.
Reality is that a vote for a 3rd party can help grow a 3rd party
Any one of those four picks will be an engraved invitation to another 2006 disaster. And it seems to be an accurate prediction of the future.
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.