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Posted on 03/03/2002 6:38:29 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Edited on 04/13/2004 3:29:14 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
On a crisp January day, Gray Davis invited his top political strategists to his suburban Sacramento home to preview a series of ads targeting his main Republican rival, a moderate who posed an ominous threat to the Democratic governor's re-election hopes.
(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
It is going to be a battle with Davis!
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No, Riordan is tanking because he is an incompetent loser with a big mouth. Everything he says is offensive to conservatives.
This is yet another sign that the liberal press is starting to worry about Simon. Notice the way the demonize him as an extremist and insist that he can't possibly win. If that were true, they would shut their mouths and watch him get nominated.
But IMO Simon will beat Riordan without Democratic help.
I like Simon, and think Riordan would simpy be "Davis-lite". But let's be honest, despite what the polls say, Simon will lose in November because he is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-business (on the environment). Riordan was the best shot for the general.
While all Simon's views are right (no pun intended) he is the "Right Guy in the Wrong Place"
Much like Bret Schundler in NJ, it is obvious a conservative cannot be elected statewide in CA (Reagan and Demjunik (sp) were products of a different time and demographics). So while all conservatives will be happy when Simon wins this week, it will all come crashing down in November, and much like the people of NJ, they will wake up to find someone holding statewide office even more liberal than the RINO vanquished in the primaries.
I am not one for pyrric victories. Sure, it may feel good to stick it to a RINO in the primaries, but in the end, what do we get? Zilch, zero, nada. Unfortunately Simon is in a state that is hopelessly lost to conservatives.
To those who say "The hell with it, I'd rather vote for the conservative and lose than vote for the RINO" I ask you this. What have you accomplished other than cutting off your nose to spite your face?
No, for the conservative movement it is generally better if a pro-abortion, pro-tax "Republican" loses. Like it or not the Party tends to be defined by who sits at the top. If we don't like a Party that is pro-abortion, pro-tax, and pro-leftism, we shouldn't vote for it.
And I disagree about the RINO being worse than the liberal. Would you rather have had Mario Cuomo than George Pataki? John Corzine instead of Bob Franks? David Dinkins than Rudy Giuliani. Bob Torriceli or Tom Kean?
The list goes on. Also, having Riordan in would halt any possibility that Gray Davis uses the governership as a launching point for the PResidencey.
There are still enough conservatives in California to win this for Simon. If the conservatives are energized and mobilized, and the Democrats just turn out their average numbers, Simon will beat Davis.
This could well backfire on Davis in a very big way.
And for your statemetn that you'd rather have Dinkins than Guiliani, there are about 1,600 people per year who might have murdered under Dinkins that would disagree. Guiliani and his administration, and the cops, brought the homicide rate down from 2200 to 600. Those lives are more important than keeping a movement "pure".
Simon has got to respond full-throttle. If anybody in his campaign has any brains, they had better already have anti-Davis ads at hand. This is going to be a brutal, dirty campaign, and Simon can't afford to slack off and let Davis dominate the airwaves, as Riordan did. If Simon has the strength to campaign toe-to-toe with Davis, this will be the most interesting race of the summer.
The gutless California Republicans would never dare investigate it!
I Don't think so Mr. Riordan or Mr. Davis.
Yes. At least Cuomo didn't socialize Lilco the way Pataki did.
I am a conservative first, a Republican second. Hell, the most fiscally conservative New York governor of the last 50 years was Hugh Carey, A DEMOCRAT!!!
You are right about conservatives NEVER being able to be elected in New York (Jim Buckley was a fluke), one of the reasons Florida (where I live now) is better politically than my home state (our two Cracker liberal Senators notwithstanding). The New York electorate is, at most, 15-20% conservative statewide.
Nevertheless, what does Riordan have to offer the typical Republican voter, other than the fact that he has an "R" next to his name. Will he lesson taxes? The bureacracy? Will he appoint "constitutionalist" judges? NO. NO. NO. HE HAS NOTHING TO OFFER THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA THAT GRAY DAVIS CAN'T GIVE TO THEM BETTER. He was the moron governor of a cesspool of a city. Let him retire into the sunset until the Pubbies find a candidate good enough to appeal to moderates AND conservatives in four years.
They indeed can win on occassion. James Buckley (brother of Bill) was once US Senator in NY. I seriously doubt also that Giuliani would have lost if he had been anti-abortion. We must not listen to the press, they are the enemy. Never take advice from your opponents.
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