Posted on 09/27/2003 11:25:10 PM PDT by buzzyboop
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:37:18 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A chance at puttin Cruz into office.
Better check the polls my friend. He is appealing to far more than McClintock is. In fact it is more than double. It will be McClintock's fault. He can't win.
Perhaps they think the 15% is the only group that really counts, but I suspect not. I suspect it's simply a "religious" thought process brought into the messy world of politics (not in the sense of any particular religion or belief system, but in the sense that they approach political matters with the same thought process they approach religious matters with). In a religious thought process, there is great glory and even greater victory (in a different realm) from going down to defeat, even unto death, with your "principles" 100% intact -- with absolutely no compromise whatsoever. Taking religious thought processes into politics means that you do not compromise one iota and if it so happens you go down in total flames, hopefully you can take everything down with you like Samson or like the Christians martyred in the Coliseum. Using that sort of thinking, there is virtue in the glorious defeat.
I think that is what we are seeing here, and it is pretty common the further out on the political bell curve you travel (Camejo and his supporters are no less "religious" in their thinking). The bible, for just one example, is chock full of encouragements for forgo compromise -- "if you are lukewarm, I will spit you out".
For me, I don't believe "religious thinking" works well in modern democratic politics, where security, caution and the middle road dominate the selection of governmental leaders. The one who seems most secure, the one who will not change things too drastically, will most often be the one selected by the mass of voters. There is security in sameness, so if you are running "to change" things, to get the votes you need you will need to convince people that yes, you will change this or that, but you won't change everything, you won't be drastic in your prescriptions for change. People don't like to have to deal with new realities, they are comfortable operating in the familiar.
And anyway, most of the McClintock voters who will change will do so without any proding from McClintock himself. Those that are in tune to the election and who think more politically than religiously will move over on their own. As for those who think more religiously, there is nothing in heaven or hell that would make them change anyway.
Your reasoning is does not compute. Latest poll has McClintock at 15%. Arnold is double that. That makes McClintock the spoiler no matter how McClintock supporters try to spin it.
Excellant point!!!!
Because McClintock supporters need someone to blame if McClintock lose the election for the Republicans.
Exactly. Slime is the only kind of politics Davis understands. We need an emergency back up candidate in case Ahhhnold is "caught in bed with a live boy or a dead woman".
What you just proved is when Republican don't unite behind one canidate they LOSE.
A no compromise Iconoclast like McClintock can be an asset in the Senate, singing the true conservative song. With Party support he can beat Boxer like a gong.
A no compromise, Iconoclastic figure like McClintock is simply going to be a failure as a Governor, because the State legislature will not give him exactly what he wants on anything. Even if he should win, he won't pass or sign a single piece of legislation during his entire term.
So9
Beats me. It should be really entertaining to see what the Davis camp comes up with.
Remember, it doesn't have to be true, it just has to be plausable enough to take a few days to disprove, with planted red herring evidence indicating that it might be true.
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE SLIME TEAM!
Sorry, you have this twisted. If all of you who say "McClintock is the best Candidate, but can't win", would have VOTED for HIM , he would come out on top!!! You will have to accept a Bustamonte win as YOUR FAULT and no one else!!!! Not to mention , it will be the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as you have known it. Expect a MASS EXODUS!!!!!
Schwarzenegger is betting that Nixon's famous dictum will not hold true this time around. If he's right, his election will likely evidence a sea change in Republican politics not just at the state level, but nationally. That is what is at stake here.
The social liberals of the Republican Party are gambling that they can recast the Party fundamentally and exclusively in their image by marginalizing and effectively exiling the social conservatives. That explains the Log Cabin/Andrew Sullivan thrall over Arnold Schwarzenegger's candidacy. Feminist Republicans are also anxious to see this done, to ensure the pro-death agenda is made secure not merely at the Democrat level, but at the Republican level as well. They hope to see in an Arnold victory the total collapse of social conservatism as a viable force in the Republican Party beginning in Sacramento but rippling rapidly outward across the entire nation.
Still, this is largely an attempted coup by the big money liberal Republican party elites--not grass roots conservatives. The big money social liberal elites could never hope to bring it off in a normal year in California. But in the bizarre political environment of a recall election--where a mere plurality is all that is needed to bring off a coup-- they see their golden opportunity. They will seek to consolidate their gains, co-opt sufficient pink vote and pro-abort vote from the mushy middle to give them momentum and strength to continue moving left to what has long been their promised land.
Karl Rove is watching this intently. He will have no compunction against moving hard left and abandoning social conservatives if, in his mind, it will yield one marginal vote more.
This recall election IS a defining moment for the Republican Party.
Because some people will be voting for an (R) for the first time in their lives. Once that psychological barrier is broken, it will be a bit easier the next time.
We didn't get in this train wreck overnight, and it's going to be a slow process cleaning up the mess. Voting (R)ino is at least admitting there was a train wreck...
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