Posted on 07/20/2004 2:37:30 AM PDT by pookie18
Conservative Democrat Zell Miller sides against his own party more often than most; he's endorsed President Bush for re-election and will speak at the GOP convention. (He's also a friend of TAS, having delivered the keynote address at a dinner last fall where financial benefactors mingled with those of us whom they benefact.) There are some who say that Miller's seat in the Senate is really filled by a Republican. When he retires next year, it will become official.
The Democrat expected to win today's primary, freshman congresswoman Denise Majette, is far too liberal to be elected in Georgia, where the Democratic Party took its hardest hits in 2002. That makes the Republican primary doubly important.
The candidate that makes conservatives swoon is Herman Cain. A one-time Burger King executive who sold Godfather's Pizza in December after owning it for 15 years, Cain has called for abolition of the IRS and repeal of the income tax, replacing it with a national sales tax, one of the two competing high-growth dreams of supply-siders. (The other, of course, is the flat income tax; not coincidentally, Cain backed Steve Forbes in the 2000 primary.) The author of several business books, the charismatic Cain makes $25,000 per appearance as a motivational speaker. Oh yes: He's black. If elected, Cain would be the first black senator from the Deep South since Reconstruction.
The race has focused mostly on abortion; though all three candidates -- Cain and Representatives Mac Collins and Johnny Isakson -- are pro-life, questions of purity are magnified in a state where, according to Georgia Right to Life, six percent of voters vote solely on abortion; the percentage is no doubt larger in a Republican primary.
As the front-runner, Isakson has taken hits from the right from both Cain and Collins, who oppose abortion except when the health of the mother is threatened; Isakson also favors exceptions in cases of rape and incest. Isakson has been hammered for various compromises on the issue, including voting to allow privately funded abortions on U.S. military bases abroad.
The focus on abortion makes strategic sense for Cain and Collins: Isakson lost his last bid for a nomination for Senate in 1996 when, in what many consider a fatal political error, he ran an ad touting his opposition to a Human Life Amendment.
The latest polling by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Isakson with 46%, Cain with 16%, and Collins with 8%. There is word from Georgia that candidates' internal polling shows the race much closer. If Cain holds Isakson below 50%, it will force a two-way run-off. If that happens, despite a significant fundraising gap, Cain may have a fighting shot at grabbing the nomination.
Here's hoping.
We can hope . . .
and PRAY!
Someone needs to start a LIVE thread
for y'all's election returns this evening.
Go Cain!
I won't know anything until I wake up at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow.:-(
Right, Now I remember that
you & :45 take to bed EARLY.
We both go to work at 6:00 a.m. There are definitely *plusses* to that schedule, as well as a few minuses.
Two years ago I woke up to the news that McNinney had been booted out. It was music to my ears! :-)
I voted for Cain WITH Mr. Cain himself and his wife a week ago. My wife voted for him today.
If no one else does, I will.
GOOD! And please ping me.
I am praying for Herman as
I type this.
I'm taking a 2 hour break from here.
My head is spinning today with all
the fast breaking Berger news.
What time do your polls close?
7 pm eastern, I believe.
I join you in praying for Cain. Get some rest, I'll ping ya. :)
It was a toss-up for me between Collins and Cain, but I went with Collins. If there is a runoff, I'll vote against Isakson.
Ping for Cain. Isakson is trash.
http://www.fox5atlanta.com/elections/index.html
I couldn't find the GOP sample ballot at my polling place and was told that no republicans were running. The poll mgr. wan't around so another worker tried to help me. I referred to the tv ads for Isakson, Cain, etc., and she derisively explained to me that Isakson wasn't in that district (Fulco). After I voted, I was interviewed about the "Anti-Gay Amendment" by a man from Indiana who said he'd be in Georgia a few more months. He said if the anti-gay amendment is passed then rights that gay people have now will be taken away from them. I suggested that that wouldn't happen at Coe-Cola or the City of Atlanta and that I didn't think we needed to experiment with children any more...that the new ideas of the "60's hadn't worked so well for children and I didn't think we needed any more experimentation with them. Oh, yes, and I voted for Herman Cain.
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