Posted on 04/27/2006 3:17:35 PM PDT by VU4G10
A new poll from Rasmussen Reports has some bad news for Republicans—well, almost all Republicans. If you’re Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.), the news couldn’t be better.
While a generic Republican candidate trails a generic Democrat by 12 percentage points, according to the poll, a third-party candidate who runs on a get-tough-on-immigration platform not only beats the Republican, but also actually runs even with the Democrat. Here’s an excerpt:
The survey also asked respondents how they would vote if "a third party candidate ran in 2008 and promised to build a barrier along the Mexican border and make enforcement of immigration law his top priority."
With that option, support fell sharply for both major parties. The Democrats still come out on top with support from 31% of Americans. The third party candidate moved into a virtual tie at 30% while the GOP fell to 21%.
If anyone fits Rasmussen’s description it’s Tancredo, who has made a very public name for himself as the anti-illegal-immigration crusader in Congress. And having spent time in both Iowa and New Hampshire beginning last year, he’s posited himself to be the candidate who could play spoiler.
Coming back to reality for just one moment, I should note the rest of the Rasmussen commentary about the poll numbers:
This result probably reflects unhappiness with both parties on the immigration issue rather than a true opportunity for a third party. Historically, issues that drive third party candidates get co-opted by one of the major parties as they demonstrate popular appeal. Most Americans favor a barrier along the border and enforcement of existing law prior to other reforms.
With the immigration issue candidate as an option, 36% of conservative voters opt for the Republican candidate while 35% take the third party option. Among political moderates, 34% pick the Democrat while 32% prefer the third party option.
I’d recommend reading the full Rasmussen summary as well as my post last night about the new Diageo/Hotline poll on Democrats.
And what would that be? The right of members of your party to, as Limbaugh put it so piquantly during the Clinton era, "rule contrary to the will of the people"?
Don't worry, Howlin: if that's what you've been working for for years, it's going to be thrown away for you, and you won't even see it coming.
The Bushies don't get it. The Bush-Bots don't get it either. This President and this Congress are destroying the Republican Party. The GOP that conservatives worked so hard to build into a majority party, the party of Goldwater, Reagan, Newt and the 94 GOP Congress, is slipping away.
Yes, but you wouldn't believe me
Anyway your tagline describes you, does that mean we should question you, ridicule you? Which?
BS.
It's not really sudden or even what could be called panic, altura. It has been simmering for quite a few years now and is only now coming to a boil for several reasons, IMO:
They may have read the stories about false IDs and drivers licenses on the increase in their hometown. They may have tried to find employment and discover that they didn't get the job because they don't speak Spanish. They may have noticed their neighbors have a two-bedroom house but 15 people reside in it. They may have gone to a hospital for emergency medical care and realized how the level of service has greatly declined because the number of patients has increased but the number of payees comes nowhere near that. Those are just a few examples of major changes that have happened while our attention was elsewhere.
Yeah, now it's an election year. Yeah, oil prices are heading upward. Yeah, Roseann Roseannadanna was right..."It's always something." Unfortunately, we have MILLIONS of lawbreakers affecting our economy, our way of life, even our form of government. Yeah, I know George W. Bush is a 'compassionate' 'conservative' --- and I knew that when I voted for him. I knew he was 'compassionate' toward our neighbors to the south. But when it comes to the threat to justice and the American way, he must forgo some of that compassion and stand up for principle and our Constitution. (Let President Fox take care of protecting the people of his country.)
It is now time for President Bush to do his duty and honor his oath by protecting us from the threat to our homeland in just as forceful a way as he has been doing in the WOT.
I'd be very pleased to answer whichever questions you pose, within my ability to answer.
I took the question in #129 as one of rhetoric, not one to answer directly. Thus my oblique reply.
Sleep through that, too.
Yeah, you'd have to be crazy not to want this in every U.S. city.
Why are you posting that to me? Aren't there enough people around here for you to talk to?
This might be a great election for a 3rd party candidate to win since most Americans are just fed up with politics. While the GOP isn't getting any props from the public, the Dims aren't either as people know what they'll get there.
Could be interesting!
I'd vote for Tancredo as a 3PC.
I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt and assuming this wasn't meant as a crude ad hominum (perhaps I'm being too charitable).
How did you arrive at this conclusion?
That's like being at a picnic and asking why everyone's running over to the drowning boy while the meats on the grill are burning.
If Tancredo fixed the borders and did nothing else, I'd be all over it. Clinton did things and I wish he'd been entirely idle.
Classic. Thanks for the laugh...
Pshaw! Who cares? Bush has never done anything right ever.
He signed onto Kyoto and ruined the economy. He capitulated to the ABM treaty and now NorthKorea has taunted us by launching missiles into the waters off Seattle. Bush let Saddam get out of sanctions and boldly smashed the Kurds. Then, Bush appointed two imbecilic idiots to the Supreme Court that are left of Al Franken.
Screw Bush! I'm voting for Hillary this very Friday to teach him a lesson he won't forget! If there's no voting booth ready, by golly I'll go punch someone named Chad!
You can question me, but please don't ridicule me. It hurts!
I have no idea what you are talking about anyway, I never posted to you that I know of.
This poll doesn't ask what if Tancredo was the Republican nominee.
Instead it pushes Republican Tancredo as a third party candidate.
You gotta support what the poll tells you to support. Right?
really want to throw away everything we've worked for for years
It just breaks my heart at what is being thrown away here. And for what?
You are obsessively overrought with this issue.
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