Posted on 11/10/2006 9:06:56 PM PST by FairOpinion
In his victory speech Tuesday night to a confetti-swamped crowd at the Beverly Hilton, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a message for the rest of the Republican Party after its worst defeat in decades.
Follow "the California way," he said. "We are proving to the nation that there is another way to go, a better path to solve problems."
Schwarzenegger's landslide victory in a largely Democratic state illustrates the growing power of moderate candidates and the electoral appeal of bipartisanship, and it could contain important lessons for Republicans and Democrats as they seek to position themselves in the future, analysts and politicians said.
"If I was a Republican National Committee chair, I would hire Arnold out and teach Republicans what is necessary to put together a winning campaign," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California. "He really is the poster boy of what Republicans have denied for so long. Elections are won from the center."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The huge amount of property he took off the table, for enviromental reasons, in the Sierra's last year was a little more than just red meat.
"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil." -- Ayn Rand
"Conservatism works every time it's tried." -- Rush Limbaugh
"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything" -- unknown
"Conservatives" almost cost us the presidential election in 2000, by voting for Buchanan, instead of Bush, and almost electing Al Gore.
"Conservatives" are the one to "teach George HW Bush a lesson", and gave us 8 years of Bill Clinton and a launchpad for President Hillary.
Of course, smart conservatives voted for Bush I and Bush II and turned out to vote Republican this election. I am talking about the "other" so-called conservatives, who keep helping the Dems, while claiming to be so "conservative".
Whatever happened to voting for what you believe in?
Pray tell what will happen now.(((Hugs))) Stop by and say thanks to our troops here.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736725/posts?page=16#16
Arno the RINO is part of the problem on national level. Thank God he can't run from President.
"The guy was a socialist moonbat trainwreck"
And what do you think Speaker Nancy Pelosi is? And she won, didn't she? She won, because conservatives stayed home to punish the Republicans.
The Senate can be recaptured in 2008, The House made closer, and a GOP President elected.
Were it not for the Constitution, Arnold would be the next president - and he'd win in a cakewalk. His advice ought not be dismissed lightly...
Those people who elected to stay home because they were mad, unhappy or pouting, ought to be ashamed for several reasons, but one reason stands out in my mind:
People in Iraq risked their lives to vote!
There's a right way to court the center and a wrong way to court the center.
The wrong way is to take whatever position you think they hold at the moment. This doesn't work because it's hard to figure out exactly what positions you need to adopt, and the center, being fickle, will change on you. Overall, you'll wind up looking weak.
The right way is to take positions that you believe in, and then convince the center that you're right about them. If you can do that, then you're on much stronger ground because you can get the independent vote and appeal to your base at the same time. You'll also force your opponent to try to play in enemy territory, so to speak.
It's amazing how charm, packaging and staging can compensate for substance!
With all respect this isn't a movie we are making to appeal to the most people. Our existence is at stake and we better do more than play footsie with persons that will bring our destruction.
Intransigence and the Veto must be the order-of-the-day!
Even the conservatives need a kick in the ass once and while. This election proved it.
2 years under the agenda of Pelosi/Clinton/Kennedy/Kerry/Boxer/Ried should do the trick.
I predict that Pelosi is going to spend the next two years in utter termoil as the moonbat leftists who now dominate the DNC push their far left agenda and its going to be a trainwreck. Meanwhile, the republicans and conservatives will have some time to get their $hit together.
While this election was as Bush put it "a thumpin", I actually look that the amount of house and senate seats that moved, and it doesn't even remotely resemble the asskicking the GOP did back in 1994.
I don't see strong leadership out of the DNC and it will show over the next 2 years. I believe there is a strong possibility that because of this crappy leadership and outdated agenda, the dems will get hammered in 2008 and lose the senate, and even the house.
Arnold adopted Democrat policies. So he got re-elected, so what? What difference does it make if he's going to govern like a Democrat?
Relevant article just posted by jamese777:
Centrists Deliver For the Democrats
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736728/posts
Conservatives don't turn out, and election is decided by the moderates who do turn out.
Conservatives seem to still refuse to learn the lessons of history and are on their way to elect President Hillary in 2008, to go with the Dem House and Senate.
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