Posted on 05/22/2007 10:24:28 AM PDT by SDGOP
Forget the phrase "Where in the World is Matt Lauer"? How about "Where in the World is George Allen"? I found him! I interviewed him yesterday at his home near Mount Vernon in Virginia because I'm working on a future story about the legacy of Ronald Reagan and how that is impacting the 2008 GOP presidential race. Allen knew Ronald Reagan very well and so did his father. He is now heavily involved in promoting the Reagan Ranch Center and the conservative values that the group teaches to high school and college students around the country,
Anyhow, at the end of the interview I asked him his thoughts on the 2008 Presidential race. You can watch the 6 minute clip above. Now, let me say a few things. He really didn't want to come out and talk forcefully for or against any candidate so realizing that, I did not try and pin him down. So all you hard nosed readers who wanted me to 'pin him down", sorry you're not going to get it. Allen wasn't going to go there and leading him there wasn't going to matter. Allen was in full "11th commandment mode" (don't talk negatively about a fellow Republican) He does however offer some guidance for voters when choosing a candidate.
Let's remember here. George Allen could have been the "Reagan conservative" candidate that many within the GOP are longing for. But after what happened last November, those plans are on hold indefintely.
I just saw George Allen this afternoon at Jerry Falwell’s funeral.
Interesting. Thanks for the post.
None of the current presidential field were there, were they?
As I asserted before, in my opinion when you only lose by 10,000 votes, the race cannot be considered to be “won” or “lost” at any time up to the day of the election.
To expand on my opinion of the race, Allen was not seen as the sharpest tack, but he WAS seen as a “good old boy”, a nice person who while conservative could be trusted to be of good character.
Macaca cracked that armor of “likeability”, and the month-long “n-word” fest, along with his objections to the “jewish” question (understandable because of his mother, but still an issue), destroyed that aspect of his reputation.
And once he wasn’t a good old boy, anything he said or did had the chance to alienate voters. Going after Webb for the n-word simply made it as if the n-word issue WAS important, going after Webb for the books looked petty and churlish.
And he got scared to appear in places, he didn’t use his charm to overcome adversity. I blame his staff for that, but he chose those “people” so it was ultimately his fault.
But who knows. Maybe he lost because of the Internet Gambling bill.
~sigh~
I'm going to ignore the other moronic posts on this thread, but once again, I have to explain to you people exactly what he meant by "welcome to the real Virginia."
He was speaking to his audience. Folks who live along the Kentucky border in an area that has been depressed for years. Folks in far Southwest Virginia feel abandoned by Richmond and by Washington.
For years, the chairman of the 9th Congressional District would start his convention speech by saying "From Jonesville, which is closer to the capitals of eight other states than it is to Richmond..."
So, when Allen said "Welcome to the real Virginia," he was speaking to his audience and they new exactly what he meant. You can hear their applause. Unfortunately, when it was on the video, it didn't play well in other parts of Virginia.
It was a careless thing to say when being videotaped. But it wasn't a "stupid political blunder."
And I can guarantee you candidates have been saying the exact same thing in SW Virginia for decades.
Exactly Flora. The reality is that they pulled the "porn" stuff out because it was all they had left.
Whether Warner is retiring or not, Allen is not running for the Senate in 2008.
Were there any other politicos there?
George Allen would be the frontrunner now had he forgone his Senate race. Even better, another Republican would have kept that Senate seat in the GOP column. But for some asinine reason, Allen decided to handicap himself by retaining his status as “Senator”.
I still appreciate the support Senator Allen gave the President and our Troops in the War on Terror especially in Iraq. It meant more to my family (especially my then-Marine son) than I can adequately express.
Is he going to run for governor?
That’s an interest point. I thought Romney would have been better served to have run again for governor, but he didn’t, a Democrat took the MA governorship, and now Romney may have a chance to be nominated.
It may be that Allen’s flaws as a candidate would have already sunk him in a presidential race.
“George Allen would be the frontrunner now had he forgone his Senate race.”
At the beginning of 2006, that was the conventional wisdom. So, I did my research on him and while part of the good guys team, IMO he doesn’t have the wits to beat any of the bad guys——Hillary, etc. Remember, these things have ways of working themselves out. If he hadn’t flamed out in the Senate campaign, he would have done so in a Presidential one. So in one sense its better for us that he did so early, thus sparing us worse down the road. That said, still wish he would have beaten Webb-—we’d be in control of the Sentate still. Unfortunate indeed.
“That’s an interest point. I thought Romney would have been better served to have run again for governor, but he didn’t, a Democrat took the MA governorship, and now Romney may have a chance to be nominated.”
In today’s nomination cycle, it would be quite hard to do what Pres Bush did in ‘98 in Texas-—win re-election and then go for the presidency. The race for the ‘08 Presidency began 6 months ago-—just when Mitt would have started his 2nd term.
To campaign in Iowa, NH, SC, etc. it would be very hard to do all of that + be a governor. Possible, but much, much harder than in ‘98, IMO.
However, in all reality Mitt wouldn’t have won a 2nd term, as the Democrats were united behind 1 candidate. With Repubs only 15% in that blue state...well, you do the math.
Plus, 2008 is an open year...waiting until a possible opening in 2012 would be much riskier. So, given both considerations, he took the right course of action.
It is obvious he ran a rotten campaign. And when it came out that his mother was really Jewish, he mishandled that one big time. Even I was offended, although I would have voted for him over Webb any day of the week. I hope Webb is defeated the next time around. He really hates the military.
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