Time for Republicansto Take a Stand!

Free Republic Special ^ | January 5, 2008 | JB Williams

[PlainOleAmerican]

Days after the first 2008 primary contest in Iowa, only two things are clear. One of the following five men will be the Republican nominee for 2008 and nobody knows which one.

Mike Huckabee - Mitt Romney - Fred Thompson - John McCain - Rudy Giuliani

No matter how we feel about any of these five men, one of them will be the Republican nominee for 2008. Each represents a very different idea of what it is to be “republican” or “conservative.” The time to make excuses or nuanced explanations for past policy positions has passed. The time to choose the next leader of America’s conservative movement, the Republican Party, has come.

Which of these men we choose through the primary process will determine how well the Republican Party can unite next November to defeat the Democrat nominee, be it Obama, Edwards or Clinton. The wrong choice will leave the party fractured and divided on ideological lines, and the door for another 1992 styled Democrat victory wide open. The right choice will bring all Republican voters into the booth for an Election Day victory.

It’s Time for Republicans to Take a Stand

Iowa voters sent a clear undeniable message. They took a stand. But what did they say?

Iowa Republicans chose Mike Huckabee, an affable guitar playing former Baptist minister who was Governor of Arkansas. A quick tongued jovial man who speaks the language of the common average American, with a pulpit styled sense of humor and a gentle ease of delivery.

Why did Iowa choose a Southern Pastor for President?

He’s clearly not the most conservative candidate in the race. He’s also not the most qualified, the best known or the best funded.

But he is the most “likable” which is to say, someone the people feel they can “trust.”

The Jilted Lover Syndrome

Conservative voters across this nation are still angry over the past performance of the Republican controlled congress and the Republican White House. Both spent money like a drunken Kennedy at a Martha’s Vineyard lawn party, fought for open borders like Howard Dean counting illegal voters at the border and allowed what should have been a six month mission in Iraq to drift into a five year police action while Bin Laden still slips around Pakistan untouched.

In short, Republican voters don’t trust Republican politicians much more than Democrat politicians, whom they don’t trust at all.

So, beyond a resume’, a list of perfect conservative votes or the distinguishing backbone of an obvious leader, voters are looking for someone they can “trust” to carry out whatever their promises might be. After all, broken promises are worthless promises.

Slick vs. Substance – Rhetoric vs. Reality

Liberals have always fallen for slick rhetoric over substance or reality. But conservatives have always preferred real substance, less impressed by slick rhetoric from sly salesmen.

Jilted by the last Republicans they put in power, they are being even more careful than normal in choosing the next leader of their party, as well they should. As a result, the race is far from settled. But the message is clear… Slick isn’t going to cut it in 2008. Reality will trump rhetoric in the Republican primary process, or Democrats will win in ’08.

The Five

Rather than writing my opinions about each of the five potential nominees, I am interested in testing the fire in the belly of the average Republican voter. I want to know if Republican voters are really ready to unite behind conservative principles at the foundation of the Republican Party, or if they are still trying to negotiate the middle ground, split hairs and nominate a candidate aligned only marginally to the right of the Democrat candidates.

Assuming that one of these five men will indeed be the ultimate Republican nominee, which do you feel is best qualified to carry the conservative agenda of the Republican Party forward in the 2008 general election?

Vote only once please. Visit http://www.jb-williams.com to cast your vote. The results will be the subject of my next column, so please vote before Midnight Monday January 7, 2008.

[kinoxi]

Yeah these polls all pretty much suck. We agree.:)

[Haddit]

Jilted could be the word, ever since Bush has pushed giving illegals and their multitude of immediate family amnesty I have felt jilted. I no longer feel obligated to go along with the Republican party but to go along with a true American conservative, and that man is Duncan Hunter.

Lately I have wondered how much impact the Mexican President has influenced our country and believe our country is bending over backwards to appease him. Screw Hannity, the Faux News station and every other traitor that has taken to the cause of Mexico.

[sourcery]

...which is who in your opinion?

Thompson. Anyone else either violently alienates one or more of the major factions of the GOP coalition, or else demonstrably lacks the ability to be an effective Presidential campaigner (e.g, there is no other plausible explanation for the extreme disinterest in Hunter.)

[PlainOleAmerican]

I like Hunter too. Don’t really know why he was unable to mount a campaign???

But he’s not the only true American conservative in this race...

It’s really too bad that Republicans have adopted a myopic my guy or the highway approach to this election. It’s the surest way to end up with a Democrat in the WH. Then you will come to LOVE Bush!

[ronnie raygun]

Who ever it may be I will vote “R” We are doomed if we allow these socialist liberal Dims to control this country. Socialized medicine, income redistribution, strap American industry with kooky conservationst idiology while allowing China and others to run freely, No borders, legal immigration for all illegals, FREEING THE TERRORIST HANDS. What annoys me is some of us get stuck on minor domestic issues. LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE

[PlainOleAmerican]

Agreed!

[PlainOleAmerican]

Well said...

But we really should be working hard for the candidate who can best move the country in the opposite direction, not just avoid a Democrat WH.

Avoid a Democrat, sure. But unite behind conservative principles and move the country away from Democratic Socialism after the election, instead of simply slowing the slide into the abyss.

[Noumenon]

Roger that. Even if it’s a write-in. I’m tired of holding my nose when I vote. Better open warfare with a Democrat devil than to die the death of a thousand cuts from faux Republicans.

[Haddit]

Everybody in the Republican party, Rudy, McCain, Mike, and Mitt, have bent over backwards to Mexico and their drug lords. Only Fred and Hunter have stood above the crapolla.

[PlainOleAmerican]

GO FRED GO!

Hunter for VP!

[MrEdd]

Why would I consider a poll attemting to narrow the field so drastically in the first week of the game to be legitimate? This is New York Times type material. No thanks. Free Republic normally has higher standards

[PlainOleAmerican]

What in the world makes you think that the field could possibly be any larger???

Where’s an ounce of evidence that anyone outside of these five has any chance at all of winning the RNC nomination?

[matthew fuller]

JB Republican Primary Poll
Which candidate do you support for President?
Fred Thompson 71.5% 88

Rudy Giuliani 10.6% 13

Mike Huckabee 6.5% 8

Mitt Romney 6.5% 8

John McCain 4.9% 6

total votes: 123

[MrEdd]

Where’s an ounce of evidence that anyone outside of these five has any chance at all of winning the RNC nomination?

Most Americans, indeed most votors do not focus on world events or politics the way freepers do. I have heard any number of people this past week asking vague questions about the candidates. people who, while clueless now about who's record id what about their issues will find out before their Primary.

The extended voting season incites the passions of the politically active class, and gives them time to build up ammo against the rivals they most despise, but the real game just had it's opening move. Nothing of lasting import has been decided yet, save that fatal political rounds have been loaded into the attack canons regarding a few. Huckabee's showing was due to having not been taken seriously enough for his opponents to chamber a shell.

[PlainOleAmerican]

Impressive jibberish...

But the question remains, who besides these five has any chance at all of winning the RNC nomination and how?

[Republicansto]

It is up to all of us to decide who gets the Nom for the party.

I have to admit after the debate tonight, Fred is intriguing.

[PlainOleAmerican]

I liked the debate format much better and I thought Fred did quite well. He’s the real deal.

ABC is pro DNC obviously. But if Republicans want to debate only on RNC friendly networks, that would limit them to FOX alone.

[MrEdd]

The documentation of Rudy and Mitt's NAMBLA faction pandering is too strong for either of them to overcome. When the attack adds start There is no counter for that. Period. both are toast.

McCain cannot be separated from either McCain Feingold or or his vociferous Illegal alien push. Illegals is a hot enough button that the five front runners - including Fred are tainted - Fred less than the other four. Politics abhors a vacuum. The second tier hopefuls will move up, if only due to obscurity.

And the possibility is very real that liberals could see more gain in crossing over and voting for Ron Paul than in the choices offered by their own primaries. I myself did that when the Goracle was posing as a pro 2nd amendment centrist, against Dukakis in '88.

I have been watching politics for a long time, and this is as changeable a lineup as I can ever remember.

[csmusaret]

After listening to McCain and Guiliani insist that “illegal today, legal tomorrow” isn’t amnesty I could never support either one of them. I thought their heads would come off they were spinning so hard.

[PlainOleAmerican]

The Paul campaign is a nutty pipe dream of the extremist sort. When Zogby asked which candidate America would NEVER vote for, Hillary placed 1st, Kucinich 2nd and Paul 3rd, all at or near 50% of the nation would NEVER vote for any of them.

He is popular only among anti-war isolationist, very few of which are found within the Party he is seeking nomination.

He will bolt for the Constitution Party by mid February, unless he just wants to play spoiler to the RNC nomination process, guaranteeing Rudy or Romney the nomination.