Posted on 02/05/2008 10:31:17 PM PST by americanophile
Tonights Super Tuesday Primary leaves little to be positive about, even for McCain supporters. Tuesday merely proved the degree to which the GOP is fractured, unenthusiastic, and weak.
Romney and Huckabee still have life in them, but McCain was the nights big winner. November is well off, but at this stage the fall forecast is dim. The Republicans will be entering the race with a 72 year old Senator, despised by large swathes of his own base, sluggishly propelled by a divided and deeply demoralized GOP electorate that is likely to produce an anemic campaign war chest.
By contrast, the Democrats, feverishly enthusiastic and rabid for change, will enter flush with cash, and led by either the Nations first woman nominee - backed by her husbands famously formidable political machine or the Nations first black nominee - a hollow but undeniably charismatic candidate.
From here on out, we can likely expect a dramatic shift to the left. Either of these Democratic candidates will significantly raise our taxes, fling open the doors to our borders, enact economically crippling environmental policy, stack the Supreme Court with leftists, attempt to impose socialized medicine, and force a humiliating and ignominious withdrawal from Iraq. In the view of many conservatives, Senator McCain would only be slightly better on many of these issues, save the War.
No matter how you cut the cake, 2008 is shaping up to be a big Democratic year.
Whether anything can be done to mitigate this impending disaster remains to be seen, life has a way of changing the calculus suddenly and unpredictably, but at this stage, prudence demands that we prepare those tax shelters and buy an extra rifle while we still can.
An inglorious day for the GOP; all the signs point to a gathering storm.
I’m with you. Things to Do List for Wednesday February 6th:
1. Make a GaZillion Dollars
2. Hide it
3. Take out trash
i highly doubt that.. McCain certainly has his part but the Republican party has been in trouble for a long time now. Conservatism isnt dead, it just has no where to go.. the Republican party certainly isnt conservative any more
“Hell yeah! I’m with you, we need to take this country back from the left! We may loose this round, but the fight is not over!”
That’s it man.
Just not giving up.
Sometimes your the windshield, sometimes your the bug.
I’ll do what I gotta do and press on.
“I saw Obama say tonight that one candidate (Hillary obviously) had taken in more money from lobbyists than both Republican candidates. He said he has NO lobbyist money. Hmmm....”
Yeah, he just gets all his money from the trial lawyers and from the teachers’ union and other unions. Oh, but not from those nasty lobbyists.
Amen. May I suggest everyone here consider supporting the following candidates from my state:
Free Republic's own John Armor
“The Bush Administration didnt want to put up a fight for whatever reason and the people either lost respect or bought into the medias slanted views.”
George Bush has always been a human pinata. He just sits there and lets his enemies beat him about the head. Always has ticked me off bigtime. No fight in the man. Thinks he’s above all that. Well, when you are fighting with street fighters, you better throw out the rules according to Hoyle or get creamed.
After the vultures (mcloon and his sycophants) are done picking over the carcass, there won’t be enough left to run for class president, and that’s exactly what they’ve wanted all along.
I saw a lot of talk, bluff and bluster but the “new” conservatives turned out to be nothing more than a paper tiger.
I’m a hard core conservative but I am also a pragmatic person and very very patient. Romney would have destroyed the GOP like Goldwater and that is not the way to achieve anything of substance.
Partially i think. To me, the main problem is the GOP has no conservatives who can lead
amen brother.. i will not vote for a RINO again
Those polls showing McCain being able to beat Hillary or Obama are useless at this point in time. Polls were also showing Rudy way ahead of all the republican candidates, so much for that. The polls out here in CA turned out to be wrong, the one in New Hampshire turned out to be wrong.
well if romney can’t win the gop nomination, if he can’t even win in border states like california and arizona, then he would certainly be creamed in the general. Mccain was the only one who has any chance to win the general election.
If we picked a romney, he lose in a landslide and all our enemies would interpret that as a sign that we won’t stay the course in the long war against islamofascism.
Winning all the time? What world are you living in? I certainly don't see W's term as having been much of a win.
“Look at the Dim turnout in almost any state. They are going to roll over our dumb a$$es like the proverbial freight train.”
I understand that’s your opinion, and you may be right, but how to you reconcile that to national polling data?
“If Republicans had the chance to go back and start over, knowing what they know now, I find it hard to believe theyd wind up in the same place they are now.”
Agreed. Looking back, we must learn the lesson of not dividing the conservative vote. Start preparing for 2012 now!
But for the present - I say McCain is the far better of Hilary or Obama. If he is the nominee I will vote for him. The War is the most compelling reason for me. I read earlier tonight that, when he was one of the first to support the surge, a reporter asked him, do you not have any concerns that supporting the surge will cost you your re-election? His answer was, I’d rather win the war than win the election.
If this anecdote is true, I believe it says a lot. I can’t help put Hilary or Obama in charge of our military. I will vote for McCain should he be our nominee.
I guess I should have been posting my comments on this thread. Instead they went on another.
I feel that this primary drives a splintering stake through the factions that make up the Reagan Coalition. But it also might be the unifying moment of the Real Reagan Conservatives who dont feel they have a dog in this fight.
Although the Reagan coalition has evolved, it still was the silent majority that drove the Reagans movement. The Great Communicator brought together five distinct groups; evangelicals, neoconservatives, the anti communists, the libertarians and traditionalist Catholics. Whereas the neocons and the anti communists of Reagans era would today be described as people who are instinctively motivated by their desire to defeat not the communists but the Islamofascists. The Reagan Democrat Catholics have flocked to the Dems and the Evangelicals have split between all three of our current choices but are most unified behind Huckabee. A vote for Huck is a vote that is cast more as protest of McCain and Romney than it is a vote of confidence in Mikes victory. The Libertarians of Reagans era were more realistic constitutionalists in favor of Order than todays radical, protectionist, anarchists who follow Ron Paul so enthusiastically.
To mix metaphors, I think that tonight McCain did not deliver a knock-out but scored a few more touchdowns on Romney. Theres still time left on the clock. Tonight even Huckabee was delivering a victory speech and showed no signs of pulling out of the race after he won a few states. Many see Huckabee as someone who has no legitimate shot at winning the nomination. Many now also see Romney that way too. Even though Mitt received more votes than the governor of Arkansas, more people are proclaiming Romney dead than there are who say Huckabee is unviable.
Most insightful observers see Huckabee staying in the race at McCains bidding to spoil Romneys chances. What Romney needs to emphasize going forward is that the tonights results prove that the party hasnt finished voting. There are more battles to be fought. Huck can raise more funds now that hes won a few since Iowa. Romney has enough delegates and enough money (his and his fundraising) to fight until convention. Do we think Mitt will pull out before Huck?
I said earlier that This election could be uniting to the Real Reagan Conservatives
True Conservatives who are astonished that the Republican party may manage to nominate a man who didnt vote for some of the biggest tax cuts, who imposed regulations on the 1st Amendment, and who has earned favor with the liberal press by regularly violating Regans eleventh commandment by bashing his own party. -The Reagan conservatives have a list of things that they dont like about McCain and they havent been impressed by Romneys attempts to be Reaganesque.
Because I believe that because tonight wasnt a knock out, Huck and Mitt can stay in it all the way to convention even if they end up looking like a Republican version of Dennis the Menace. Theyve got the money to carry on. So its not over. Least we forget, our complacency last fall when we believed McCain was sunk. It wasnt over then. Its not over now.
Mitt began to let it all hang out tonight. Fortune conceals the genius of a general, adversity reveals it. Were are about to see if hes got what it takes. Sadly, I fear its nothing new or more inspiring.
I wonder if McCain made the Veep deal with Huck. If McCain only offered him a cabinet seat, Mitt ought to offer it to Huck right now.
It may simply be too little too late for ‘08. Romney would have a long hard road if he won an we know that McCain’s friends in the media are going to turn on him in an instant and ravage him. But this business is pendular. It may need to swing their way before it comes back to us. But like sitting on a swing, we need to make sure it doesn’t go too far their way and we need to push hard to make sure it comes far and high our way.
I think Republicans and PARTICULARLY Reagan Conservatives need to NOT ABANDON the Republican party and history proves that every time we dont get Ronaldus Maximus there are many passionate people who fiercely advance the idea of abandoning the Party and its incredible heritage, infrastructure in search of developing a third party with the same core principles of the GOP. The Don taught us not to get emotional about business. This is a complicated business. Its not time to try to open shop in competition.
To lump all GOP lawmakers as blood suckers is very flawed thinking. Today there ARE more Cashocrats in the Republican party (the 110th Congress was full of em.), its true. But it wasnt long ago that the electorate felt that a permanent majority of principled Reaganites had swept into power. There are a bunch of them still there in Washington and even more importantly, there are still a bunch of em in the party politic and in local units of government. Sadly it seems, none are running for POTUS.
I dont believe that the party has turned its back on conservatives. If you knew the people who make up the Party Politic, the chattering class, the rank and file Republicans youd know that they are eating their heart out over what the primary voters are doing.
Listen, we have to stop blaming the media. Reagan achieved despite none of the advantages we should value today. Our problem is that we havent had a leader build a movement around a constellation of conservative principles.
Russell Kirks Ten Principles (hes one of the titans on conservative thought for you who know little past being a Dittohead.)
1 Conservatives believe that there exists and enduring moral order.
2 Conservatives adheres to custom, convention and continuity,
3 Conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription.
4 Conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence. .
5 Conservatives pay attention to principle of variety. (think free market competition here)
6 Conservatives are chastened by their principles of imperfectability. (man being imperfect no perfect social order can be created.)
7 Conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.
8 Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism.
9 Conservatives perceive the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
10 The thinking Conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.
It just kills me that on Reagans birthday, I cant vote for Dutch.
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