Posted on 11/11/2008 3:20:21 AM PST by Loud Mime
It's veterans day with Mr. CRF himself, John McCain
Hopefully Jay will have Sarah Palin on Constitution Day
It already exists. It tried to win on its own with Huckabee and failed. The party and the country need the moral compass of religious conservatives but it also needs the fiscal discipline and commitment to liberty the libertarians bring. That was the formula for the Reagan coalition. It worked.
It has not been tried. There was no pro-religion conservative caucus. I have not asked for a pro-conservative religious caucus.
Huckabee was rejected by many religious conservatives as not being a true conservative except on a few social issues. He would have been McCain, better spoken, but with a collar.
Duncan Hunter would’ve been an awesome pro-religion CONSERVATIVE.
He was quick to defend Obama and critisize the Relavent Rev. Wright ads, but look how slow he is to defend the honor of a fine Christian women!
I agree that the primary system has to be changed so both parties end up with a nominee who represents the vast majority of their respective bases. Maybe, instead of by ‘county,’ an allocation could be done by Congressional District since CD’s are population based and roughly equally populated. Winning 50 of 60 counties doesn’t do much good if 90% of a state’s population is in the 10 counties. But if one candidate wins 7 of 10 Congressional Districts in the primary, it’s a precursor of how s/he might do in the general election.
One helpful change would be having the earliest primaries in more ‘belleweather’ states, i.e., Ohio, Missouri, and having a range of states, not small states ... especially IA and NH that are now pretty solidly blue. Maybe we could have an early primary in AL or MS as well.
There is a LOT of room for improvement in the process, but it would help if conservatives and/or Republicans could get behind one candidate, independent of the primaries. In ‘07, all I saw conservatives do was trash Rudy Giuliani who was in the lead in most polls. There was a bloc for Hunter, and beyond that very little solidarity. The ‘voices’ of conservatism, i.e., Rush/Sean/Mark didn’t focus on any single candidate and refused endorsements till it appeared McCain would get the nomination. By then it was too late.
We also have to be willing to sacrifice ideological purity if it means having the 3rd most conservative candidate win the nomination if he has a chance to get elected, rather than the #1 most conservative who doesn’t stand a chance.
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