Posted on 11/18/2008 9:25:42 PM PST by Wegotsarah.com
South Carolina's Mark Sanford is one of three GOP governors now being widely mentioned as potential saviors of the Republican Party between now and 2012. All are conspicuous for calling on their own party to live up to its principles. Most notably, none have advocated the GOP move to the left.
Mr. Sanford is a two-term governor known for vetoing spending bills, pushing market-oriented policy reforms (such as moving his state's Medicaid system to a private account-based model) and criticizing the lapses of the national GOP. "Some on the left will say our electoral losses are a repudiation of our principles of lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty," he wrote on CNN.com after this month's elections. "But Tuesday was not in fact a rejection of those principles -- it was a rejection of Republicans' failure to live up to those principles."
In the same op-ed he took a swing at Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, identifying him as someone who "personifies what went wrong in the election. . . He was a proud champion of pork barrel spending and bridges to nowhere and stayed so long that he developed a blind eye to ethical lapses that would be readily seen by scout leaders and soccer moms alike."
Two other leading lights for a troubled GOP are Govs. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Before she became John McCain's running mate, Mrs. Palin was best known for challenging her own state GOP to cure its spendthrift, corrupt ways. She unseated a sitting mayor in her first bid for office and became a giant killer by knocking off the high-handed, free-spending Gov. Frank Murkowski in a Republican primary.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The moderates had the perfect opportunity with mccain to ‘reform’ the GOP and they blew it. Forget it. After 4 years of Obama, the country will be running to the conservative even if he doesn’t believe in global warming, evolution or ‘compassionate conservatism.’
In congress, can I get back to you on that next week????
I understand completely. Palin made him more tolerable, not anywhere near acceptable. However, the alternative that we now face is unthinkable.
well there were conservatives who were against the war. Also, mccain was looking good in the polls until the bailout. He looked like he didn’t know what he was doing and therefore not fit to be CiC.
You might want to reconsider Rick Perry, he ordered all girls sixth grade and above to submit to STD vaccine, and came down on the wrong side of the Trans Texas Corridor. He is no more conservative than his predecessor.
BMFL.
Take that, Kathleen Parker. And don’t let it smack your behind on the way out.
either way those that were ignorant, who voted because obama was not a republican or because he was black take some blame, for stupidity, but what our own peeps did was out of spite...
Personally I think its time for a divorce. Republican can mean Ronald Reagan to Lincoln Chaffee. The party is meaningless. Democraps however mean everything from lying to Treason. Its time to define us as 1 party, a Conservative Party. A party that no Rockefeller could hope to join. Where there are not Swartzeneggars, Bushes or Snowes or Grahams or McCains! Hard core Reaganite Conservatives, period! This is a 3rd party that could put a stake in the Republican party and get rid of it! I'm tired of the different flavors of this party!
Well until we stop allowing Iowa and New Hampshire picking our candidates, we really can’t say that now can we. That is what needs to change not who WE WANT. I found that out the hard way this year big time!!!
There’s plenty of room for RINOs.
...stuffed and mounted on the wall next to the gazelles.
I wish Sanford would run against Grahamnesty in the next primary!
Are you talking 2014???? Grahamnesty was just reelected...very sadly!!!
“His Palin pick helped with all but Catholics.”
I think the Palin pick hurt most with Jews. Most American Jews are secular, not religious. They fear evangelicals more than islamists. Before the Palin pick, Obama was polling around 60%, but exit polling showed he pulled 76% of the Jewish vote.
Still, I think Gov. Palin was an exciting addition to the ticket who increased the base turnout. Without her it would have been a bigger blowout for Obama .... 52% isn’t exactly a landslide. Especially given the $$$ advantage he had (from sources unknown).
Both Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin made one major mistake with the financial meltdown ... blaming it all on the greed of Wall Street without setting out that “Wall Street” is far more Dem friendly than Republican, and the “Masters of the Universe” were the second largest donors by profession to Obama. McCain/Palin never properly articulated the Freddie/Fannie situation and the Dems promotion of NINJA loans and extortion of the banking/mortgage institutions.
Historically, for any Republican to win this year would have been abberant. In the last century only once did the party that held the White House for eight years win, and that was GHWB following very popular Reagan.
She helped with Devout Catholics probably.
It's a good question, but the answer is not that cut-and-dry.
Basically, there is a role for RINOs in the GOP - in hard blue states. For example, as much as I personally cannot stand them, Olympia Snowe and her idiot twin Collins are the best you are going to get in Maine, so you leave them alone. Let them vote left when it doesn't matter - when you need their votes, the party applies the screws to make sure it happens.
This is exactly what the Rats did to get control. Think about it: Bob Casey in PA, Jim Webb in VA, etc. All ran on conservative issues, but will be there to vote with the Rats when their votes are needed.
What needs to change is the following:
1) The GOP is a conservative party, and will not apologize for it or equivicate/pander with those who do not agree. RINOs are welcome, as long as they understand our core principles are not negotiable. Any future attempts to "water down" the core principles will get them tossed.
2) Where we need to do is attack the RINOs mercilessly in RED states. They need to be challenged in primaries at every opportunity and ultimately purged from the party.
Here is a good short RINO-hunting list:
McCrazy-AZ
His girlfriend, Lindsay Grahamnesty-SC
Dick Luger-IN
Kay Bailey Hitchison-TX
Folks on the thread can feel free to add their own list of red state RINOs that need to be primaried out of office. Two of the head RINOs, John Warner (VA) and Al-Qaeda's buddy Chuck Hagel (NE) have already been dispatched, to the GOP's betterment.
That is a good start, but there is much more work to be done before President Palin, Sanford or Jindal takes office on 1/20/13.
You mean the ones that McCain will probably vote "aye" on?
After all, he publicly said that he will work with Obama to "fix" the United States.
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