Cut. Print. PERFECT!
Posted on 08/06/2012 12:10:45 PM PDT by xzins
Here’s a test to apply to the names of all potential Republican vice presidential candidates: if the Washington Republican establishment, like the GOP congressional leadership, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, defense industry lobbyists and Capitol Hill political consultants, all applaud the name, Governor Romney has picked the wrong candidate and is in danger of losing the election.
It is not a done deal yet, but if you look past the front page articles on the Olympics and the latest crime news, you will find articles reporting that Governor Mitt Romney is on the verge of announcing the name of the vice presidential candidate he wants to join him on the Republican ticket.
And the names that are floating around sound like Governor Romney is all set to unite the 25% of GOP voters who constitute the Bush-Romney wing of the Republican Party.
That leaves behind the 75% of grassroots conservative Republican voters who backed Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann in the primaries.
Many of these activists still haven’t forgotten -- or forgiven -- the carpet bombing campaign that Romney ran to destroy first one conservative challenger and then another during the primary election season. And they have seen nothing from the Romney campaign that indicates the Governor has an inclination to move beyond the smears to embrace any of the conservative ideas their candidates ran on.
While the media and establishment Republican insiders float names like Condoleeza Rice, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Ohio’s establishment GOP Senator Rob Portman -- conservatives are seething.
Because it looks like conservatives are being shut out, not just of the process of selecting a running mate, but even of speaking at the convention.
Moderate GOP Senator John McCain, Bush family acolyte Condoleeza Rice, and big government conservative Fox News personality Mike Huckabee are all speaking -- but none of the high profile speaking roles announced so far are going to small government, constitutional conservatives.
Governor Romney and his establishment Republican advisors and consultants seem to think that the boogie man of four more years of Obamanomics is enough to energize conservatives – it is not.
This is a “base election” where the result will be decided by which Party’s base is most energized. That’s why Obama has embarked on his class warfare campaign, endorsed same-sex marriage, issued an Executive Order to implement the Dream Act (to pander to Hispanics) and why he continues to sit on the Keystone Pipeline to curry favor with environmentalists.
Governor Romney, on the other hand, has done nothing to appeal to conservatives, even when he was handed 20 million conservative supporters through Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day he ignored them, by saying, “That’s not something that’s part of my campaign.”
Governor Romney and his campaign team just don’t seem to grasp that all the energy in the Republican Party lies with small government constitutional conservatives and Tea Partiers, and to win they need to energize conservatives, not just get their votes on Election Day.
To energize conservatives, Mitt must choose a vice presidential nominee who conservatives see as a conservative, not one the establishment thinks is safe, but one who conservatives will accept as one of their own – a small government constitutional conservative.
In 2006, some 4 million conservative voters stayed home because they were turned-off by the outrages of the Bush-era Republican establishment leaders – many of whom are now Velcroed on to Governor Romney – and Republicans were wiped out at the polls.
In 2010, the Tea Party and small government constitutional conservatives became the face of the GOP and Republicans won an historic – perhaps even realigning – election.
So-called moderate Republicans are, at best, 25% of the Republican vote, and when moderate establishment Republicans were the face of the GOP, Republicans routinely lost presidential elections and were a powerless minority on Capitol Hill.
Now the three-legged coalition of Ronald Reagan has been broadened by the addition of the constitutional conservatives of the Tea Party. Working together, the four legs of this new conservative coalition have created a powerful political movement whose energy won what should be a 21st century American political realignment – the 2010 elections.
Conservatives look to Governor Romney’s choice of running mate as an indication that he shares their commitment to small government constitutional principles and will campaign and govern as a conservative. Establishment figures like Tim Pawlenty, Condoleeza Rice, Ohio Senator Rob Portman or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are no conservatives and are recipes for a demoralized conservative base!
Excellent comparison... or Zell Miller for that matter.
LLS
Nicely put!
If you lost the last election, how do you plan to win the next election unless some of the people who voted against you last time vote for you this time?? Reagan in 1980 got millions of votes from people who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 -- didn't work out too badly.
Enjoy your new improved liberal party while it lasts.
Crusher, another thing those of us in Realville understand: if Romney wins with a landslide, he and progressives and moderates will quickly pervert what was a referendum on Obama, into a resounding popular mandate for Romney -- we here in Realville see pretty clearly that they would do this because it is in their best interests.
You and Rush over there in Wishville, on the otherhand, can only wish they won't do that. And if Romney wins on a landslide, and you watch open-mouthed as conservative Republicans one by one cave to the pressure of Romney and moderate Republicans as they move forward with nationalized health care, global warming regulation, the gay agenda, activist judges, and ever-creeping government oversight and tyranny because, after all, the top Republican leader has the backing of the easy majority of voting Americans so he must be doing something right ...
... you folks there in Wishville would be wishing you never even heard of Mitt Romney, let alone voted for him.
We here in Realville, on the other hand, have faced and accepted the universal truth when a conservative votes for a liberal Democrat registered as a Republican, a bad outcome is guaranteed. You folks in Wishville wish it wasn't.
“This is a “base election” where the result will be decided by which Party’s base is most energized. That’s why Obama has embarked on his class warfare campaign, endorsed same-sex marriage, issued an Executive Order to implement the Dream Act (to pander to Hispanics) and why he continues to sit on the Keystone Pipeline to curry favor with environmentalists.....Governor Romney, on the other hand, has done nothing to appeal to conservatives, even when he was handed 20 million conservative supporters through Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day he ignored them, by saying, “That’s not something that’s part of my campaign.”....Governor Romney and his campaign team just don’t seem to grasp that all the energy in the Republican Party lies with small government constitutional conservatives and Tea Partiers, and to win they need to energize conservatives, not just get their votes on Election Day.....To energize conservatives, Mitt must choose a vice presidential nominee who conservatives see as a conservative, not one the establishment thinks is safe, but one who conservatives will accept as one of their own – a small government constitutional conservative.”
I hope Romney stays true to character and doesn’t pick a “small government constitutional conservative.” Then, maybe, some folks here on FR will realize what a disaster a Romney presidency would be, vote third party, and then start working now on getting a REAL conservative as POTUS in 2016. Of course, it is also critical to ensure that conservative House and Senate candidates get elected to Congress. I have the privilege to tommorrow, her in Missouri, to vote for Sarah Palin endorsed Steel to replace the ubber liberal Dem Senater Claire McCaskill. This will help move the Senate to conservative GOP control and negate anymore Obamination antics.
We vote tomorrow in Michigan too. I have a good solid tea party representative and will be voting for Clark Durant to run against stabenow.
“This is a “base election” where the result will be decided by which Party’s base is most energized. That’s why Obama has embarked on his class warfare campaign, endorsed same-sex marriage, issued an Executive Order to implement the Dream Act (to pander to Hispanics) and why he continues to sit on the Keystone Pipeline to curry favor with environmentalists.....Governor Romney, on the other hand, has done nothing to appeal to conservatives, even when he was handed 20 million conservative supporters through Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day he ignored them, by saying, “That’s not something that’s part of my campaign.”....Governor Romney and his campaign team just don’t seem to grasp that all the energy in the Republican Party lies with small government constitutional conservatives and Tea Partiers, and to win they need to energize conservatives, not just get their votes on Election Day.....To energize conservatives, Mitt must choose a vice presidential nominee who conservatives see as a conservative, not one the establishment thinks is safe, but one who conservatives will accept as one of their own – a small government constitutional conservative.”
I hope Romney stays true to character and doesn’t pick a “small government constitutional conservative.” Then, maybe, some folks here on FR will realize what a disaster a Romney presidency would be, vote third party, and then start working now on getting a REAL conservative as POTUS in 2016. Of course, it is also critical to ensure that conservative House and Senate candidates get elected to Congress. I have the privilege to tommorrow, her in Missouri, to vote for Sarah Palin endorsed Steel to replace the ubber liberal Dem Senater Claire McCaskill. This will help move the Senate to conservative GOP control and negate anymore Obamination antics.
I can just hear the screehes of the RomneyBots now...
“This was written by someone who HATES our po lil boy Wee Willie...
This HATER is from DU and is a secret Obama voter..”
LOL
Ignoring the 75% of the conservative base seems to be mittens’ specialty.
Kinky
Kinky
I like your FReeper name...
The TWO Time draft dodging coward Willard is the unMasadaman...
Cut. Print. PERFECT!
Conservatives don’t have a voice because they keep voting GOP no matter what. The GOP has no reason to listen to people who will vote for them no matter what.
Conservatives don’t have a voice because they keep voting GOP no matter what. The GOP has no reason to listen to people who will vote for them no matter what.
Yeah, especially when I am a normal, heterosexual, Bible-thumping, gun-toting, Chick-Fil-a scarfing customer.
Them glossy pictures of politicians don’t tempt me none.
Why would an abusive husband have any respect for a wife that keeps taking him in?
The Republican party is to conservatives what Ike Turner was to Tina.
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