It's all about victory! The Founding Fathers knew that too, when they created our system of governing and politics, and the same is true today. First off, I'm not selling out my political beliefs, not for one minute. But political reality dictates, if you want an opportunity to control the reins of government, you must win election victory. I'm not satisfied sitting on the sidelines and being a political back bench bomb thrower. May be you are.
As Ronald Reagan said:
"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it. "Compromise" was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.
"I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.
"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it."
Ronald Reagan, from his autobiography, An American Life
... candidates named "Nader" and "Perot" didn't have any influence in two out of the last three elections, now did they?
Perot did hurt Bush41 and cost him the election in 1992. I think people have seen what a mistake, the Reform Party was. I don't follow Nadar or the details of ultra-liberal thinkers, but I don't believe you'll see old Ralph receiving 2.7 million votes again. The left hates President Bush and will work for strict unity in 2004.
Those conservatives who are aren't satisfied with Bush and choose to vote third party, will be offset by independent voters, who view George W.Bush as an honest and trustworthy leader. Remember, conservatives aren't a majority and conservative candidates must appeal to the independent voters, in order to win elections.
And history will repeat itself - A unified left combined with a fractured right will put a liberal in the WH. In 2000 it was a unified right and a fractured left that put GWB in the WH. In 92, it was a unified left and a fractured right that put a liberal in the WH. So on and so forth.
Those conservatives who are aren't satisfied with Bush and choose to vote third party, will be offset by independent voters, who view George W.Bush as an honest and trustworthy leader.
Bush41 and Gore told themselves the same things I'm sure.
There is a little song that Bush should be listening to. If the democrats are able to field somebody that can pull in the Nader votes, then all of the independents together won't be enough to re-elect him.
LITTLE TEXAS LYRICS
Dance (Porter Howell/Dwayne O'Brien)
Take your time and watch your step
You'd better get it right
Or you'll get left behind
The way you're dancin' I can tell
That someone else is on your mind
You'd better dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better hold on to the one that loves you
You'd better turn around before we're through
And dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better dance
And that sparkle in your wanderin' eye
Has struck you blind as far as I can see
Take one step back and look again
You're gonna leave with him
Or stay with me
You'd better dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better hold on to the one that loves you
You'd better turn around before we're through
And dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better dance
Well now we've gone this long
Don't let it slip through your hands
Dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better hold on to the one that loves you
You'd better turn around before we're through
And dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better hold on to the one that loves you
You'd better turn around before we're through
And dance with the one that brung ya
You'd better dance
Yeah
I voted for him because I believed he could do good things and was the best man for the job. After 9/11 when he began tilting to the left (way more than any "compromise" excuse can account for), he lost my faith and confidence. When his administration began to constantly try and scare the crap out of us with unsubstantiated alerts and the like, I knew they were grasping for straws, to try and keep a "wartime" feel about things (and his approval ratings up). When they act like Saudi Arabia doesn't exist and ignore the Saudi's ties to 9/11 and to the suicide bombers and instead tell us it's our local potheads and crackheads that are funding the terrorists, I know that they are no better than Clinton was when it came to his scandals and the like that he tried to cover up or pretend didn't exist. He won't be getting my vote in the next election.