It is exciting enough just to stop Hillary
(Who's Pat Buchanan's pick, anyway?)
By Mark Kilmer Posted in 2008 | giuliani | Hillary | huckabee | McCain | Romney | thompson — Comments (16) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
On one of his MSNBC shows this evening, infotainer Chris Matthews talked to Pat Buchanan and washingtonpost.com blogger Chris Cillizza about Republican Presidential politics. I suppose it’s good to hear opinions from outside the party – neither Buchanan nor Cillizza is a Republican – and it fills time for Matthews.
Matthews thinks Rudy wins the nomination. I don’t remember Cillizza expressing a certain opinion beyond Rudy, but Buchanan thought Mitt Romney had a good shot at defeating Giuliani no matter what Romney did. When confronted with the cumbersome fact that Romney is not faring well outside the few primary States where he is buying TV time and on one else has until recently, Buchanan echoed the popular theory that somehow wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, etc. will lift Romney’s popularity in other States. It’s plausible, PJB, but it would be insane to bet the fortune on that one. So many States are moving forward this cycle to increase their clout vis-à-vis the traditional candidacy-makers. No one’s going to follow these States just because Pat Buchanan complains that this is how it has always been done.
Nah, if Romney’s going to win this nomination, he’ll need to win more than a few States early, fingers crossed.
But if he does win this nomination, there is no reason why he could not, with some help, defeat Hillary.
Let's look at a poll. (Read More....)
AP-IPSOS show the race nationally to be: Giuliani-29%, Thompson-19%, McCain-13%, Romney-12%, Huckabee-10%. But they have some interesting "second-best" numbers:
Giuliani, assailed by some on the right for his moderate stances on abortion, gays and guns, was the second choice of 33 percent of the conservatives who did not make him their top pick. An additional 19 percent took McCain as their backup selection, while Romney got 15 percent, Thompson 14 percent and Huckabee 13 percent.
If everything actually lines up that way, it is great news for Giuliani, for it suggests that though Rudy would not be the first choice of many SoCons, these folks are willing to "stoop" to Rudy if he is indeed the nominee. This takes nothing away from Richard Land's talk of a third party should Rudy win the Republican nomination. That dynamic could still be at work.
This will be an exciting race, though perhaps not as we know it. We surely can become motivated to stop Hillary,
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It is exciting enough just to stop Hillary 16 Comments (0 topical, 16 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
the campaigns might consider to be electorally and/or demographically unimportant.
coalesce around one Rudy alternative. Rudy has a low ceiling as a liberal on too many issues that alienate too much of the base. Don't get me wrong, I think Rudy would be a great president, but his refusal to admit that Roe was wrongly decided is anathema. MUCH more serious that Mitt's changes in positions or Fred's position on the HLA.
Strategy can't overcome this, nor can $$$.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
www.fred08.com
on the War on Terror. Nobody else has anything approaching his 9/11 credentials. People understand that this is the most important issue, and this is why Rudy has so much support all across the board. The Islamofascists are a much more dangerous enemy than the leftists, even for the SoCons. And the War on Terror also makes the lefties easier to control in other respects, since it shows them as unpatriotic and makes them lose credibility. This is the one issue on which Republicans are much stronger than Democrats, and the one issue on which the general election can be easily won. Rudy knows all this, and his strategy is very well tailored to it.
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"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it."
--Rudy Giuliani
are also war hawks. But, Fred is much stronger on the overall war that Rudy. Fred calls Iran's acts of war against our troops in Iraq..acts of war.
No other candidate has been this explicit.
Because to say that, one is compelled to fight back. The careful pols don't like to make such tough choices "early." Early in a campaign.
Fred understands its more important not to be LATE for America.
So he doesn't calculate his language to crowd out the WHOLE truth.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
www.fred08.com
Rudy has no credentials on fighting the GWOT. His credentials are his tenure as mayor and his performance during and immediately after 9/11.
He has not, however, has any experiencing fighting the GWOT.
Don't get me wrong, this is the only issue Rudy has right, and I applaud him for being strong on national security, but it isn't right to be overstating it.
and I visit them a few times a year when DINKENS ran the city it was a crime ridden dangerous place to even visit after dark and in some sections during the day
Rudy did the impossible he cleaned up a cesspool of crime , pornography , wide open 24 hours a day out on the street hard drug sales , and cut taxes.
President. Not least of which that he was a color blind mayor that refused to play with Rev Al!
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
www.fred08.com
The only stain on Rudy's record of running a clean pretty much crime free city was police commisioner kerik
but sadly corruption can strike almost anywhere greed is a human weakness
but outside of rudy's messy divorce from donna hanover and his moderately-liberal social positions his only major failure as a mayor for 8 years was his blind loyalty to kerik or some would call it a lapse in judgement.
That he had clay feet that Rudy was unaware of is no stain to anyone but beltway gotcha types, not actual Americans!
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
www.fred08.com
There is no question that Rudy did a stellar job of cleaning up NYC. If Rudy is the nominee, I will certainly punch that ticket, but I'm not so sure that his work in NYC is respected in the rest of the nation as well as it deserves to be. I grew up and live in the Midwest and although I went to school out East, and have relatives in NYC, I'm not so sure middle America realizes the before and after with Rudy in NYC.
I certainly respect the results Rudy achieved, but I'm not so sure that my friends in the Midwest necessarily realize what the change has been in NYC, and I think to a certain degree that they resent all the NYC talk coming from Rudy. I'm not so sure how to describe this, but while everyone realizes that NYC is a huge city, bigger than many, if not most states, the focus on NYC(while certainly warranted, given his success there) may cut his support amongst the Midwesterners who get the impression that everything between NYC and LA is "flyover country".
If Rudy gets the nomination, I hope Midwesterners realize what he has accomplished in such a liberal state, but I worry he could lose a critical state like Missouri, while not making it up elsewhere.
Personally, I think we REALLY want her.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
I agree that both Giuliani and Romney can beat Hillary. Fred Thompson might be able to do so too, but his campaign has been so well hidden that I can't ascertain his organizational skill. It might be that Thompson does not have an effective campaign, but in that case he won't get the nomination.
I support Giuliani but Romney is fine by me too. IMO the Presidency is Giuliani's to lose - only Rudi can beat Rudi. And he might, but with Romney there to pick up the pieces and win the general election. They'd both be good Presidents.
Nominate Romney, and lose 300+ EVs to Hillary. Of all our candidates, he's our ticket to electoral failure.
Romney would CRUSH Hillary in a debate. He's got ten times the experience. He has less negatives than Hillary. Ron Paul could even beat her!
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
-Winston Churchill
And then win more states and then get the delegates necessary to win the nomination?
Yes, the race doesn't end in SC. But is the Rudy strategy to lose 4 states and then win the nomination? He'll have to do MORE than lose the first 4?
???
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
www.fred08.com