I brought this up six months ago and you all drove me off. The nation has looked at Rudy, Romney and Thompson. Not a one has a prayer of standing up in the storm coming next fall. The Rep apparatus is delusional if it things any of these has a worthy, respected, and electable nationwide presence. When I listen to middle and conservative voters around me, mostly working guys and retired, I'm even more convinced McCain would post the most votes against Hillary.
T5: >When I listen to middle and conservative voters >around me, mostly working guys and retired, I'm >even more convinced McCain would post the most >votes against Hillary. ... and still lose. JB
Personally I can't stand McCain. He is wrong on most of the important issues. For example, he was a big pusher for amnesty, he wants to go full bore on Iraq, he was against tax cuts and his most significant "achievement" in the Senate has been the horrifying McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law that gave us the likes of moveon.org but restricted the rights of ordinary citizens to criticize politicians. However he has been very strong throughout his career against abortion and is a lonely voice against wasteful spending. That said, I think there is something to the point made in the opening post that he might be the most viable candidate against Hillary. He also could end up being a Bob Dole-like candidate that no one takes seriously. Hard to say at this point. To win, all he has to do is carry the states Bush carried. Would he hold Ohio and Florida against Hillary? He faces very long odds of getting the nomination at this point. Ron Paul is raising as much money and generating more excitement. The growing insider consensus now is that the ticket could well be Giuliani/Huckabee. I am certain that will be a loser. Rudy will put some northeastern states "in play", but I can't see him actually carrying them. He will also put some southern states in play for Hillary, and he might well lose a couple of them. Huckabee has some limited appeal to the family values crowd, and the thought is he would offset Rudy's negatives with them. Doubtful in my opinion, plus he has his own problems. He has a record of going along with tax increases, is weak on immigration and has little credibility on security issues. An interesting combination would be Romney/McCain, but I wonder if McCain, with his giant ego could settle for second place, plus he has been critical of Romney and might have burned that bridge already. I have thought for some time the strongest ticket would be some combination of Romney/Thompson. Nice geographical balance and they seem to complement each other fairly well, but what then would become of Giuliani? The other potential combo would be Giuliani/McCain. This could be a real darkhorse ticket, if McCain could force himself to accept second place. They would own the all important national security issue and would have a powerful east/west geographical balance. The conventional wisdom now is that a southern candidate has a big advantage, and they would be forfeiting that, but it might not be such a big negative facing Hillary/Obama, as the dem's will be very weak in the south.
Well then AA, the party can all put an apple in the mouth and get ready for slaughter. The realpolitik dynamic that I see, and which I believe the proponents of Thompson see but will never admit, is very simple - Americans will not an elect an Italian American or a Mormon to the presidency.
oh, so 4 months have passed, and we're supposed to forget MCCAIN/Kennedy Amnesty? McCain can go to hell now, 4 months from now, 4 years from now, forever
Not that I am a huge Rudy fan, but given the Democratic gains and likely further gains in the house/senate, I suspect that regardless of polls, Guliani is the only Republican who will put NY state, California, Massachussetts and a few other blue states into play. It ain't the people's votes that count, its the electoral votes in blue or swing states that will decide. I can't imagine McCain bringing these home. If Rudy just brings New York, it might make all the diff. A conservative sure won't. Does anyone really think that in a 2-way race on Election Day, that conservatives will vote for a 3rd party conservative and let Hillary get in? As they say, better the devil you know than the one you don't When voting day comes, they will take Rudy six ways to Sunday over Shill Hill... God help us all, if Bill Clinton is the new First Lady...
Sad but true. It will take a pretty powerful team to beat Hillary by herself. I've heard many times that the VP candidate doesn't play much, but Repubs better hope that isn't the case. There isn't a GOP candidate right now that won't get killed by HER. Personally, I don't like McCain, Thompson, or Giulliani. The first two simply don't have what it takes, and it seems to me that Hillary is actually more conservative than the third. Romney is qualified but is also quite liberal. I do like the idea of someone who actually knows business running the country though. Also, I think his healthcare proposal is the best I've heard so far, even though it still has its flaws. Ron Paul is great. He's proposing to do everything that I would want to do if I were elected. But for all the excitement he generates, he likely won't even get a small fraction of the votes in the primaries, and he'd only be able to carry the partisan states next fall. Huckabee is a good enough guy, but would be a better VP than anything else. I like Romney/Paul but it isn't gonna happen. Romney's business sense, Healthcare plan, and attack on capital gains tax. Paul pushing for closure of the IRS and limited FED powers. Both with strong family values. Paul could help balance out Romney's lack of conservatism. Romney has a much better stage presence, is more articulate, and commands attention better. When it comes down to it though, Romney is my favorite frontrunner, and Paul is my favorite overall. I'd like to see them run together.
Iowa gave him hell about pushing amnesty, and he left the state saying 'I am going to re-think my position on Amnesty' then he went straight to the capital and joined Kennedy trying to ram it down our throats it's not just that he takes insanly treasonous positions, it's that he's a 2 faced lying backstabber also