Tonight is the 1st Republican debate and of course I will be watching. They are holding it at the Ronald Reagan Library demonstrating the hero worshipping tendencies that I have always thought was a symptom of their propensity to “follow” and oversimplify everything. To them Reagan was not a mortal man - he was God like. Reagan was everything good. Anything positive that has happened in the past 30 years is because of Reagan. Every Republican candidate wants to be the next Reagan and all have talked about him on the stump the way a school girl goes on about the jock. It’s kind of gay and will be the most sickening part of the debate tonight. Look for everyone (the press included) to gush over what a great man Ronald Reagan was. No mention of his race baiting to get elected or the widespread corruption inside his administration after he was elected is likely to be made.I have not talked much about the Republican field so here it goes.
Mike Huckabee - I have been meaning to write about him for some time now. He is the only Republican in the race that I would consider voting for. He is from (of all places) Hope, Arkansas. He’s the former Governor of that state, a man of the cloth and very conservative. The reason I like him is that he really understands that it is wrong to force his belief system on other people or the country as a whole. He actually believes that Christians should help the poor and take care of the less fortunate. He is smart and open minded. I tell any conservative I talk to that they would be wise to support Huckabee because (with the possible exception of Fred Thompson) he is the only Republican who could garner enough crossover votes to win the general election.
Rudy Guliani - He cleaned up New York City but the nation as a whole is nothing like the Big Apple. While he and the GOP have really worked on building up his 9-11 heroics, I always thought he did a good - not great job. His tenure as mayor was filled with corruption and abuse of power and I always like to remind folks that Guliani wanted to cancel the Mayoral elections after 9-11 and keep himself in charge for an unprecedented (and unelected) third term. His personal life also is a bit troublesome with affairs, divorces and dealings with people like Bernard Kerik. To me Rudy seems like an authoritarian leader prone to abusing power. I think we’ve had enough of that type of behavior in the White House for a while.
Mitt Romney - His fundraising abilities may assure him a VP slot but he has a long way to go to get the Presidential nomination. He has flip flopped so dramatically it is hard to know what he would do as President. I fear he would over-pander to the GOP base and without any internal political compass he could really get us in trouble.
John McCain - Well, well. Back in 2000 I was a big McCain fan. He talked straight about how George W. Bush was a dirty campaigner and would make a poor President. Fast forward 7 years and he has embraced not only George W. Bush, but the very political operatives that smeared him back in 2000. When McCain was a POW he signed and read an anti-American confession. I can, of course, forgive that. But doing more or less the same thing with George W. Bush makes me wonder if this straight talker is also a fast folder - and would end up being a very weak President.
Ron Paul I like a lot of what this guys says. He is fiercely independent and has been (fruitlessly) warning his own party of the dangers of the neo-cons and the radicals that have taken over the GOP. I hope he calls out the other candidates that have supported this President and his neo-con pals.
Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter - these are single issue candidate who are likely to blame everything from the Iraq war to their hemorrhoids on Bill Clinton and the democrats. For your everyday Republican voter this simple message will excite. However, it won’t be enough to become serious candidates.
Sam Brownback, Tommy Thompson and Jim Gilmore - Brownback is a traditional conservative who seemed to have a lot going for him. For some reason though, he hasn’t caught on with Republican voters. Thompson is a decent guy but really very uninspiring - Gilmore even less so.
1 comment:
Very interesting analysis. Though the Republican field is less diverse as you mention, it should not be discarded as a poor field of candidates. The problem? It's very weak at the top. I think McCain, Giuliani, Romney, even Gingrich will all do poorly against the Democratic candidate. Especially if it's someone with star power like Obama or Edwards.
Instead, I (sadly) think the GOP's best candidates are at the bottom of the field. As you note, Huckabee would make a great candidate. You didn't even mention his personal weight loss and how he has made fitness and well-living a part of his life. He's literally led by example. I'd love to see that message imparted by our president, instead of the "do as I say, not as I do" we get from Bush. Gov Thompson is also an impressive candidate with a background of reaching out. And I also love Ron Paul's independence and libertarian streak. I also think Brownback and Tancredo would make strong, well-spoken candidates on a national stage, but they just don't have the proper machinery behind them now.
So, from my point of view, I like the field. I just wish it could be inverted.
The irony is I kinda feel the same way about the Dems. Richardson and Biden are my favorite candidates there.
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