Posted on 11/06/2004 8:44:04 AM PST by Libloather
Search Is on for Perfect 2008 Candidate
Fri Nov 5, 5:18 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer
WASHINGTON - Wanted: a former altar boy from the Southwest who speaks Spanish, married into a rich Republican family from Ohio and revolutionized the Internet after working as a volunteer firefighter in Florida. Position: president of the United States.
Building a perfect candidate for 2008 is easy with hindsight and exit polls at your disposal. Some three years and 360 days away from the next presidential election, this is what Republicans and Democrats might be looking for:
_ A fifth-generation Hispanic-American from New Mexico who comes from a long line of Democrats, including a grandfather who is an elections commissioner in southern Florida.
_ His favorite uncle is a Catholic bishop in Iowa who shares his love for outdoor sports. They both drop their "g's" when talkin' about huntin' and fishin' and car racin'.
_ He's a Medal of Honor winner who returned from combat and later worked with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to normalize relations with Vietnam.
_ A former quarterback for the University of Michigan's winning Rose Bowl team, he has a brother who played safety for Wisconsin. A song co-written by the brothers topped the gospel charts.
_ He's a trained economist who taught in Minnesota, where he met his future wife, a nurse who works with Cuban emigres. Her father is a former Republican governor of Ohio.
_ He was a volunteer fireman while attending graduate school in Florida and has a signed picture of himself standing with President Bush after he drove his pickup to help out at Ground Zero.
_ A billionaire in his own right who developed software that made fund raising on the Internet possible, he has donated thousands of computers to inner-city schools.
_ He has never set foot in Massachusetts.
The list is just a game, but the objective is real. State by state and group by group, results from the election just ended show both parties the qualities that pay off and the ones that don't.
Sen. John Kerry's New England pedigree made it difficult for him to connect with voters, particularly in Midwest battlegrounds, who listed moral values as their top issue.
Even though he was the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy, Kerry lost the Catholic swing vote to Bush. One-quarter of all voters are Catholic, and the percentages are even higher in the Upper Midwest battlegrounds of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Once reliably Democratic, those states are becoming more conservative every presidential election. Bush ran better in Michigan and Pennsylvania than he did four years ago.
To offset their losses in the Midwest, Democrats are counting on fast-growing Hispanic populations to make New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado blue states. But the president swept the Southwest while narrowing Democratic advantages among Hispanics.
Values translate differently in various parts of the country. In the Midwest and South, the president made inroads by buying advertising at NASCAR races. Among social conservatives, he touted his opposition to abortion. In the inner cities, the Bush campaign reminded black religious leaders of the president's opposition to gay marriage.
The potential 2008 candidates are short of perfection but long on hopes. Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is Hispanic. Republican Gov. Jeb Bush runs Florida. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is a wealthy doctor.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. know something about Sept. 11 and Ground Zero. Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa is a Catholic.
Americans vote their pocketbooks, which would make an economics expert a commodity — unless the next election also is dominated by war and terror.
On the military, Mr. Perfect would have voted without fail to support the troops while demanding that the White House do more.
Or Mr. Perfect might be a Mrs. — the first woman to head a major party ticket. But it would be a lonely job, what with her husband fighting in Iraq.
If some white, 100% corrupt, giant-thighed RAT from New York was for tax cuts and smaller gubmint, I might think about voting for her. But my decision will never be determined by her skin color or her family's nationality and background...
My recollection is that she refused to attend almost any of the many memorial services for the 9/11 Fallen?
Am I wrong?
Here is a dream team:
Jeb for pres
Guliani for vice
with them announcing
Swartzenegger as secretary of state
Condi as secretary of defense
Both Jeb and Rudy would be a mistake. The voters do not want a dynasty and Rudy is too far to the left on social issues. Arnold and Condi at State and Defense would be great.
The problem for the Dems is NOT choosing a good candidate..it's that their primary rules won't let that person win....In many of the election post mortems, Dems were talking about Evan Bayh in 2008 as the type of candidate they need..OK..let him enter a primary, then let Dean enter agaist him..Case closed... The hard left controls the activists, the ca$h, and they dominate the primary process..
Effin' Kerry was polling third in Iowa the day of the primary vote. How the heck did he ever vault to the top - a bit of RAT ballot box stuffing perhaps? Oh, well. I'm gonna research that someday...
How about:
-Former national championship winning quarterback for the University of Oklahoma
-Former Chairman of the Congressional Republican Committee
-Conservative on all issues
-Catholic from Oklahoma
-Born with paramount leadership qualities
-Articulate, Telegenic, and NOT an SOB like John Edwards
How about JC Watts?
What about Giuliani - Rice 2008?
"Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. know something about Sept. 11 and Ground Zero?"
She SHOULD know that it was largely the result of her husband's feckless policies, not that other former president's don't share the blame with him.
Thank God Bush took action, and thank God the American people re-elected him.
abc-
anybody but mcCain.
Iowa has caucuses...it may be that some people went to the caucuses leaning towards Dean but were persuaded to back Kerry or Edwards by the other caucus-goers. Dean's outburst a few days before when he told that man to shut up may have been simmering in people's minds but not yet showing up in the poll numbers.
The quarterback from 1902 is dead. The quarterbacks from 1948 and 1951, if still alive, are too old to run in 1908. The quarterback from 1998 probably won't be 35 years old by January 20, 2009 (or would the day the electors cast their votes be the cut-off day?). That gives us four men--the quarterbacks of 1965, 1981, 1989, and 1993, and the last two may still be too young to be plausible candidates.
I haven't tried to figure out the identities of the quarterbacks in question.
I dunno who wrote this, i don't recognize the name, but it is clear that it must be a demodog ... my list would be much more realistic and predictive of a sound candidate, but i'm not givin' the demodogs any helpful advice here.
Some good Rpeublicans to run in 2008 would be Gov Tim Pawlenty of MN, Sen. Bill Frist, Gov Mark Sanford of SC, or Gov Bob Ehlrich of MD.
I like JC Watts. I just don't know if he's got the grit for a Pres. bid. He may, I just don't know.
Might as well run Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe. How many times does this have to be said? A pro-abortion candidate will NOT make it through the Republican primaries any more than a decent human being will make it through the Democratic primaries.
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