Posted on 03/02/2007 6:08:37 AM PST by kellynla
I have lots of conservative friends and often speak to Republican-leaning groups. I have something surprising to report: they're pretty cheerful. They're well aware that President Bush's numbers are terrible--and that Al Gore got an Academy Award. Yet my fellow conservatives and Republicans are pretty upbeat. After a rough 2006, conservative magazines are seeing an uptick in subscription renewals, right-wing websites are getting more hits, and Republican and conservative groups here at Harvard (yes, Harvard!) seem invigorated. What's going on? Here are five reasons conservatives and Republicans might have some cause for their cheer.
1. The surge. Nothing was more demoralizing last year to supporters of the war than the sense that Bush was refusing to alter course out of misguided loyalty to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General George Casey. The ouster of Rumsfeld and Casey and the announcement of a new strategy backed up by additional troops and a new commander, General David Petraeus, gave hope to those who still think success is possible in Iraq--which, polls show, is still a healthy majority of Republicans.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
You've got to be kidding. Probably the only man who could make John McCain seem healthy.
Dick Cheney would be able to gain Wyoming's crucial electoral votes with no problem.
I like Cheney, and watching the left go into a collective apoplectic fit at his nomination would be very amusing. Unfortunately, unless a fair number of their voters actually died of apoplexy as as result, it doesn't seem like a good electoral strategy.
Dick Cheney would offer voters a choice. I think he is a choice a lot of voters would find very attractive.
Going along with the Democrat(ic)s just puts on the local bus to Hell instead of the express. I would love to have a conservative alternative in 2008, and can think of nobody better than Dick Cheney to be chat alternative.
Come to think of, not as an electoral stategy, but just as a way of driving the left over the edge, we should get a bunch of those printed up.
Of course, don't put one on a car you value the paint job on, or at least not if it's ever parked in a place where there aren't security cameras to help capture the perp when your car gets 'keyed'.
If you have a more qualified conservative, then name him/her.
Otherwise save the wise cracks.
Cheney has even less chance of winning the nomination than Gingrich has. Hell, Cheney makes Gingrich look like a chick magnet. lol. Hard to think of a worse idea than Cheney.
Yeah, I wonder how long Kristol would be smiling if he actually "whistled past the graveyard" in the South and Midwest? He is already hated for his McCain ties in 2000.
lol.
Cheney would lose in a McGovern style blow-out.
Nominating Cheney would be the stupid.
I would like to see a Cheney/Gingrich ticket. You can't get anymore conservative than that.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
LOL! c'mon. yer kidding right? do you want to see a Democrat get 400 electoral votes?
Same goes for Dick.
How many statewide elections has Cheney won? To my knowledge, none. Not at the top of a ticket. As an also ran, sure, but not as the main course.
Dick Cheney loves power, but hates politics and campaigning. He's not someone you want at the top of a ticket.
More qualified? The last time we picked a nominee based on resume, it was GHWB, a one-termer who broke his 'no new taxes pledge' (or did he say, "No, Newt, taxes"?)
No I can't name a more *qualified* conservative.
But just about any Republican senator with an ACU rating above 87 would be a better pick as a nominee in terms of electability, why one's even running: Sam Brownback.
Period, Done.
Ain't happening.
Move on, go with another candidate.
well you let us all know when you have a more qualified conservative than Dick Cheney...
I won't be holding my breath "chick magnet!"
I hate #4
I hate #4.
Metropoliticos are the in thing now?
Dick Cheney is a great American but no one with his medical history could or should be elected President.
Kristol was right on the money in the last election while a lot of us were saying RYMB.
OMG, are you kidding? Two members of my family switched to the Dummy side in '04 and '06 because of Cheney. Imagine an Army veteran, formerly a straight "R" voter, PAYING to see AL Franken before the '04 elction. He blamed it on Cheney.
Lots of people on FR have no concept of how people outside of FR think. Cheney and Gingrich may be staunch conservatives, but they're wildly unpopular individuals outside of conservative circles. We'd be lucky to break triple digits, electorally speaking, if either of them runs in the primary slot, to say nothing of putting them both on the same ticket.
Cheney, especially, has the entire Iraq war hanging on his neck. Voters were willing to cut the handlers of the Iraq war some slack in 2004. They won't in 2008. Couple that with his age, and infamously bad health, and you have a classic non starter.
Wake me up when they get the Guiliani/Gingrich ticket. Uber mass appeal + uber conservative appeal? That's the ultimate balanced ticket. It will make people on the fringe sides howl in pain, but the average voter will eat it up like a fat man locked in a Dunkin Donuts overnight.
One word....
Newt.
Actually, as the lone Representative from Wyoming he has won many (eight I think). But he won't be our next President.
bookmark
If it was Gingrich/Guiliani I'd feel better. I want the president to be the conservative one.
Bookmarking.
All these inside the beltway elitists are just useless.
It's all moot. Giuliani own the middle and the middle-left, and he'll even garner the liberal NYC vote. It's his to lose.
Sure. If I was kingmaker I'd put in Gingrich/Limbaugh, with Mark Steyn as the White House press secretary, Ollie North as SecDef, and John Bolton as SecState. (Right after I abolished the IRS and the Department of Education.)
But I'm not kingmaker. America is a democratic republic, and the first rule of the game is finding someone who can win an election. Ignore that rule, and you're stuck to writing up dream teams on an internet chat board, and shaking your fist at the electorate.
if you haven't been paying attention for the past six friggin' years, genius, Dick Cheney is the Vice-President of the United States; he was in a NATIONAL ELECTION twice which he was elected & reelected.
gezzzzzzzzz the IQ level drops by the minute 'round here!
And BTW, we're still waiting to hear who your candidate is...
Cheney has stated that under no circumstance would he run, ever. Accept it.
I like Cheney, but I think it would be a difficult, and I sense voters want something totally fresh after 8 years.
Rudy won't even get out of the GOP primaries...
weak on guns, weak on gays & weak on abortion
3 strikes, you're outa here!
I can't imagine Gingrich playing second banana. Too grandiose (and no, that's not a knock on his weight, har har.) Maybe Guliani coupled with a conservative would work...but Gingrich is all about the sound of his own words, the brilliance of his own ideas. No way can I see him running as a Veep. I think he'd rather chew broken glass.
Qualifications? Natural born citizen over 35, last I checked. It's not qualifications we're discussing. It's the electability of the candidates. Hell, Cheney's not even running, thank God.
"NOT electable?"
the only person who is "not electable" is the one who doesn't run.
still waiting to hear your candidate...
I wish. But I don't see the NRC sending up a guaranteed loser like McCain or Romney against Hillary or Obama. They don't want a repeat of '96.
typo - RNC not NRC
As you should. It's what happens when the MSM, Beltway types and others antagonistic to conservatism start picking Republican candidates.
Yet, the weekly TV show and gossip thread crowd goes right along. Because, you know, it's all about winning. I'm unsure about what we'd be winning.
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