Posted on 03/07/2007 4:32:54 AM PST by Verax
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John Bender
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| Rudy Giuliani can’t win the general election. No matter how much some people in the Republican Party wish he could, he can’t and here’s why. There is about 30% of the voting public in each camp who vote for the party no matter what. The Republicans have so-called conservatives who would vote for Arlen Specter rather than Thomas Jefferson, because Specter is a Republican and Jefferson was a Democrat. On the Democrat side, they have a group who would vote for Zell Miller rather than Lincoln Chafee, because Miller is a Democrat and Chafee is a Republican. Neither of these groups have any political clout in the general election. They are irrelevant to the political debate. Neither party, nor any politician, has to work to get their vote. Consequently, their issues are of no concern to either party. The battle in every election is to get out the vote of people who lean toward a party or candidate, and to get the vote of issue voters. The 40% or so of voters who either switch their vote from party to party, or who withhold their vote, when dissatisfied, are the ones politicians have to court and motivate in any general election. Neither the unmovable Republicans nor the unmovable Democrats are of any real interest to the respective parties. Those votes are there and counted before the polls ever open. The parties and individual politicians fight for and court the other 40% of the voters. Rove knows this and spoke about it after the 2000 election and adjusted his campaign strategy in the 2004 election accordingly. In 2000 Evangelicals didn’t turn out in their customary numbers and almost cost Bush the election. Rove was determined to change that and said so more than once between 2000 and 2004. In 2004, Rove made it a point to go after the Evangelical vote, including an unprecedented heavy Republican push in the nation’s Black churches. Evangelicals and other Christians responded by getting out and voting for Bush. This included a record 16% of the Black vote in Ohio, just about all of which came from the Black churches because of social issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc. That 16% of the Black vote was not only almost double the percentage of Black votes the Republican historically gets in presidential elections, it was more than double the Black vote Bush got in Ohio in 2000. The increase was also more than Bush’s margin of victory in Ohio. It gave him the election. Without the Black vote Bush would have lost Ohio and its 20 Electoral votes. Take those twenty votes from Bush and give them to Kerry and you have President Kerry no matter how Florida voted. In fact, remove the increase in the Evangelical turnout nationally; and it is impossible for Bush to have won a second term. Rove worked on pushing those issues that motivate Evangelicals and it gave Bush a second term. If the party again removes the Evangelicals who stayed home in 2000, PLUS some of the other social conservatives, some of the Second Amendment voters, and some of the defend the borders voters, there is no way one can come up with a GOP win in 2008. The party isn’t going to attract enough pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, pro-open borders, to offset the loss from the above mentioned groups. It just isn’t going to happen. Now, some in the 30% who are unmovable Republican voters are happy the party has moved to the Left and wish it would move a little farther Left. Others don’t like the slide to the Left, but are so locked into the party they will accept the slide, vote a straight ticket and hope for a better candidate in the next election. Those in the second category, they’d like a more conservative candidate, but will vote for whoever gets the GOP nomination, are actually helping assure that they will never get what they want in a candidate. They are not helping get a more conservative candidate because they come right out and say they will vote for ANYBODY who the party nominates. They are making themselves irrelevant. Why should the party try to please them? They are going to vote for the party no matter what. They are telling the party to ignore them. The people who make the party earn their vote are the ones who can push the party back to the Right. They are the ones that the politicians have to please. Don’t be fooled by the Republican establishment’s mantra that someone is too conservative to win. They said the same thing about Reagan. Reagan twice showed that attracting social conservatives and fiscal conservatives produces landslide victories. The Republican establishment doesn’t like conservatives. They never liked Reagan. They didn’t want the people to believe he would win in the general election. In 1976 Ford’s Chief of Staff called Reaganites “right wing nuts”, a term that also pops up in several Ford internal campaign memos from that year. In 1980 Bush the Elder said Reagan was an extremist and that his economic policies were “voodoo economics” that could never work in the real world. None of this was true then and it isn’t true now. There are now four conservatives in the race for the Republican nomination; Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Governor Jim Gilmore, and Rep. Tom Tancredo. Any one of these gentlemen could beat Hillary or Obama in the general election. Giuliani can’t do it. The Rockefeller Republicans, who are the party bosses, and the Doubting Thomas Republicans who are pushing for Giuliani’s nomination are going to hand the election to the Democrats if they succeed in nominating Giuliani rather than a conservative. It’s up to the party’s base to stop that from happening. The only real choice for the anybody-but-a-Democrat voters is to work to make sure one of the conservatives gets the nomination or accept the fact that they helped put a Democrat in the White House in 08.
"Published originally at www.EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact." John Bender is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. He is a past Ether Zone contributor. John Bender can be reached at: jbender@columnist.com |
It's possible he'll sizzle out like Howard Dean did once more people understand that he is a democrat in republican clothing. But, if he does make it to the general election, expect to get this letter below from Hillary Rodman.
Dear RINO Rudy Supporters,
I want to thank you for your wonderful support in helping me to get elected POTUS. Bill and I are so thrilled to be back in the White House again. Your active support for Rudy, and getting him nominated, was the key to me winning. Without your help Bill and I would not be here today.
Affectionately Yours,
President Hillary Rodman
P.S. I plan to nominate Rudy to the Supreme Court as soon as there is a vacancy. He will help us tilt the court back in our favor to assure that millions more unborn babies will never see the light of day. After all, it's every woman's right!
P.S.S. As you recall, my campaign slogan was, "We're Going to Take Things Away From You on Behalf of the Common Good" ALL YOUR POSSESIONS BELONG TO ME---YEEHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Anti-Gun----------------Anti-Gun
Pro-Abortion------------Pro-Abortion
Clinton Policy----------Clinton Policy
Gay-Loving--------------Gay-Loving
Looks awful in a dress---Ditto
I could go on but the Rudy-Lickers will continue to abandon the constitution and stab the unborn in the back no matter what. I guess they love a man in drag.
If he gets the nomination I'm staying home for the first time ever or voting libertarian for the first time ever.
It won't make a nickel's worth of difference who wins.
The question before the house is, can the GOP win with them when the choice is not George Bush v. John Kerry?
Everything hangs on the answer to that question.
I agree.
So stay home and watch the fetuses pile up dead, and you can be so happy you kept the republicans out of power. I get so sick of this nonsense. And the democrats will dismantle the military and CIA, aid our enemies and abandon our allies. But make sure you stay home.
And that is the last time. 30 years of blind loyalty are enough, especially if the party runs Rudy.
Well, IMHO, that's pretty much what American politics has become. How else can Hitlery be the leading democrat, because of all the laws shes passed? I can't think of one thing shes done while senator.
Most people are to damn lazy to do the work it takes to really see what each candidate stands for. They would rather sit back & let Katie Couric tell them how to feel. Again, just my opinion.
LOL!
Oh, yes. The South has a long history of voting in lockstep with New York. (/s)
Very well said, the republican establishment and their cronies will try to tell us that the only important thing is to beat hillery. Then try to scare us into believing that we have to pander to the left in order to win and in so doing electing somebody who is just as bad as her.
Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo(sp?), Fred Thompson, and Newt are our best hopes for a candidate that will fire up the conservative base and win a general election.
I just cant see supporting a candidate that has demonstrated that he is pro-gay, pro-abort, anti-gun dresses in drag and has fooled around on not one but 2 wives and done so blatantly with no regard for the institution of marriage or to the office that he was elected to. If he did winhe would be a Republican Bill Clinton just waiting to happen.
We lost the last election because we didn't come out strong on borders and illegal immigration, but we still had the traditional values voters and pro life and pro 2nd amendment people on our side and just barley lost in a lot of places because our base wasn't motivated. So what so now the establishment people are trying to give us some one who says he is strong on borders and the WOT, well whoopee! He is essentially a hillery with different genitals and has said as much himself, so we will pick him and lose all the pro lifers, 2nd amendment and values voters will stay home and we will lose by a huge margin and leave the democrats in complete power.
True, but the conservative candidate most would support is un-electable.
C'mon, man! You think they'll vote for Hillary or Obama?
Get real!
Rudy takes the south in a NY minute.
True, but the conservative candidate most would support is un-electable.
It's far better to support an un-electable conservative than an un-electable liberal.
Rudy is a hero of 9-11 and cleaning up New York. I don't agree with his liberal side either, but he has promised to appoint Conservative judges. That is what matters. The democrats will appoint 9 Ruth Bader Ginzbergs. This is reality.
"syllogism" a crafty argument. Rudy wins because he will be the anti beast. He will be the candidate who wants to fight the WOT and she will be the candidate who wants to surrender. By Nov 08 that will be very clear.
From the article...If the party again removes the Evangelicals who stayed home in 2000, PLUS some of the other social conservatives, some of the Second Amendment voters, and some of the defend the borders voters, there is no way one can come up with a GOP win in 2008.
That's absolutely correct. And if you don't think Christian Conservatives will stay home rather than vote for a liberal just ask George H.W. Bush what he liked best about his second term.
The South will prevent Rudy from getting anywhere near the general election, I hope.
I will not under any circumstances vote for Rino Rudy, I will go third party first.
1. The south will not vote for Hillary or Obama.
2. With all that supposed evangelical help, Bush barely squeeked by in 04.
The middle will more than make up for the evangelicals who sit on their hands at home waiting for the perfect candidate.
That's the Rove theory.
I think he's dead wrong. I think that, except for the unrepeatable particular circumstance of November 2004, that a fired-up conservative base loses 9 times out of 10.
The "fired up base" around here thinks they are 65% of the population when they are 30% at most, and they show no concept of how to get the 21% of non-fired up, non-base voters they need to win.
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