Posted on 03/13/2007 1:02:47 AM PDT by DakotaRed
March 13, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
[The] "Hustle" may have been a line dance we did back in the days of disco, but today it's what GOP leadership and a complicit media are trying to do to the voters responsible for the Republican Party's successes since Ronald Reagan.
Realistic chances of winning notwithstanding, there are no fewer than 13 Republicans in the contest for the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. But to hear party leadership and the media spin promote the candidates, one easily gets the impression that John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are not just the only candidates, but that McCain and Romney are the opening act for Giuliani as he awaits his coronation.
This is a ruse, a con, and in brief, an attempt to hustle the voters. GOP leadership is trying to "Bob Dole" us. They have, in effect, met in the smoke-filled back room of a private club and decided amongst themselves who they want in 2008. Their problem is how to deceive the voters into believing that said pick is of the voters' choosing.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
As a result, we passed up dynamic thinkers like Steve Forbes whose ideas galvanized the nation. I am not saying that Forbes would have won, but his loss would have meant something. It would have brought in an entire new youth interested in ideas. What did we get out of Dole's loss? Nothing.
Bob Dole 2008!!!!!
I donated to and voted for Forbes in the primary.
Wish he had won.
Forbes was my favorite candidate in 1996 and 2000.
Dole helped stab Gingrich in the back during budget showdown with Clinton, as media was egging him on to be a "grownup" in a "class of children". He thought media would help him in a run for the President, then wondered "Where is the outrage?" when media laughed at him. McCain and Rudy have been "drafted" by the media to be "frontrunners" in GOP primaries.
The lessons of "follow the media" in 1996 and 2006 should be clear for all to see.
Massie has no need to "pull punches" in this Gong Show of make-believe candidates. None are worthy and the folks in the Heartland are totally aware of these non-choices. Massie's merely another carnival barker arm waving and doing the Flim Flam thing jockeying for hoped for personal gain out of this utter mess.
Where are the real candidates? Maybe we could demand that all the others pull out of US politics by year's end?
That's not only how the GOP "Bob Dole"'d us, it's also how they "George W. Bush"'d us in 2000. Remember? He was practically coronated before he ever got to New Hampshire.
Truth is, there's only been one time in recent memory that the power brokers did not already get their RINO lined up before the election and that was 1980. In 1976, the power-brokers tried to elect Gerald Ford but Ronald Reagan almost won the nomination. They realized too late that Reagan's crossover appeal could have beaten Carter but there was no way they could jettison a sitting president of their own party.
Reagan scared the RINO crowd that believed all that "nuclear cowboy" and "dunce" crap that the liberals wanted them to believe (interesting how they said all the same things about W. also). They made a deal with Reagan that he'd be the nominee if he promised to add an establishment RINO to the ticket, hence George H.W. Bush became the running mate - to try to "control" Reagan.
Since Barry Goldwater (another "nuclear cowboy") scared the ivoty tower crowd, the GOP money wing has tried to get behind one RINO and make them the "inevitable" nominee. It happened with Nixon (1968), Ford (1976), George H.W. Bush (1988), Dole (1996) and George W. Bush (2000). So it should shock nobody that they would do so again.
The Democrats, for all the things about them that disgust us, are far more willing to let the rank and file choose their nominee the democratic way than Republicans ever had. It cost them too - in 1968, 1972 and 1988 when the party was divided and never recovered. I'd add 2004 to that list but Kerry's meteoric rise in Iowa seemed pre-ordained from the top rather than raised up from the masses.
If the Republican money brokers have gotten behind Giuliani as their RINO for 2008, all I can say is "thank God it's not McCain".
I agree with the header "Don't Bob Dole us again". While Dole was/is a good guy, a long serving Republican who has paid his dues, etc, etc, ,etc, he was just flat too old, out of energy, and and about as exciting as white bread. Frankly, the current crop of so called GOP front runners fit that same profile. I kinda like the notion of Fred Thompson running. Even better would be someone perhaps a little younger and with more charisma. There's gotta be someone out there somewhere who can excite the GOP base, I hope....
Every columnist these days seems to have quite a low opinion of Republican and Conservative voters. Apparently, we can't understand the issues, are meek sheep easily led to the slaughter by the sly media, and are blind as bats to the real positions of the candidates, especially those of Rudy Giuliani, who must be pretty near invisible in that respect. Once we "wake up," we will suddenly see that Rudy is actually Hillary in drag and vote for that mythical "perfect conservative," whoever that is this week (George Allen? Duncan Hunter? Fred Thompson?) and however unknown he may be.
It's just kind of funny that so many around here are buying into it.
I fear the author is right, they are trying to shove a rino down our throats. I for one will not take a bite.
You doh't have to take a bite. There's always Hillary. She's terrific and will advance your conservative ideas. Really.
Hogwash.
The conservatives have Bob Doled themselves, by coming up with candidates who are worse than Bob Dole.
If you want to get Bob Doled, let McCain get the nod.
YES! I couldn't have said it better. Don't Bob Dole us.
The press is going to sugar coat everything about Rudy until after he gets the nomination and then the bloodbath will start. I feel like screamming from the rooftops, he is way to over the top to play well in the south and middle america. There is just tooo much there. The 9/11 leadership will only go so far. Once his views on other issues are really put out there and he is left to explain himself he will fall flat. And the fact that he made NYC a wonderland again is not going to resonate with alot of people. Believe it or not, most Americans have never been there and could care less about the place.
When are conservatives going to stop blaming the Republican Party for their self created problems?
Forbes was an awful candidate.
In 2006, the conservatives spent most of their energy endlessly whining (WHINOs) about RINOs instead of coming up with a coherant articulate message.
No one is shoving anyone down anyones throats. These candidates are out organizing and getting votes.
Have you even considered any other candidate. Or, being from NY, does you myopia keep you from doing so?
Rudy Giuliani is no Bob Dole. He will fight to win and KO Hidabeast and Osamma Obamma... big time.
Bob Dole was old, tired, wussie, had no fight and intensity in him. Exactly the opposite of Rudy.
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