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Jim Robinson: Taking stock of our dwindling conservative inventory
Jan 5, 2011 | Jim Robinson

Posted on 01/05/2012 11:23:02 AM PST by Jim Robinson

Tea party favorite and pro-life conservative Sarah Palin and her family were viciously attacked to the point she chose not to run.

Congressional Tea Party Caucus leader and constitutional pro-life conservative Michele Bachmann had early promise, but I guess came across as too "shrill" and consequently her numbers driven down to the point she exited.

Successful pro-life conservative Texas Governor Perry hit the race at the top but due to missteps and less than stellar debate performances soon fizzled and is now all but gone.

Pro-life conservative businessman Cain and his famous 9-9-9 plan had promise, but was driven out due to indefensible allegations.

Pro-life Reagan Revolution conservative Newt Gingrich reinvigorated his campaign and soared to the top of the national polls, but was unacceptable to the establishment and apparently also unacceptable to the "true conservatives" among us and his numbers are now plummeting

You'd think "unquestionably" pro-life, pro-family conservative Rick Santorum whose recent surge took him to a tie in Iowa and who's now surging in the national polls might be good enough to stand against Romney for the base, but looks like there are "true conservatives" now attacking HIM as not good enough.

Well, drive them all out and who's left?

Huntsman? Who? Moonbat Paul?

Ideas anyone? Should we all continue attacking the conservatives we don't like until we drive them all out?

Personally, I could easily have lived with Palin, Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Newt or Santorum and would be proud to enthusiastically support any of them, warts and all. Any one of them is infinitely better than Obama or Romney.

But if we don't land on one soon and raise him up over Romney, guess who we're going to be stuck with? And it ain't going to be pretty. And if abortionist/statist/progressive Romney (or moonbat Paul) is the one, might as well get used to four more years of Obama. I won't vote for or support either one of those two.

I'd suggest that we all stop trying to tear down the other conservative candidates in the race and instead concentrate on trying to build up our own personal favorites. Who knows? May even discover an acceptable conservative (if not a great conservative) in the bunch. We've never had a perfect conservative yet. Not even the magnificent Ronald Reagan. We and they all have warts.

But we do want to have a candidate with at least an actual CONSERVATIVE record and not an out and out liberal progressive RINO. So let's compare their records and their actual conservative accomplishments but not try to destroy them personally.

God bless and may the best CONSERVATIVE be our nominee.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Free Republic; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: conservatives; elections; eleventhcommandment; gingrich; jimrobinson; newt
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To: DonnerT

I don’t know if I would go that far, clearly Romney as the candidate, ends the biggest and most emotional anti obama argument.. Obamacare, because Romney did basically the same thing in Mass.. so clearly the White House would prefer Romney over anyone else.

Romney, while he is certainly no conservative, is definitely not Obama either. He’s the worst of the lot ideologically on the Republican side, but he is still a very far cry from Obama. In terms of viability, he can win a general election... he’ll certainly take enough swing voters away that Obama likely can’t win. He’s “safe” and non threatening.. he won’t win based on ideological argument, but by the fact Obama is incredibly unpopular and Romney is “safe”. By taking away ObamaCare they take away a firestorm, and Romney does that, and with Romney really just running as the “safe” alternative, they basically will simply try to paste him as unsafe, if successful he’ll lose.. I don’t think they’ll be, for his many political faults, Romney’s not likely to wind up painted into a corner.. but it could happen. He won’t win an out and out ideological battle, because Romney isn’t an ideological conservative, which is what angers most of us here.

Newt can win, based on the fact he knows his stuff, and will expose Obama as the man-child he is. Assuming he keeps his temper in check, he’ll beat Obama, not because he’s “non threatening” but because he will present a clear, articulate, and exact conterpoint to the failed policies of this buffoon. Newt’s already had everything and the kitchen sink thrown at him, there is really nothing left, so Obama will have to face him on ideological grounds and his record, and by that definition, Obama stands zero chance. Teleprompter boy vs Newt in a debate??? An honest to goodness ideological debate??? It will be a slaughter worse than when Cheney took Breck Girl to school.

Santorum, doesn’t offer either of these, he’ll be branded as a radical, and doesn’t have the ability to inspire or articulate like Newt, he can’t win purely on ideological debate, because he isn’t deep enough to win the debate.. at best TIE, and thats on a good day. He isn’t viewed as “safe” and doesn’t have the personality to sway just on likability alone, he’ll IMHO will wind up pasted, just as he was when he lost to Casey. I really don’t see how he will win, he will get painted as an extremist, successfully, in the minds of many swing voters. Now hatred of Obama is high, but if the alternative is not viewed as someone safe, the default is to leave things alone, and Santorum can be painted as unsafe, and it will resonate. I see him as a potentially solid VP pic, other than the fact, electoral vote wise, he doesn’t bring much... Santorum brings no guarantee at all of his home states elctoral votes, in fact, him on the ticket might actually cost the person PA.

I know if Romney is the nominee I’ll have no choice but to hold my nose and pull the lever for him, but I really wish the anti-romney crowd would come to agreement before its too late to stop him.

Time will tell. I would prefer Santorum or Newt anyday over Romney, but I don’t see Santorum surviving a hard nasty national campaign.

I’ll vote for whoever the republican nominee is, but if that nominee cannot win an general election, it wont matter, and by that standard, I really only see 2 viable candidates.. Newt and Romney. I really don’t want to pull the lever for Romney, but unless something drastic happens soon, this is likely the end game.


581 posted on 01/06/2012 6:43:20 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Redleg Duke; Jim Robinson; DJ MacWoW; little jeremiah

[The “Principled Conservatives” are unwittingly the RATS’ secret weapon.]

Bull.

...and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous.. when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

--Thomas Jefferson, 1786

http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/vaact.html
 
To Jefferson and the American Founders PRINCIPLES and Truth were the great cornerstone of this Republic.  

Who’s more likely to reform, or reboot, the Republic as a system of legal governance constrained within it’s specified American purpose -- where  “TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, governments are instituted among men”:

A.The principled conservatives you evidently despise.

B.The fiscally “conservative” interior decorator RINO parasites who've facilitated the systemic amoral corruption of our financial and governmenal infrastructure.

?

My observation is that the GeeOpie has been perverted into a Politicaly Correct instrument of progressive manipulation by Log-Cabinesque interior deocrators for whom the little head between their legs does most of the "fiscally conservative" thinking.

American Conservatism will never return as long as Useful Idiots insist upon read from, and defining their political taxonomy with, the "Fiscally Conservative" NewSpeak Dictionary.

NO SALE.

 

582 posted on 01/06/2012 7:27:55 AM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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To: Windflier
My point is ---you aren't very perceptive if you didn't realize she wasn't running until she made an announcement!

BTW, I think she made the right decision.

583 posted on 01/06/2012 7:34:27 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: lonestar

My point is -—you aren’t very perceptive if you didn’t realize she wasn’t running until she made an announcement!


Personally I think that can be said of many when they get too close to the candidate and campaign that they lose the overall picture that is being displayed amongst the entire electorate.


584 posted on 01/06/2012 7:41:35 AM PST by deport
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To: deport
True. I am amazed at how many of these people are what I call "Political groupies" because they have the same "worship" for a political candidate that is common with teenagers and rock stars.

In this case, they actually thought Palin could win the presidency. They didn't want to face reality. They just wanted to fight the people who didn't agree with them.

It didn't get any better when they moved from Sarah to Herman...never giving up that Sarah might reconsider.

I think the the infighting has diminished what FR has been in the past. A lot got the zot but more left voluntarily and took their monthly donations with them. Some of the people who were laughing several weeks ago about getting people zotted are the same people now begging for money...after running off FReepers who were loyal, monthly donors.

Unintended consequences can be a bitch!

585 posted on 01/06/2012 8:19:03 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: lonestar
My point is ---you aren't very perceptive if you didn't realize she wasn't running until she made an announcement!

Gee, yet another slap in the face. Are you done now, or are you going to throw something else at me?

586 posted on 01/06/2012 8:22:51 AM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free
Basically they GOP establishment and the GOP establishment media (much of FOX) are scared to death of conservatives, mostly because they think a conservative can’t get elected.

Yes, so they think it's safer to support a fake, plasticine Republican, who is no different in substance than any liberal Democrat. Like Romney, the establishment GOP and their minions on Fox have no core values, and are no better than the opposition.

587 posted on 01/06/2012 8:40:17 AM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: Windflier
Gee, yet another slap in the face. Are you done now, or are you going to throw something else at me?

LOL!

You are offended at being called, "not perceptive," after calling me stupid, ass, and fickle.

I consider the source...and don't care!

588 posted on 01/06/2012 9:09:38 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: Freedom_Is_Not_Free

I see the inherent danger that BOTH pose to our nation. A shotgun blast to the head or swallow a cup of rat poison....either way you are just as dead.


589 posted on 01/06/2012 9:10:28 AM PST by Grunthor (Mitt better than Obama? Give me three examples.)
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To: LomanBill
I see another cut-and-paste commando is hard at it.

Who does your thinking for you, Ron Paul?

590 posted on 01/06/2012 9:26:24 AM PST by Redleg Duke ("Madison, Wisconsin is 30 square miles surrounded by reality.", L. S. Dryfus)
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To: humblegunner

I don’t want to be too negative but Perry showed real weakness on immigration. If immigration is not reversed, the national Republican party will go into permanent minority status like the Republicans of California. Immigrants simply do not vote Republican in large numbers. They never have and they never will. Native-born Americans need a party to defend our interests.

If amnesty were passed, this would by the last viable presidential election for Republicans.


591 posted on 01/06/2012 9:29:12 AM PST by mas cerveza por favor
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To: LibsRJerks
Ok, so Romney worked at Bain capital or whatever he did

The very little I understand about Bain Capital is he bought companies in trouble and got rid of what was the problem and turned them into productive, profit-making companies. He did it by shutting down non-productive parts and getting rid of employees that weren't needed. IOW, they closed and layed off employees that were not cost effective.

Assuming I'm close to understanding what Bain did, the thing I don't understand is that his record in government is doing the opposite of what he has done in his business career.

How can he run for POTUS and not be talking about shutting down the Depts. of Ed.,Interior, Energy, etc. That's what he would have done with a business...IF I come close to understanding what he did.

Of course, he has many other issues that I could never vote for...'cept against Obama...who has many more issues.

592 posted on 01/06/2012 9:29:39 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: EyeGuy

Amen. And while we are thinking big, let’s just go ahead and predate the formation of the Fed in Woodrow’s adminstration! We would make Jefferson proud and Mr. Wilson would be relieved of his greatest regret.

May God guide our course.
Tatt


593 posted on 01/06/2012 9:39:36 AM PST by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." DorothyBernard)
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To: Hetty_Fauxvert

RE: Newt’s “baggage”:

I used to attend a lot of hockey games when my kids were young. In hockey, as in other areas of life, you play to win and if you didn’t spend some time in the penalty box, you probably aren’t trying hard enough.

Politics and lawmaking has been compared to sausage-making. Newt is an experienced sausage-maker, so why are we surprised that he still has a few stains on his clothes?

Newt is a fighter, and that’s what we need to evict Obama from the WH.


594 posted on 01/06/2012 9:40:16 AM PST by bopdowah ("Unlike King Midas, whatever the Gubmint touches sure don't turn to Gold!')
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To: lonestar
...calling me stupid, ass, and fickle.

Excuse me, but I never directly called you any of that. And I never called you "stupid". You called me that, remember?

...sigh... we havin' fun yet?

Geez, this is unproductive. How 'bout I go my way, and you go yours? Deal?

595 posted on 01/06/2012 9:51:25 AM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: EnglishCon

Ah. Gotcha. That makes way more sense.


596 posted on 01/06/2012 10:05:58 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: Windflier

Have to go
do lunch.” Will get back to you.


597 posted on 01/06/2012 10:12:43 AM PST by lonestar (It takes a village of idiots to elect a village idiot.)
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To: napscoordinator

I really can’t tell you how much that impresses me. It takes genuine character to publicly say “I lost sight of what was important.”

I’ve got your back on Perry threads.

Tex


598 posted on 01/06/2012 10:19:23 AM PST by BuckeyeTexan (Man is not free unless government is limited. ~Ronald Reagan)
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To: Jim Robinson

Thank you for putting our increasingly difficult position in perspective, Jim. The stuff I`ve seen here on FR against the GOP candidates would do a democrat oppo researcher proud.

Personally, I would readily support Gingrich, Perry or Santorum. I would very reluctantly cast a vote next to (note I didn`t say FOR) the names of Romney or Huntsman ONLY after firmly holding my nose. Ron Paul .. no way.. he will never get my vote.

Time to coalesce around a candidate, or at least the grouping of what pass for conservatives in the running... none are perfect and all have warts.


599 posted on 01/06/2012 10:29:11 AM PST by ScottinVA (Liberal logic: 0bamacare mandate is acceptable... but voter IDs are unconstitutional.)
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To: Hot Tabasco
Welcome to the reality of FreeRepublic.com, once home of civility and fellow conservatives, regardless who they supported, but now a battleground dominated by bullies claiming to be more conservative than thou...

Well said. I miss the old FR.
600 posted on 01/06/2012 10:56:26 AM PST by Blowtorch
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