Posted on 11/12/2013 3:10:46 PM PST by neverdem
He won re-election as a Republican governor by almost 60 percent of the vote. He loved to talk about what he called the “Teamwork Government” he had brought to his state capital — especially when it came to contrasting what he and his tight-knit band of advisers deemed as the wild success and popularity of his Teamwork Government with the chaos of Washington.
He boldly went where other Republicans would not go, winning an unprecedented pledge of neutrality from the deeply liberal labor movement. Stunningly, of the 24 members of the American Federation of Labor’s endorsement board, 22 wanted to enthusiastically endorse him, the union finally declining out of respect for the remaining 2 members who favored his Democratic opponent.
He was fearless in taking on his critics in his own Republican Party, repeatedly lecturing them that government was created to meet the needs of man, bluntly rejecting what he called “the blind obstruction which Democrats claim is our habit and some Republicans would like to take as our role.” At one campaign rally he was especially defiant. “It is the job of a majority party to build, not to tear down; to go forward, not to obstruct. It is not the function of a political party to die fighting for obsolete slogans.… In a generation torn by strife between extremists and fanatics, let us have the balance… to prove that democracy can maintain itself as a master of its own destiny, feed its hungry, house its homeless, and provide work for its idle… without the reliance on political racketeers.”
He loved the idea of medical insurance for the poor...
--snip--
Pragmatism is the language of governing failure, its result a serious Republican Establishment responsibility for the nation’s $17 trillion debt and $90 trillion in unfunded liabilities...
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
well said, mulligan
I tweeted this to Lara M. Brown, PhD. She was bragging on Christie after the election and when I disagreed she responded to me. Surprising. She said “He is a real contender. I am an analyst and it has nothing to do with party.” Or something like that. I told her Christie will turn out just like Dole, McCain, Romney (forgot about Ford).
It will be immediate for the media to attack him if he is nominated. So much fodder.
America ain’t Joizey.
Just about any Republican who can get the nomination is likely to be called a RINO (unless they've been given immunity, as Reagan was), because any governor or senator from a large state has probably had to make compromises to make it as far as he or she did.
Any Republican who loses a presidential election is likely to get called a RINO and (a loser) because they've had to make such compromises to get as far as they did, and because there's an interest in claiming that they were anything but a true conservative (unless this is absolutely deniable, as was the case with Goldwater).
Any Republican who wins the presidency is going to be called a RINO who doesn't do anything to decrease the size of government (unless, like Ronald Reagan, they've been given an immunity), even though there are real limits to what any president can do to reduce the size of government.
I'm not saying that Christie should get the nomination or that McCain and Romney weren't moderates. I'm just tired of this guy hitting people over the head with weak arguments and half-truths. There is no sure-fire way to elect a Republican president, especially nowadays, and no guarantee that Lord's favorite strategies will work.
Whatever Christie's faults, comparing any candidate to Reagan is going to make that candidate look bad. The implication that this is still Reagan's America is something else that can't be taken for granted either.
The press is hoping Christy gets nominated precisely so they use this stuff against him.
I will vote for whichever Republican I perceive has the best chance of beating him at the time. I hope that will be somebody like Ted Cruz. But even if it is a boring retread like Mitt Romney, I will grit my teeth and do it.
http://spectator.org/bios/jeffrey-lord
Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is a former aide to Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan.
Romney was already the new Dewey.
Of COURSE!
All you MORMONs will!
Love it - sad but true.
Careful, your bigotry is sticking out like a sore thumb.
You’ll only have to endure it for 3 minutes.
So, as a MORMON, you are saying that you would NOT vote for Romney again?
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