Posted on 11/30/2012 2:16:36 PM PST by drewh
Former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said Friday that the Republican Party should stress its "libertarian roots" rather than "fringe" social issues as it evaluates its election losses.
“I think the deliberation about the Republican Party that we’re having is a very healthy thing," Huntsman told CNN. "And if we don’t wind up at the end of the exercise with a mission statement that is one sentence long, then we’re toast. That one statement ought to be, ‘Balance the budgets and get out of people’s lives.’ And you ought to build the party around that because we have strong libertarian roots that go way back to the early days of the Republican Party.
Huntsman went on to warn that the party was occasionally consumed by such "fringe issues, and it gets us stuck in the alleyways of life that take our focus away from what is really important for the American people, and that is individual freedom and that is getting the budgets balanced so people can get on with their lives.”
Huntsman, who was the former U.S. Ambassador to China under President Obama, also urged Republicans to cool their rhetoric surrounding the terrorist attack in Benghazi.
"What I'm saying about the Benghazi incident is let's lower the politics," Huntsman said. "Let's let the experts collect the information."
He also downplayed any suggestion that he could serve as Secretary of State, with Hillary Clinton planning to leave the job at the end of the president's first term — although seemingly indicated he would accept the job, if asked.
"I don't play the hypothetical game," Huntsman said. "We have moved on. My history has always spoken to putting my country first, and if I didn't, my two sons at the U.S. Naval Academy would never forgive me."
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Try to avoid saying stupid things like “self-deportation.” That’s code for the Mexican illegals. Romney dug himself a hole right then and there and probably lost the election trying to get to the right of Perry.
This whole issue is so easily handled if we just had a guest worker program where people could come and go as necessary. These are the people work the produce fields, restaurants, yard work and all the crap work Americans won’t do.
we have a work visa system
we have existing methods of gaining legal citizenship and legal residency
These people simply refuse to obey the law.
That’s a tougher one. But it should and will have to be handled through the courts since it is now embedded in law per the Supreme Court. This why it is VITAL AND ESSENTIAL to get Republicans elected. Now we have Obozo in there for another four years and you can be sure that all of his appointments will be flaming liberals. Abortion probably won’t be argued for another 100 years at this rate.
Republicans prove every election they are truly the “stupid party.”
And they will continue to do so just as water seeks its own level. Hard to believe but there is almost no new illegal immigration into the U.S. recently and a marked reduction of illegal mother’s new born since our economy has gone into the toilet under Obama. Mexico is on fire with a faster GDP than Obozo’s economy and likely to remain so. We are more likely than not going into another deep recession next year due to his Marxist policies.
Or it could be the other way around: that Republicans nominate social conservatives when the party is likely to win.
In any case, Nixon wasn't quite a social conservative in today's sense, nor was Bush I. It's also not clear that Dole was that different from Nixon or Bush I on social issues: he just happened to lose.
I guess if Democrats oblige us by nominating a McGovern or a Dukakis, the Republican candidate can't help but look like a social conservative, but one can't count on them doing that every time.
That's not to say that Huntsman is right and the GOP ought to drop the social issues, but I'm not sure that a lot of the things we tell ourselves are actually true -- especially in today's very different America.
Very sensible and logical post. We need to stop with this circular firing squad mindlessness and stick to economic issues and follow the constitution. On those issues we are solid ground.
This election should have been a walk over to winning. The economy was horrible. We had a Marxist ideologue in the WH and we lost????? That really takes some skill to pull off the impossible even with a lockstep mainstream media pulling Obama’s wagon.
How could anyone with half a brain vote against a Republican who sticks to the economy and rails against national bankruptcy which we will sure have at the rate we are going? If the voting public is this stupid then we are surely doomed as a republic and deserve what we will reap.
Some people are always saying that if Republicans don't say the wrong things that supposedly offend all these winnable Hispanics, they'll start voting for Pubbies. I seriously doubt that. The simple fact is: many Hispanics like the idea of Big Government.
I’m just dealing with reality. We need these folks for the jobs most Americans will not do. How many Hispanics stand on the corner waiting for a hand-out?
A lot of us need to have our houses cleaned, lawns mowed and restaurants and farms need their labor. They are willing to do these jobs. So why not “legalize” them by providing a temporary work permit so they don’t have to continuously fly under the radar? We’ve had many here for decades, illegal all the time worrying about being deported. They own homes, buy autos, and contribute to the economy. Let’s stop this nuttiness. We can’t deport them, nor should we.
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