Posted on 04/06/2002 4:53:52 PM PST by madprof98
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:34:07 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Yes, but that isn't enough for a conservative to win in California.
That's one aspect, another paints Simon as an "extreme, hard-line conservative," "out of touch with a cutting edge state," "too conservative," "right wing," etc. It's a strategy that creates negatives on a candidate who has few among the wobbly middle. Frankly that's what I think that they are after.
So "what else is new" a Californian might say, eh?
Why? I haven't seen anything in the public that abortion is hurting Simon. All I have seen is a bunch of liberal press and Gray Davis TRYING to make it an issue. It's not sticking.
I went to the gym this weekend in a Bill Simon for Governor t-shirt in Sacramento County and got several nods and smiles and one thumbs up. I got one possible dirty look. (About 7 to 1, I can take that).
Davis wants to make the issue about abortion, but it is only highlight HIS extremist views. Most people who support abortion support some restrictions. Every time Davis brings it up it highlights how pro-abort his really is.
The people aren't going to vote on abortion. Davis' attempt to make this a campaign about abortion when we are in a recession, have a $17 billion budget deficit, and test scores have actually fallen is going to fail. If this was the high-riding times of the 90s, it might work. But it's not.
Go Simon!
Possibly. But now, it's a huge negative even on the Left Coast. Let Davis shore up his base. It moves him more to the Left and the Center won't like it, all those people Davis thinks want abortion-on-demand and think THAT's the most important issue in the world.
Go Simon!
You hit on part of the answer. But, do you want to know what the real reason is the Democrats feel they have air supremacy on the abortion issue? It's because timid "pro-life" Republican nominees never counter attack on ground where the Dems are vulnerable. First trimester abortion is popular in California, yes. But the grotesque abortion procedures performed in the second and third trimesters are just as sickening to Californicators as they are to the rest of us. So, why do the Republicans not hit the Dems back in these areas? Because they fear it will do them more harm than good due to their official position in favor of banning all abortion. By feeding the abortion debate with counter-attacks, the Republicans know that the media and the Democrats will continue to retaliate by reminding voters that "what they really want to do" is ban all abortion. In order to avoid that, they sit down, shut up, and "change the subject." What this does, ironically, is destroy any chance to communicate the pro-life message in a meaningful and compelling way to the voters (debates on late abortion bans have been proven to convert people to the pro-life position).
No one seriously believes that Bill Simon can or will stop abortion in California...
Which makes it all the more ridiculous and tragic that a candidate like Simon refuses to publicly acknowledge that reality so that he can confidently advocate more mainstream pro-life policies that will have a decided long term, and short term, effect in reducing abortions. And I don't mean just "changing the subject" or lamely claiming behind the scenes that abortion is a "settled issue," I mean taking the issue of a first trimester abortion ban entirely off the table for now, in order to make the debate center around popular proposals to discourage and reduce all abortions, plus late abortion bans. It is beyond insanity to sacrifice mainstream pro-life issues because you insist on adhering to the politically impossible proposition of banning all abortion immediately. Simon doesn't think he's about to ban all abortion as governor, neither do most of the single-issue pro-lifers who will vote for him. But, apparently, the "principle" of the matter is reason enough to sacrifice the thousands of babies who could otherwise be saved if a more realistic strategy were employed that would result in putting the Democrats on the run for a change. Instead, we get to see a candidate who is evidently ashamed of being pro-life and who is running from the issue like an olympic sprinter. Sickening.
but not as much as they think
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