[Moose4]

For myself, I put it more simply.

Rudy Giuliani is the Candidate of Last Resort.

IF he wins the nomination—something I hope will not happen—and he’s the only realistic way of fending off President Hildebeast, then I’ll vote for him. And I won’t like it one bit. In the meantime, I’ll educate myself more on the candidates, and support more conservative ones, right now, meaning Hunter and Thompson. (But not Hunter Thompson. He’s dead. Although I might want to vote for him anyway if it comes down to Rudy vs. Hillary.)

Here’s another Bizarro World experiment for Rudy supporters. Suppose, in Bizarro America, Tom Tancredo comes out of nowhere to win the Republican nomination for President, and he has the backing of enough Republicans and independents that he has a good shot at winning against whichever Democratic candidate is fielded. (Remember, I DID say it was Bizarro America.) Would YOU support HIM? Because the flipside of that is sort of what you’re asking social conservatives to do with Rudy.

Let me drag out the all caps here for a second:

CONSERVATIVES DO NOT WIN ELECTIONS BY PANDERING TO THE SQUISHY MIDDLE. CONSERVATIVES WIN ELECTIONS BY CONVINCING THE SQUISHY MIDDLE WHY OUR IDEAS ARE BETTER.

That’s it. Nobody did it better than Ronald Reagan. Don’t slide left. Don’t pretend to be a “moderate.” Take your conservatism and be proud of it, and SELL IT.

}:-)4

[M203M4]

Except Tancredo ideologically has most of the good qualities for both camps and would not involve many ideological trade-offs. If someone would refuse to vote for him if he were the nominee, the biggest tent in the world would not retain them within the conservative coalition (unless they had some non-political personal reason like he kicked their bike in grade 2 or cut them off in traffic once).

Don’t slide left. Don’t pretend to be a “moderate.” Take your conservatism and be proud of it, and SELL IT.

Agree 100%.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

MUST REPEAT!

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CONSERVATIVES DO NOT WIN ELECTIONS BY PANDERING TO THE SQUISHY MIDDLE. CONSERVATIVES WIN ELECTIONS BY CONVINCING THE SQUISHY MIDDLE WHY OUR IDEAS ARE BETTER.

That’s it. Nobody did it better than Ronald Reagan. Don’t slide left. Don’t pretend to be a “moderate.” Take your conservatism and be proud of it, and SELL IT.

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Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!
Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!Bump!

[perfect_rovian_storm]

“CONSERVATIVES DO NOT WIN ELECTIONS BY PANDERING TO THE SQUISHY MIDDLE. CONSERVATIVES WIN ELECTIONS BY CONVINCING THE SQUISHY MIDDLE WHY OUR IDEAS ARE BETTER.”

This bears repeating. Too bad it’s too long to be a tagline!