The man must be a masochist. Indiana's Governor Mike Pence is making Presidential-candidate moves. On the face of it not a terrible idea, him being a personable, likeable guy. But alas, he's an economic moderate, and while by Indiana standards he's only an averagely social-conservative Republican, on the national stage that translates into extremely socially conservative.
It makes him pretty much unelectable; his administration has already given the Dems all they need to generate scare quotes just over the gay marriage issue alone. The media will gleefully join in that pigpile. And given that he's not all that great on fiscal issues, I don't know if a lack of electability is such a bad thing: I might tolerate a hardline SoCon if he was everything I wanted on economics, but it's too steep a price to pay for anything less.
Try again, GOP. At least come up with a candidate I can root for before you kick him to the curb in favor of what ever tired old party hack is "next in line" and I vote for the LP candidate instead again.
A vote for the third party candidate is a vote for the democrats.
ReplyDeleteI wanted Rand Paul in 2012, and I want him even more in 2016. I'm betting that Mitt Romney will tray again, though; he's still a good, decent man, he'll have maximum name recognition, he's already been vetted twice by a hostile media, and if we're going to repeat the Carter years, we might as well get another Reagan at the end of them. And I lived through the Reagan years - - his greatness wasn't predicted ahead of time, and his actions in office didn't seem all that great - - it was retrospect that turned him golden.
ReplyDeleteI'm predicting now: If we elect Romney, we get to have Reagan again. Another Morning In America.
No, it's a vote for a third party candidate. --Look, I'm not going to vote for a man I don't want in the office.
ReplyDeleteThe heck with you "wasted vote" people. I wasted votes on GOP witlings for years and never got what I was after. The Dems moved significantly to the Left when socialist parties started getting a noticeable share of the votes. Maybe the elephant can be moved as well.
To get back to the subject at hand...
ReplyDeleteI've met Pence, and he's a genuinely nice guy, which unfortunately disqualifies him right from the start.
I find him to be a reasonable governor, though. Could be worse.
Bob, if Romney gets the nod again, I will hold my nose and vote for him (sorry Bobbi), but I don't have any faith that he'll be, as you so blithely predict, another Reagan.
If the Pubbies would just man up and boot the socialcons out of the party (or at at the very least tell them that we can't have social conservatism until we fix the problems with the economy), they might get somewhere. But acting like Democrats Lite most of the time isn't helping them at all.
And Pubbies need to stop trying to get along in Washington. Hell, I would revel in the fact that the Dems hated me and didn't invite me to their dinner parties. Who wants to hang out with the socially-popular crowd, anyway?
But you have to vote for the Republicrat, lest the Demopublican get in.
ReplyDeleteI am half expecting someone to trot out a Christie-Crist "unity ticket."
ReplyDeleteI am half expecting someone to trot out a Christie-Crist "unity ticket."
One so rarely sees "Christie" and "trot" in the same sentence.
Where is it written that Fiscal Conservatism must be accompanied by stifling Social Conservatism? "You can be FREE from big government! Just follow OUR rules instead!"
And it's not so much the Social Conservatives that have disillusioned me as the steady leftward march of the GOP chasing the moderate vote.
No. Sorry. I'm going to take at least one election cycle and let the bruises on the side of my nose heal.
Can we *afford* another Reagan?
ReplyDeleteA lovely man, and he gave great speeches and did a number of outstandingly kewl things -- but his Administration outspent the previous one by an uncomfortable margin. "Morning In America" would be great -- it's "Happy Hour In America" and the bar tab and hangover to follow that fret me.
I think many look back at Ronnie Raygun through rose-colored glasses. This is the same dude that have CA the Mulford Act an the rest of us the War on (Some) Drugs and the Hughes Amendment, in addition to inflicting us with Bush the Elder ('89 Import Ban). He also supported te Brady Bill.
ReplyDeleteTo the first commenter, I respectfully suggest learning how the electoral college works. Being from one of the most conservative states in the country, I could vote for Darth Vader, and my state would still unquestioningly follow Team Heffalump.
It never ceases to amaze me how Republicans claim to be the party of hard work and self-determination, yet they consistently act like welfare queens, expecting to be handed a win just for showing up.
- Drifter
Did the failure of the Soviet Union justify Reagan's defense spending, Roberta?
ReplyDeleteBear in mind, also, that Congress - - and the power of the purse - - was controlled by the Democrats during Reagan's years. People who decry the deficit spending of those years always conveniently forget that Reagan was only 1/2 of the spending equation.
Reagan also gave us Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion in Heller vs. DC.
I'm following Heinlein: "There may not be someone you want to Vote FOR, but there's always someone you can Vote AGAINST."-Lazarus Long.
ReplyDeleteSo WHOEVER gets the Republitard Nomination (which takes place 25 miles from my Home in 2016!), that's the Vote I'm using against Hillary.
Did I mention how I hate the primary process? Cause I totally do. Let's face it, the reason the Stupid party tends to run a lot of bland party men is because pretty much all the interesting candidates are gone by Florida.
ReplyDeleteA preferential system would be better, but good luck getting that.
Les, if the GOP would run guys I might tolerate in office, I might do that; but a vote for LP candidate is a vote against both major parties.
ReplyDeleteThere are TWO major parties? How can you tell the difference? ;)
ReplyDeletePeople act as if there were, and as if it makes a difference.
ReplyDelete