WHY ITS SO HARD TO ELECT A REPUBLICAN
In case no one has noticed, the three major Democrat candidates are busy running for president. In the meantime, our eight or so candidates are squandering time, money and resouces in a desperate bid to win the approval of enough liberal-republicans, moderate-republicans and/or conservative-republicans just to get on the ballot! Check out Republican Voters Uninspired by Candidates on http://www.drudgereport.com. Admittedly, the link takes us to the NYT - no bastion of objective reporting - but Nagourney’s piece has the ring of some truth.
As I have said before on this site, democrats are not big into litmus tests. They will unite behind a cockroach if it looks like a winner. On the other hand, republicans - and conservatives in particular - nit-pick each prospect into oblivion. The reason for this dichotomy is simple: liberals are ruthlessly pragmatic while conservatives are stubbornly principled. [Statistically, all the dems have to do to win the presidency is to keep the faithful from wandering off the reservation. On the other hand, a republican candidate must convince 20% to 25% of democrats to switch their allegiance to win. Reagan’s sweeping victories come to mind.]
Sayanythingblog is a wonderful opportunity to bloviate and I do it as much as anyone. The problem is that we’re not in Rob’s cozy den fuming in private. Our principled rants are viewed by lots of people who pick up on why Romney, Guiliani, Thompson, McCain, Huckabee and all the rest of our candidates are bad, bad, bad; albeit for differing, even conflicting reasons. No wonder the GOP is uninspired. Maybe its time we aimed our fire at the real target: the leftist/liberal opposition.
