Category: 2008 Election

Dammit to hell:

“Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort,” Thompson said in a statement.

I’ll be taking down the Fred ’08 banner.  This is a real bummer.  Who to support now?   Mitt, Rudy and Preacher Mike are unacceptable.  Ron Paul is a waste at this point, of more than just a vote.  That leaves McCain.  Can I get behind this man who I swore on more than a few occasions I’d never vote for?  If he can beat Obillery, which I think he can, I’ll get on board the McCain Train, but I’m not going to enjoy the scenery.

According to Jacob, he’s not doing too well in his home state either against McCain.  Rudy bet his campaign on Florida.  If he loses it, he’s out.  That’ll be a blessing for second amendment advocates.

Via Instapundit:

Some people think it’s time to teach the party a lesson. Fine, but I thought 2006 was supposed to do that. Did they learn anything? Seems to me that things are about what they were when I put up my pre-mortem post that had Limbaugh exercised. (For that matter, did losing in 2000 and 2004 improve the Democrats? What, exactly, have they learned that led to the Hillary/Edwards/Obama offering? Are political parties capable of really learning?)

People will make up their minds closer to the date. Meanwhile, here’s a suggestion: If you care about saving the Republican Party, don’t blog about it. Get to work at the local and state level. Push your views, and find and promote candidates you like. Meanwhile, my earlier thoughts about culture and politics are still relevant. If you feel that way, then focus your energies there. But either way, don’t expect a candidate to be all you want. They seldom are, in my experience.

Read the whole thing, because it’s very true.

So it’s looking like this will be an election where, once again, we’ll be stuck having to choose the “lesser of two evils” rather than a candidate that we really want.

It’s not a situation I like any more than others, but I think in our political system, where coalitions happen at the party level, outside the structures of government, this is going to be the outcome more often than not.  The coalitions will coalesce around a candidate that doesn’t make anyone truly happy, but that offers each part enough to keep them from leaving.  Huckabee appeals to evangelicals, but his support outside of them is practically nonexistent.   Fred Thompson appeals to small government conservatives, but with not much appeal to the monied conservatives or independents.

I think McCain’s rise from the ashes has a lot to do with the fact that each part of the Republican base can probably settle for him, even if no one really loves him.  That appeal, combined with his inexplicable (to me, anyway) appeal to Democrats and Independents, is a big part of why he’s doing so well.

I don’t really want a McCain candidacy in 2008, but it wouldn’t offend me to the degree that would keep me from voting in the election.  I don’t really see any way out of voting for lesser of two evils candidates, because our system encourages it, really.  I’m not sure it’s unhealthy for The Republic either.

It’s disappointing, but Fred’s third place finish doesn’t bode well for the future of his campaign.   Nonetheless, Fred gained at Huckabee’s expense, and pulled away some evangelical vote, he might just be a spoiler for Huckabee, which means I surely hope he’ll stay in the race and keep fighting.  I had sincerely hoped Fred’s campaign could do much better in South Carolina than in previous states, but I don’t think it’s there for him this year.  I sincerely hope whoever walks away with the nomination will consider Fred for his Vice Presidential running mate, especially McCain, who is old as dirt and likely to die in office.

From Marshall Manson:

In essence, Governor Huckabee yesterday repudiated the First Amendment and the concept of free speech by announcing that he would like to “outlaw” any political speech not expressly “authorized and approved by the candidate.”

According to Jawa’s Rusty Shacklford, the quote in question came from an interview with NPR yesterday morning. Rusty quoted Governor Huckabee as saying:

“I personally wish that all of this was outlawed. I think that every candidate should speak for themselves, and that every thing that involves the candidate’s name or another candidate’s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate, otherwise it shouldn’t be spoken….

“The point is that candidates can’t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could.”

I really thought the basic tenets of Constitution were generally past debate. It never occurred to me that a candidate for President might simply come out against individual freedom. Even Senator McCain — no friend of free speech — has the sense to at least try to be subtle about it.

Read the whole thing.  I hate to say it, but I think I now have to rank Huckabee below Mitt Romney in terms of Republican candidates that I find to be completely unacceptable.  The question is, when the evangelical vote learns about what Huckabee is really about, will they still support him?  I hope not, but I’m not holding my breath.

Thanks to Megan for pointing me to this, which contains a link to this article:

Financial records from 1985 and 2001 show that Rockwell, Paul’s congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982, was a vice president of Ron Paul & Associates, the corporation that published the Ron Paul Political Report and the Ron Paul Survival Report. The company was dissolved in 2001. During the period when the most incendiary items appeared—roughly 1989 to 1994—Rockwell and the prominent libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard championed an open strategy of exploiting racial and class resentment to build a coalition with populist “paleoconservatives,” producing a flurry of articles and manifestos whose racially charged talking points and vocabulary mirrored the controversial Paul newsletters recently unearthed by The New Republic. To this day Rockwell remains a friend and advisor to Paul—accompanying him to major media appearances; promoting his candidacy on the LewRockwell.com blog; publishing his books; and peddling an array of the avuncular Texas congressman’s recent writings and audio recordings.

Of course, now Paul’s Congressional Chief of Staff is coming out and saying it was indeed Rockwell who was responsible for the letters.  Trying to fan the flames of racial bigotry is quite despicable, and while I leave open the possibility that Ron Paul is not himself a racist, I have no problem with judging the man by the company he keeps.

Fred Thompson is surging ahead in South Carolina.   From the campaign:

Fred’s South Carolina surge is working!

Two new polls by Zogby and Rasmussen, conducted just this week, show support for Fred growing. Thousands of internal calls by the campaign show Fred’s strength increasing.

It’s Day 10 of Fred’s South Carolina bus tour, and Fred is on fire!

I certainly hope Fred can pull ahead.   Winning South Carolina will be critical for his campaign.

Ahab explains why I don’t like Huckabee either, and can’t vote for him.  If Fred can’t pull a South Carolina win, I will start taking another look at McCain.  Not a perfect choice, but I can’t abide by this statement:

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave.  Christian political activists are beginning to become as big a force for reducing liberty as the left was in the 20th century, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people like to me to abide by being in coalition with them.  I agree with Ian Argent in the comments, who said:

I do believe, though, that we are on the cusp of a major realignment of the political parties – with parts of each coalition bolting their current party for the opposition. But it may take the Baby Boomers becoming inactive in politics first. And while they are, look out…

I think so too, but I think this realignment is going to be dangerous to gun owners.  People like me won’t be in a God and Guns coalition, but nor can I vote for elitist progressive weasels like this.  I suspect a number of other gun owners are in the same position.  Many of us are Christian, but we aren’t going to be happy with folks who want to monkey with the Republic because they think it doesn’t please God.  It’s not meant to please God, it’s meant to preserve liberty and limit government power.  It’s a good thing most of these people are OK with me keeping my guns, because if they get real power, I might need them.