Category: 2008 Election

John Lott links to an article by Jan Crawford Greenberg:

Leading Senate Democrats are already warning against solidly conservative nominees, and that could make confirmation difficult in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Still, some of Bush’s political advisers believe he would be better off tapping a strong conservative who would rally the base — especially a nominee with a compelling life story who would be difficult for moderate Senate Democrats to oppose.

In that camp are federal appeals court Judges Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown. Both were filibustered by Senate Democrats after Bush nominated them as appellate judges and were eventually confirmed after Senate leaders struck a compromise on judicial nominations.

It would agree the wise political move for Bush would be to nominate a solidly conservative candidate that the Democrats would have no real grounds to say no to, and make them say no to her.   That’s great fodder for 2008, and will get the base rallied.  It would be a welcome departure from Bush’s tone deaf actions as of late, especially on immigration.   Hell, I’m generally pro-immigration, and even I think his immigration plan is a steaming pile of manure.

Beating your base up is a sure way to make Republicans stay home in 2008, and that will give us President Hillary or President Obama.   Neither of those two choices are palatable to me.  If Bush keeps acting like a bozo with no political sense, I’m going to register Democrat and vote for Bill Richardson, just so I can contribute to minimizing the damage.

Fred Thompson has an article in National Review on the gun issue that is quite good, and something I’d expect to read from one of us, not a politician who is running for President. I’ll give Thompson this, he and his team know this medium well, and can speak to it. Here’s to hoping that 2008 is the election year where blogs are going to matter in a big way.

Thanks to Joe for the tipoff.

UPDATE: Ooops… didn’t notice this was several weeks old.  Oh well, still good stuff.

I like this post by David Weigel over at Reason that suggests Fred Thompson is to Republicans what Barack Obama is to Democrats.   I think that’s right.

From Insty, Fred Thompson says he’ll run.

Politician-turned-actor Fred Thompson plans an unconventional campaign for president using blogs, video posts and other Internet innovations to reach voters repelled by politics-as-usual in both parties, he told USA Today.

Thompson, a former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, has been coy about his intentions with audiences, but made clear in an interview that he plans to run.

It’s really good news for people who don’t like any of the other three clowns currently vying for the nomination. Thompson is a bit more socially conservative than I would like, but as Glenn points out, there’s a lot not to like about Giuliani. Mitt Romney is a political opportunist of the first order. The only other serious candidate, John McCain, doesn’t believe in free speech, and being in the Senate for too long has melted his brain.

So Fred might not be my ideal candidate, but I like his style, and he’s certainly better than the other three. Run him against Hillary, and it’s not even a question. Against Obama, even less of a question. I’ll take him over Richardson too. I like Richardson, but his foreign policy ideas don’t appeal to me.

So Fred it is!

Here’s more evidence that Fred Thompson is prepared to wage a true 21st century campaign.   Whether I end up supporting him or not, there’s a lot to like.

Hot Air points out that the Democrats have a truther problem, along with a picture of Obama, which illustrates it.

These vignettes make their whole party look stupid. The problem is, as soon as the Democrat presidential candidates do refute the Truthers, they’ll see some of their most motivated support start melting away to the likes of Dennis Kucinich.

In a close primary race, it could be a real problem for the Democratic candidates.  Kuchinich has no chance of getting anywhere near the nomination, but he can be a spoiler.   Having association with truthers will be a huge liability in the general election, however.  Whoever wins the nomination will have to deal with these people if they want to win.  Even most mainstream Democrats will be turned off by the truther demographic.

In other news, I was quite happy to see there are people dedicated to finding out the truth behind 4/29.

Unlike the World Trade Center, the 580/980/880/80 overpass was reinforced against earthquakes and was not under the enormous compressive load that the towers were when they fell. The overpass was designed to support gridlocked traffic in an earthquake, but it collapsed without even a single car on it. The fire consumed only 8,600 gallons of fuel, whereas the WTC was allegedly brought down by 24,000 gallons of fuel. Does Governor Schwarzenegger really expect us to believe a story even more preposterous than the already-discredited official story about 9/11?To answer the question “Who is responsible for this terrible tragedy?” we must ask who stood to gain the most. George Soros? The California Department of Transportation? The Jews?

Has anyone check to see if any Jews were conspicuously absent from the highway?  Maybe someone told them to stay away!  Clearly this conspiracy is vast.

Reader KathyH brought up something in the comments about single issue voting, which got me interested.   Just out of curiosity, how many of you folks are single issue voters?

I am not, generally, believe it or not.  I’ve never voted for someone outright hostile to gun-rights, but I have voted for politicians who were less than staunch allies because I agreed with them on other things.  Despite the fact that I think our senior senator, Arlen Specter, is batty and often annoying, I’ve consistently voted for him, because on a lot of other issues, I agree with him on.

I also voted against Rick Santorum, despite is strong support of gun rights, because while I’m willing to accept some token social conservatism, he took the issue to new and insane heights, and I thought he deserved to get kneecapped because of it.

My major issues tend to change from election cycle to election cycle, but 2008 presidential it’s shaping to be:

• Foreign Policy
• Supreme Court
• Smaller government
• Firearms Policy

I actually suspect 2008 won’t feature much gun control, so I think that issue could end up being off the table.  It will come down to the other three.  I can’t rank in any order, because it depends greatly on how much the candidate offends or supports each view.  My support for Richardson over other Democrats reflects my desire to see gun control completely off the agenda, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t vote for Guiliani over Richardson, if Richardson proposed something like, pulling our of Iraq and leaving the field to Iran and Al-Qaeda.

I’m also very concerned with seeing judges appointed to the Supreme Court who follow what the law says, rather than what they wish it to be.  I tend to agree more with Republicans on this issue than Democrats.  Though I support keeping abortion legal, I don’t favor how the Supreme Court chose to go about doing it.  So I don’t get quite that worked up as your averge Democrat when someone says they think Roe was wrongly decided.

Gun control ranks high in my political calculus, but it’s not overwhelmingly dominant.  This means I will probably never vote for a candidate who is explicitly running on a campaign of gun control, but other things can offend me as well.

I’ve heard Fred Thompson say enough good things lately to really start hoping he runs. I am currently registered as a Libertarian, which means I don’t vote in primaries in Pennsylvania, but I would gladly switch my registration to either of the two parties if they can front someone I’d be willing to vote for.

I was thinking I might actually register Democrat so I could vote for Bill Richardson, but if Fred decides to throw his hat into the ring, I’ll register Republican and vote for him. Given that my other choice are the three stooges on the Republican ticket, Thompson seems like he might be a breath of fresh air.

It’s still early yet, and there’s plenty of time to disappoint, but given that Obama might actually beat Hillary, I might find myself hard pressed to find a Republican I won’t vote for given that choice.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out Frank J’s Daily Fred Thompson Fact