Let me say up front that I am at this point not committed to ANY candidate seeking the nomination for president. Of those officially in or even mentioned as remote, some reflect my thoughts on many of the issues- Duncan Hunter, Newt Gingrich- and some I have no taste for at all- Pataki, Hagel. And what of the others? They all have some qualities I like, and some, I don”t.
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Here’s a few quick thoughts on a couple of them as I sit here in the GraniteGrok bunker awaiting winter (and the arrival of more Democrats to blame it on man-made global warming), deep in the heart of Central NH- still the home to one of the first in the nation presidential nominating states…
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Giuliani is certainly "leader" material, something President Bush is not, at least not often enough. He’s very, very liberal on many issues, however, and is really bad on the Second Amendment. McCain is great on the war. Great on North Korea, but wrong on terrorists’ rights, and, of course, there will always be McCain-Feingold. At the end of the day, I could see that a conservative case could be made for voting for either one. Leadership and ability as the Commander-in-Chief trump many things for me.
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And then there’s Mitt Romney. As time marches on, one can’t help but to observe, "There’s somethin’ about Mitt." And why not? How can a Republican from Massachusetts– yes- THAT Massachusetts- you know- Ted Kennedy, John "Loathesome" Kerry, and Barney Frank– claim to be a real conservative? As I previously noted in this post,
Romney has obviously made the decision to openly declare himself THE true conservative candidate- the savior of the right wing. While the others do what they do, Mitt has been working overtime to convince everybody he’s the real deal.
And then we found out that back in the nineties, he courted the gay rights activists, claiming to be more friendly to their cause than Ted Kennedy. TED KENNEDY! Now comes this piece of news, in which we find out Mitt had no problem denying common cause with someone held in high regard by many movement conservatives. TPMCafe.com reports
Today’s Washington Post weighs in with a long piece on Romney’s views, and it unearths the following Romney quote from 1994: "I’m not a partisan politician," he said in an interview with The Post that fall. "My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses." That’s not going to make the "Jesse Helmses" very happy, is it?
"Moderates"? It would be best for the REAL Mitt Rommney to enter the campaign and let US decide which label to place upon him. Luckily, it’s still early. Perhaps Mitt can regain his footing with some honest explanation of his positions. If not, he will get properly weeded from the pack, sparing a disaster in the general election.
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Time will tell as we move towards ’08. Maybe there is some yet- unknown conservative, ready to swoop in on his white horse to save the party, and the country from disaster. Maybe I’ve already mentioned him. We’ll just have to keep watching.