Press Wrongly Claims Anybody but Romney

We have been hearing the press refer to each Republican who entered the race or made a splash be touted as the “Anybody but Romney” candidate until they either self-destructed or otherwise crashed and burned. There was Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and then the first show of preferences in Iowa. After Iowa they made note of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum simply because they were not given much choice, Santorum ended up winning, yes, I know they said Romney by 8 votes but the official results out this past week tentatively show Santorum by 34 votes, they’re counting again, and Paul came in a close and respectable third close on the heels of Santorum and Romney. Then the focus moved to New Hampshire where they belittled Ron Paul as not a serious option who would get his devoted following’s votes and they rather quickly dropped any mention of Rick Santorum touting the race as between Romney and the not Romney candidate, Gingrich.

Yesterday was the primary in South Carolina and the conversation remained Romney-Gingrich and not much else. The press is back to its Romney versus the not-Romney, which they have returned to Gingrich, dumping Santorum and Paul as quickly as the press driven polls have allowed. But what the press has honestly been seeking from day one has been the not honestly conservative candidate. They are pushing anybody but Santorum and Paul, the only true conservatives of any real measure in the field. But the press keeps drumming the “win the center to win the election” mantra in order to support the least conservative candidates. That is the big lie of our times, the fat middle of the political road voters. We have a polarized nation where most of the voting public are either on the right shoulder or the left shoulder and nobody is in the middle of the road (anyway, you get run over walking in the middle of the road). President Obama did not win the last election by pandering to the middle of the road. He ran on a whole program of wish upon a star and liberal emotional tripe. There was no attempt by the Obama campaign to do anything but rouse up the left and far left base and get them out to vote. Meanwhile, listening to the press, including Fox News, the Republicans went with a moderate Republican who would be able to gather in those millions of voters of the middle in America. Unfortunately, that was done at the expense of energizing the Republican conservative base which caused a rather lackluster turnout from conservatives. We are heading down that same worn out road again and I believe that conservatives have about had all they can stomach of the press choosing the Republican candidate every four years.

The Republicans have to realize that their only ticket to electoral victory is through a vitalized and excited base. Chasing the chimera of the centrist voters is the path to political oblivion. The Democrats have realized this and that is why they have completely forsaken the middle of the road track and swerved as far left as possible and excited their base. By going middle of the road and offering a moderate rather than a true conservative message will not resonate well with those true conservative voters needed so desperately to turn out by the Republicans. Did the Republican Party’s leadership miss the entire message from the 2010 midterm elections? The Republican Party nearly swept the elections in the vast majority of contests where they ran true, real, and, yes, Tea Party candidates for the House and Senate. Hello!! Wake up and smell the coffee. Take off the rose colored, mainstream press issued glasses and read the Tea Party leaves. Republicans only hope is with real, through and through, red-blooded conservatives. But they will not wake from their mainstream press induced haze and face reality because it is easier and less confrontational just to play the game where the Republican Party is simply the foil which never honestly and righteously challenges the liberal dogmas and actually hold up a real and true conservative banner and run with it.

Beyond the Cusp

It’s Iowa Caucus Day

We have finally made it to the first day where the voices of the people are recorded for all to witness. By this evening there will start the questions about who needs to drop out and who still remains viable either due to doing well or still being mathematically in the race. As is all too often the case, and sometimes I think it is planned to be this way, there are many true conservative candidates and but one or two so-called moderate Republican candidates. For those conservative hopefuls, knowing and admitting this up front is crucial and acting responsibly in the face of these facts vital if we are to have a viable conservative candidate this fall, or even the glimmer of a hope for such a result. So, what is it this writer can predict for the results today?

From what I have read and heard of polls, the race for fist appears to be between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, not much of a surprise there. Rumor has it that Newt Gingrich has fallen off sharply in the final days, much as every other not Romney candidate has after a few short weeks of intense scrutiny after rising to the top briefly. Many of the polls report that the true conservative candidates, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry are all closely matched splitting up an equal amount of the caucus ballot as Mitt Romney will garner as he does not appear to be sharing the liberal vote with anybody else, well, except possibly Jon Huntsman Jr. who will probably be statistically absent. Then there is an unknown percentage that will go to Newt Gingrich and totally depend on exactly how much he has fallen from grace. There was one poll that had suggested that Rick Santorum had shown some gains late last week which might place him as the most favored among the true conservatives in the race. I must admit that I hope this is true as Rick Santorum has been my preferred candidate since it became obvious that John Bolton was not going to enter the fray.

By the end of the caucus some things should be made a little clearer, but not sufficiently to force anybody to act too hastily unless the results should leave them feeling at the end of their rope and honestly think they have no honest hope of winning. But, I do think that the three through and through conservative candidates need to assess who among them has the best chance of taking the nomination and making that determination as quickly as is possible. I would think that by the end of the Florida primary voting that should one of the three have a significant lead over the other two, then it may be best for the other two to suspend their campaigns while possibly still holding the votes won so as to kind of hold them for safe keeping as they remain beholden to vote for them in the first round. With the Florida Primary being held on January 31, 2012 and Super Tuesday coming just over a month later on March 6, 2012; slimming the field down to the most promising conservative candidate between Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry would be an intelligent move thus allowing the strongest of the three to have the best shot at an uncontested run with the whole of the conservative body of primary voters backing them rather than splitting that vote three ways as has been the results in past primary elections.

I know that right now there are people screaming “Foul” and pointing to the fact that the selection of delegates is supposed to be proportional instead of winner take all as was the case in previous elections. Well, that is true in theory and theories are beautiful things while reality is almost always quite a bit uglier. Truth is that there are sufficient loopholes and fudge factors built into the proportionality system being tried for the first time that quite a few states may as well be winner take all and others will not be as straight proportional as one might like. For a breakdown on the whole picture of the proportionality myth, I offer links to Talking Points Memo.com and the Washington Post. Given the information that a fair number of states are finding ways of going so far as to go district by district in an attempt to get around the proportionality rules by awarding each delegate to the person winning in that particular district and then possibly splitting the delegates only if no other option can be found or using other gimmicks to retain as much of the feel of winner take all, would you want to not have an honest conservative as the Republican candidate and risk not defeating President Obama? I do not want to see such a possibility if it can be avoided by any honest means, and having the conservative candidates agree that after Florida, the one with the most delegates takes the lead and the others give their support in an effort to unify the conservative electorate.

There is one more reason I so desperately desire having a real through and through true conservative win the Republican nomination. Despite the presumed well known, recognized, mainstream, and unadulterated truth that only by running a moderate, middle of the road Republican will allow the Republican Party candidate to win sufficient moderate voters to win the election, I believe something entirely different. If we send a moderate, mushy, middle of the road, compromising Republican candidate up against President Barack Obama we will be guaranteeing his reelection. The first and, by far, most important objective is to nominate a candidate that will excite the main body and conservative base of the Republican Party and get them excited and out to vote in force. The truth of the matter is that the United States has become a polarized country with a very small number of honestly mushy, middle of the spectrum, undecided voters. Presidential elections are not won by running to the middle and have not been won that way since very likely President Eisenhower or President Nixon at the latest. Since then either the true Progressive Liberal (or so perceived) has won or the hard right Constitutional Conservative (or so perceived) has won. Jimmy Carter was not a centrist. Ronald Reagan was not a centrist. George H. W. Bush was not considered a centrist in the first election and was seen as one after breaking his “Read my lips; no new taxes,” pledge where he lost the election. Bill Clinton, despite all the effort to paint him historically, was not a centrist. And Barack Obama is most definitely not a centrist. All right, I left out the one possible centrist who won when running against another perceived centrist. We need to get the conservative base of the United States excited and it may as well be the Republican one as any. Anything less and we risk losing the election and possibly the entire future of the United States. It’s your choice.

Beyond the Cusp