Why I Can’t Vote For Any Of These Guys – Part Two
Vodkapundit Stephen Green bemoaned the dearth of Democratic presidential candidates worth supporting on PJM last week. Now it's the Republicans turn.
Last week, we learned that the Democratic presidential wannabes are just that–wannabes. This week, we’ll see why the Republicans aren’t doing any better, at least not with this soused pundit.
Let’s start with the current favorite–if the polls are to be believed–Rudy Giulliani. If, as seems likely today, Rudy and Hillary Clinton win their parties’ nominations, then we face the very real prospect of a left-leaning nanny-stater moving into the White House. Then again, maybe Hillary would win. The fact that Rudy leans left on most social issues doesn’t bother me one whit. The fact that he’s backing off those stands, does.
Which brings us to Thompson. Fred or Tommy, it doesn’t matter which. At the rate these primaries keep getting pushed up, Iowa might have to hold its caucus as early as next week. Nevertheless, one of the Thompsons ran such a lackluster campaign that he was forced out even before Earlier Iowa. And the other Thompson might as well be. Fred Thompson’s current schedule calls for him to wander around some non-specific farming-related event once or twice a week, and sometimes maybe saying a few words. I think he spends the rest of his time practicing his Gruff Face in the campaign bus’s bathroom mirror. It’s really quite a face, but it’s not enough to get my vote.
Just what is Mitt Romney selling, apart from Mitt Romney? His positions have “evolved” on everything from abortion to… well, pretty much everything that separates the majority of Massachusetts voters from the majority of Republican primary voters. And pretty much everything separates those two voting blocks, including the occasional well-aimed fire hose. The very idea that Romney thinks he can straddle that divide should make you wonder if there’s any one place he really does stand.
Is it possible to make fun of John McCain without impugning his unimpeachable war hero record? I spent half of 1996 doing just that to Bob Dole, so why not? McCain is the half-author of the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act, which he spent half his career trying to get passed. His life’s work thus finished, I can’t think of one good reason to promote McCain to the Oval Office. Once there, I’m afraid there’s no telling which item on the Bill of Rights he’d target next.
The remaining guys I can’t vote for, for the same reason I won’t show up at a rugby match in a tuxedo: You know nobody else will, and it’s not the kind of place to take a stand.
Colorado representative Tom Tancredo, my home state favorite, isn’t even the favorite here in his home state. Tancredo is one of those one-issue candidates. His Big Thing is to close the border with Mexico, I think also with Canada, and he usually sounds angry enough to order a naval blockade on Puerto Rico, just in case. That Tancredo doesn’t poll over single digits should tell you that his support his limited to homeowners who have never had any landscaping done and don’t eat lettuce.
Then there’s Sam Brownback, who was either the senator from or governor of some smallish state, perhaps one with lovely scenery. He once weighed more than the entire stunt crew from Star Wars: Episode III. There’s a chance I’m thinking of Mike Huckabee, who is also a conservative Republican from someplace nice, and going nowhere. Both men are, I’m sure, well credentialled, in the sense that hardly anyone has ever heard of them.
I’m pretty sure that Duncan Hunter is an actual separate person from Brownback and Huckabee, although I’m not at all certain which order his name goes in. He seems like a nice enough guy, but I can’t figure out what he thinks he has going for him this late in the game. Although to be fair, by the time you get this far down the list of Democratic contenders, you’re left with the looney likes of Dennis Kucinich. But even Hunter Duncan would have to admit that “Not Nearly So Crazy As My Lefty Doppelg√§nger” is hardly a winning slogan.
Speaking of nuts, we’re left at the bitter, spittle-encrusted end with Ron Paul, the distinguished Congressman from Texas. And by “distinguished,” I mean, “You can pick him out of a crowd like the guy in the chicken suit on opening night at the Met.” Paul tries to pass himself off as a libertarian, which is difficult given that he’s against abortion and for closing the border. But more annoying than Paul is his throng of supporters (Dave and Billy), who stuff the ballot boxes of every online poll Paul’s ever appeared on. They’ll be here any minute to complain, loudly and with many typos.
I suppose I shouldn’t abandon all hope. There is still plenty of time, nearly weeks, before the primary season starts in earnest. And who knows — maybe one of these guys will make me think twice. I mean, Rudy does seem awfully strong on terror and transvestite rights. But since we still do have time, I’m going to pursue a more important matter this evening in which both my choices are attractive ones: Gin or vodka?
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21 Comments
1. Fred Beloit:Since Newt is quite out, I’m at a loss. My only thought now is Hillery must not win. Toward this negative goal, I posted this comment at Riehl World View:
If I were a Republican candidate (no, Fred, not this again) running against Hillery, I would counter her offer to give $5000 of someone else’s money to each newborn American with an offer like this. “I’ll match Hill’s $5000 and raise her $100,000. Thanks to what seems to be public acceptance, because of the lack of outrage over this absurd socialistic idea, $5000 is mere peanuts. Not only that, I would ask the Congress to increase this amount to match the yearly rate of inflation. Now mommy and daddy, who’s your daddy?”
Sep 30, 2007 - 7:44 am 2. David Thomson:Closed borders? Why would Stephen Green say something so patently absurd? Who is advocating such a thing? Even Tom Tancredo does not go that far. Controlled borders are not the same thing as closed borders! The majority of Americans are for legal immigration. People working in the United States should be legally cleared to do so.
The most important question in the 2008 election is how best to defeat the Islamic Jihadis. The abortion issue is not even a close second. Somebody does not seem to have their priorities straight.
Sep 30, 2007 - 8:32 am 3. syn:I like Rudy, he told Brooklyn Museum he wasn’t going to use public tax-funds to support crap like ‘Christ Piss’ Of course he was then deemed Hilter for defunding regressive progressives.
As for the abortion issue well, one side of the evangelicals led by Jimmiah Carter will support abortion in order to receive socialist entitlement goodies while the other side of the evangelicals could care less about whether radical Islamist hacks off a Christian’s head just as long as they’re anti-abortion.
I do agree with the prior comment “The majority of Americans are for legal immigration. People working in the United States should be legally cleared to do so” Those who defend the policy of illegal immigration are in effect supporting the very un-American concept of slave trading.
Gin and Volka? I’ll take Bourban…it’s got guts.
Sep 30, 2007 - 10:02 am 4. Shane:I find it amusing, instead of commenting on what a following Ron Paul has, you lower yourself to personal attacks. Not only do you insult your fellow Americans, mocking their ability to make up their own minds, but you act as if it is only stupid, uneducated people that support him. There is that following, but I would issue a challenge that there are more mindless, uneducated citizens that support the so-called “mainstream” candidates. The funniest thing is the assertion that the Ron Paul crazies are voting over and over again on online polls have no basis to them. All of these polls are I.P. and phone number controlled so that you can’t vote more than once from a certain computer, or one text message from a cell phone. At the end instead of honouring their polls they are removed, never talked about, or it is said that his crazy supporters are flooding the poll. Have you ever thought that it isn’t Ron Paul himself, but his sincerity and ability to answer a question with the truth that some people love, and others can’t stand.
Sep 30, 2007 - 10:34 am 5. edward cropper:From a standpoint of real class this group is, if not the weakest, certainly one of the weakest ever.
Sep 30, 2007 - 10:47 am 6. Stephen Green:The comment about landscaping and eating lettuce just shows the elitism so common in the news media right and left.
None of these wannabees have any of the characteristics you expect in a person wanting to be the leader of the free world.
The idea you cannot criticize John McCain because he is a war hero is nonsense.
What McCain did in the service of his country will always be an effort worthy of praise and appreciation.
If he robs a bank he is still a war hero but now he is also a bank robber.
Does anyone remember Attorney General John Mitchell? War hero (Silver Star) and Watergate thug.
Richard Nixon once said history has shown that our country usually gets the President we should, or words to that he effect.
This is probably true because the makeup of the voting public more likely than not will reflect the election outcome.
We will see.
In this otherwise-dreary campaign season, it’s always good fun to flame-bait Ron Paul supporters. And it’s easier than a yarn-factory worker teasing a kitten.
Paul’s support in online polls is, no matter what Shane says, an illusion. Before the good folks at PJ Media figured out how to beat the poll-spammers, Paul “won” week after week. Paul’s support vanished when the tech guys shut down the bots. Go figure.
Other polls, such as Drudge Report’s from last week, showed that 77% of (self-selected!) those (self-)polled thought that Dennis Kucinich won. Really? 77% of the real public don’t know who Kucinich is or that he’s running. 77% of Democrats who watched the debate couldn’t identify him any closer than, “Wasn’t he mayor of Indiana or someplace?”
Real polls show that Paul’s actual support and name recognition are no better than Kucinich. So, please, spare me the results of IP-spoofed internet “polls” filled with self-selected “voters” and their robot pals.
I mean, the stuff from real outfits like Gallup and Zogby, etc is bad enough.
Sep 30, 2007 - 12:16 pm 7. Deborah:Gin.
John Cornyn for President, Tom Coburn for Vice-President. Pass the word.
Sep 30, 2007 - 8:58 pm 8. Poul:“but you act as if it is only stupid, uneducated people that support him.”
“if”?
Sep 30, 2007 - 11:31 pm 9. Sheryl:I disagree with your words about Mitt Romney. I just saw him speak recently and he was very impressive: answered some tough inquiries, kept his cool, answered without notes, and talked analytically rather than in platitudes. The more I see and learn about this man, the more I think he would be a great President. Mitt is it.
I think a Romney/Gingrich GOP ticket would be brilliant because both are so bright and smart and capable. America needs someone like Mitt at the helm.
Oct 1, 2007 - 12:28 am 10. pete:“Paul tries to pass himself off as a libertarian, which is difficult given that he’s against abortion and for closing the border”
Strawman argument, how quaint. Dr. Paul never said anything about closing the border, he wants to SECURE the border. We’re spending trillions a year overseas and we’re not able to stop people with little resources in Mexico from crossing. You don’t see a problem with that?
As far as the abortion issue, it would have been nice if you included he is a medical doctor that’s delivered over 4000 babies. Although he’s personally against it, he believes the states have a right to regulate, not the federal government.
“Speaking of nuts”
We’re 9 trillion in debt, we pay out about 1.5 billion a day in interest alone.. and Ron Paul wants to bring us back to a responsible fiscal policy.. nuts indeed!
“who stuff the ballot boxes of every online poll”
That’s an interesting assertion considering a number of the polls only allow one vote per IP. I assume you have proof to back your statement?
“I mean, Rudy does seem awfully strong on terror”
He should, he has Norman ‘Let’s bomb everyone we disagree with and let God sort the bodies out later ‘ Podhoretz on his campaign team.
While I respect your opinion, I can not find much I actually agree with personally.
Oct 1, 2007 - 2:10 am 11. Pete:“Real polls show that Paul’s actual support and name recognition are no better than Kucinich”
Ron Paul raised over 1.2 million in 7 days. Wow, that’s a lot of spammers and absolutely no name recognition.
“It’s always good fun to flame-bait Ron Paul supporters. And it’s easier than a yarn-factory worker teasing a kitten.”
Yet, when educated supporters are willing to debate you on education, fiscal policy or foreign policy, you resort to these types of comments.
I guess everyone needs to be a celeb online.
Oct 1, 2007 - 2:19 am 12. Damian P.:HOW DAIR YOU ATTAK RON PAUL LIKE THAAT???!
Oct 1, 2007 - 5:00 am 13. mark smith:Stephen Green, check the PJ poll numbers — until he was arbitrarily removed from it, Paul won almost every week. Since his removal, participation is way down.
Oct 1, 2007 - 5:43 am 14. Melanie V.:Ron Paul has alot of support from places you wouldn’t expect, both Left and Right. I think alot of people have had it with our civil liberties being trampled on, being GROSSLY in-debt, and ‘lawmakers’ ignoring the Constitution.
No one is doing a thing to stop illegal immigration. ICE can’t even keep radioactive materials from crossing the Canadian border. Ron Paul doesn’t want to close the border, he wants to secure it. And about time too.
I am even a liberal, but I can’t stomach any other candidate we have offered to us.
*baited comment over*
Oct 1, 2007 - 7:20 am 15. BMoon:“I’m going to pursue a more important matter this evening in which both my choices are attractive ones: Gin or vodka?”
How about the local AA chapter instead? It’s going to be a long, dreary campaign season and I’m worried how your liver will make out.
Oct 1, 2007 - 1:41 pm 16. reliapundit:steve;
if i add this post to roger’s – about how gore would be doing what bush is doing – then i conclude that PJM is making a concerted effort to increase its readership by moving to the left.
you and roger seem to be trying to blur the differences between the gop and the dems at atime when those differences are starker than ever.
it is truly bizarre.
the only thing i think explains it is a desire to increase readers by getting more anti-bush readers and… whataya callem???? …. FREE-RANGERS.
it’s appalling.
kerry was more qualiofied to be potus than ANY in the dem field.
the frontrunners in the gop are all MORE qualified than Bush was in 2000.
it’s no contest.
Oct 1, 2007 - 8:26 pm 17. Paul:Ron Paul just raised $1,000,000 USD in one week. This blows your idea that all of his supporters are just spamming polls out of the water.
You biased fools.
Oct 2, 2007 - 9:46 am 18. i-live-2-ride:If people will take a trip in the wayback machine, they might recall that Rudy Guilianni is the primary reason that Hillary Clinton was elected to the NY Senate in the first place.
Rudy was favored to win against the Arkansas Carpetbagger, but then he came down with a mysterious illness that had many questioning whether he could run the race to the finish. If not, the Republicans still had enough time for Rudy’s replacement to gain some face time and name recognition with the voters. (Of course the Clintons have left a long trail of dead bodies of those who stood in their way, about 40 or 50 corpses so far if my memory serves me, so maybe they made him a deal that he couldn’t refuse. Perhaps another ‘deal’ will be forthcoming?
‘Oh I’m in it for the long haul, you can be sure of that’ says Rudy. I remember telling my wife at that time that he’d ‘remain in the race just long enough to raise another million dollars and then he’ll drop out.’ Tada! He raised another million plus and then said, ‘ummm, I don’t feel well so I’ll be leaving now. Just have what’s his name take it from here.’
But there simply wasn’t enough time for whatever his name is/was, to get familiar with the voters so the NY Senate race went to Hillary almost by default (well that and there were probably a lot of dead people who voted for her, as the dead usually vote for the Demonicrats).
Gulliani already had a bad name because of his marital situation, and if not for the calmness he displayed following the 911 tragedy his name would probably still bring anger to many voters.
So now we are asked to forget about the mysterious illness that doesn’t seem to be a factor now. We’re to forget how he stated publicly that illegal aliens deserve to be treated like citizens and not like law breakers. And let’s forget that Julie is anti-gun and may likely try to use NYC as a model for the country to follow where most guns are banned. He condones abortion which is why we are so short on our tax rolls (we’re minus 45,000,000 aborted potential tax payers and their subsequent children since the Roe vs Wade sham). And we’re supposed to forget that Gulliani is the person most responsible for helping Hillary get to the top of the senate dung heap so that she is able to once again run against her benefactor Rudy?
Fact is, I don’t want to see either one of these two clowns in the oval office (though in truth, I’d rather have that scumbag Rudy Gulliani in there than another ‘bought and paid for by communist China’ Clinton).
At present, I like Fred Thompson (who is arrogantly blowing his chances by not getting any message out or even debating against his peers). Or Duncan Hunter who has good ideas, shows well, and speaks well.
Oct 3, 2007 - 7:09 am 19. i-live-2-ride:If people will take a trip in the wayback machine, they might recall that Rudy Guilianni is the primary reason that Hillary Clinton was elected to the NY Senate in the first place.
Rudy was favored to win against the Arkansas Carpetbagger, but then he came down with a mysterious illness that had many questioning whether he could run the race to the finish. If not, the Republicans still had enough time for Rudy’s replacement to gain some face time and name recognition with the voters. (Of course the Clintons have left a long trail of dead bodies of those who stood in their way, about 40 or 50 corpses so far if my memory serves me, so maybe they made him a deal that he couldn’t refuse. Perhaps another ‘deal’ will be forthcoming?
‘Oh I’m in it for the long haul, you can be sure of that’ says Rudy. I remember telling my wife at that time that he’d ‘remain in the race just long enough to raise another million dollars and then he’ll drop out.’ Tada! He raised another million plus and then said, ‘ummm, I don’t feel well so I’ll be leaving now. Just have what’s his name take it from here.’
But there simply wasn’t enough time for whatever his name is/was, to get familiar with the voters so the NY Senate race went to Hillary almost by default (well that and there were probably a lot of dead people who voted for her, as the dead usually vote for the Demonicrats).
Gulliani already had a bad name because of his marital situation, and if not for the calmness he displayed following the 911 tragedy his name would probably still bring anger to many voters.
So now we are asked to forget about the mysterious illness that doesn’t seem to be a factor now. We’re to forget how he stated publicly that illegal aliens deserve to be treated like citizens and not like law breakers. And let’s forget that Julie is anti-gun and may likely try to use NYC as a model for the country to follow where most guns are banned. He condones abortion which is why we are so short on our tax rolls (we’re minus 45,000,000 aborted potential tax payers and their subsequent children since the Roe vs Wade sham). And we’re supposed to forget that Gulliani is the person most responsible for helping Hillary get to the top of the senate dung heap so that she is able to once again run against her benefactor Rudy?
Fact is, I don’t want to see either one of these two clowns in the oval office (though in truth, I’d rather have that scumbag Rudy Gulliani in there than another ‘bought and paid for by communist China’ Clinton).
At present, I like Fred Thompson (who is arrogantly blowing his chances by not getting any message out or even debating against his peers). Or Duncan Hunter who has good ideas, shows well, and speaks well.
Oct 3, 2007 - 10:56 am 20. Thomas Jefferson:Paul Campaign Raises Over $5,000,000 In Third Quarter
Ron Paul’s 114 percent increase is in stark contrast to the decrease suffered by Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Romney’s fundraising was down 29 percent. Giuliani was down 40 percent. McCain was down 55 percent.
Oct 3, 2007 - 2:37 pm 21. peter jackson:Rudy was favored to win against the Arkansas Carpetbagger, but then he came down with a mysterious illness that had many questioning whether he could run the race to the finish.
That would be prostate cancer. Not terribly mysterious.
We’re to forget how he stated publicly that illegal aliens deserve to be treated like citizens and not like law breakers.
No he hasn’t.
And let’s forget that Julie is anti-gun and may likely try to use NYC as a model for the country to follow where most guns are banned.
First, that’s absurd. Second, it wouldn’t matter if it were true, because presidents don’t pass laws, Congress does.
Oct 6, 2007 - 10:58 am