It’s Time to Move On

[SilverOrchid]

It’s Time to Move On
January 25th, 2008

Though I hate admitting it, it’s time to move on now that Fred’s dropped his presidential bid. Before we move on, though, I think it’s important to learn from Fred’s campaign.

The biggest lesson to be learned is that Fred shouldn’t have teased us so long with his entry. Fredheads should’ve contacted his campaign and told him he needed to get in so he could carve out his niche. Had the Fred Thompson of the last few debates jumped in in July or August, I’m convinced that he’d be the prohibitive favorite for the GOP’s presidential nomination right now.

The next biggest lesson we must learn as a political party is that Thompson’s type of conservatism is appealling. The other lesson we need to learn is that we don’t need to abandon conservatism to attract more squishy moderates. I’m all for a big tent but I insist that it’s a principled big tent. Which leads to this important point.

John McCain’s way of collaborating with Democrats is the opposite approach that Reagan used in winning over liberals. Reagan won liberals over with policies that made too much sense to argue against. McCain hasn’t tried winning liberals over. History will show that McCain caved each time he worked with Democrats. The only time he didn’t cave was on the surge.

McCain caved on the Gang of 14 without a legitimate reason. McCain caved on the First Amendment when he teamed up with Russ Feingold, Christopher Shays and Marty Meehan on campaign finance ‘reform’. He caved to Ted Kennedy on immigration ‘reform’, even allowing an open borders advocacy group like NCLR a seat at the negotiating table for the second bill.

Because NCLR was doing the negotiating, we knew that McCain wasn’t talking straight with us when he said that he’d learned his lesson about comprehensive immigration reform. Everyone knew that he and Ted Kennedy simply repackaged the same teethless provisions into a new bill.

Now we’re down to Mitt, Rudy, McCain and Huckabee, though I don’t think Huckabee will be with us much longer. For the reasons stated above, I can’t support John McCain. Simply put, he’s too headstrong to not attempt to shaft Republicans again. I won’t tolerate that. I also can’t support Gov. Huckabee because I’ve seen too many of his dirty tricks. I won’t support candidates that I can’t trust. I also think his Fair Tax plan is a disaster waiting to happen.

That leaves Rudy and Mitt. I like alot of the things that Rudy brings to the table policywise but I just can’t endorse him. I’ll support Mr. Giuliani if he’s the nominee but I won’t go farther than that.

That leaves Mitt. As regular readers of this blog know, I’ve had strong reservations about Mitt. I’ve questioned Mitt’s abortion transformation. I’ve questioned him about flip-flopping on the Bush tax cuts. I’ve called him a convenient conservative who didn’t always apply the principles of federalism.

That said, there’s alot of positions that Mitt’s adopted that I agree with. He’s said that he’d make the Bush tax cuts permanent, something I strongly agree with. Mitt’s said that he’d aggressively fight the jihadists, something else that I approve of. While I’m not convinced that Mitt would hit the ground running with foreign policy, I’d feel alot more comfortable with him if his running mate was Fred Thompson.

Having a Mitt-Fred ticket would be rock solid, far more impressive than Hillary and whoever or Obama and whoever. Fred’s conservative credentials can’t be argued with. Equally important, he’d give the Romney administration instant foreign policy credibility. With Fred as VP, we’d also be certain that the judges and justices that Mitt picked would fit the Roberts/Alito/Thomas/Scalia mold. You can’t do better than that.

I’m not endorsing Mitt Romney at this point. I’m simply pointing out what the best ticket is at this point. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have misgivings about Mitt but I’d also be lying if I said that he’d have the most upside as long as he’s paired with Fred.

Let’s face facts about something. A Mitt-Fred ticket has much more of a chance of uniting the GOP than any other ticket. We’ll need that if we hope to keep the White House under GOP control.

http://www.letfreedomringblog.com/?p=2410

This is also from a site I get emails from.  http://www.californiaconservative.org/
Thought I pass it on.

[Lauri]

maybe this is why Fred isnt endorsing anyone publically yet?


maybe he's got enough support to be the VP, but not enough to push him over the top for president...?

I would get behind him and Romney... no problemo.

[LadyLiberty]

Ohhhh, if Fred can somehow emerge and be on someone else's ticket as VP, then 

Seriously, I have no problem with  that, so long as it is Mitt and Fred 

I have been considering Romney anyway.

[DixieBelle]

^ditto.

[SilverOrchid]

^ditto.

Double ditto.

[jendf]

Fred at VP would be great. Not as great as him being president, but I'll take what I can get nowadays.

[Dixie*Darling]

Ok.  I'll stick my head out here (just don't slap me too hard!).

I'm still not impressed with any of the candidates.  I've never been a "Fred head" but if he had asserted himself, with all that I've learned here and elsewhere, I think I would have wanted to know more about him, thus doing the research on him.  Since his approach was so lack luster, so was mine.

Now ya'll (and others) seem to think because he's not endorsed anyone that he might be holding out for a VP spot.  My question is, are we being strung along again?  Do we really want someone who is half heartedly applying himself to the political process?  If it's personal issues for him, so be it.  I can understand.  But damn!  Either shit or get off the freakin' pot!

I hope that I don't come across as being ugly, but hey, this has got me scratching my head.

When I step up to vote, I want my vote to be an informed, educated consensus of someone that I truly believe in.  I don't want to hold my nose and pull the lever.  I don't want to regret my choice for 4 long yrs.  I don't want to choose between the lesser of 2 evils within my own party. 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Fred at VP would be great. Not as great as him being president, but I'll take what I can get nowadays.

He would be great as VP 'cuz a president might "accidently" fall under a bus or somethin'. 

[SilverOrchid]

OK.  I'll stick my head out here (just don't slap me too hard!).

I'm still not impressed with any of the candidates.  I've never been a "Fred head" but if he had asserted himself, with all that I've learned here and elsewhere, I think I would have wanted to know more about him, thus doing the research on him.  Since his approach was so lack luster, so was mine.

Now y'all (and others) seem to think because he's not endorsed anyone that he might be holding out for a VP spot.  My question is, are we being strung along again?  Do we really want someone who is half heatedly applying himself to the political process?  If it's personal issues for him, so be it.  I can understand.  But damn!  Either shit or get off the freak in' pot!

I hope that I don't come across as being ugly, but hey, this has got me scratching my head.

When I step up to vote, I want my vote to be an informed, educated consensus of someone that I truly believe in.  I don't want to hold my nose and pull the lever.  I don't want to regret my choice for 4 long yrs.  I don't want to choose between the lesser of 2 evils within my own party. 

How DARE you have a different opinion then us!!!!! BAN HER!!!!!!! 




 

[Lauri]

Fred at VP would be great. Not as great as him being president, but I'll take what I can get nowadays.

he's still in his 60s... so he could be VP now and by his 70s be president.

[RWKindaGuy]

A little dreaming here.  But it's possible that he could come out as top dog at a brokered convention.  That's just one of those things that few people talk about, but many people know about.  The other possibility is the VP slot in a Romney/Thompson ticket.  I thinks that's something that a lot of conservatives would find appealing.