GOP Primaries/Candidates thread

[Texsox]

I think overall you are correct, but you are undervaluing how difficult it was for Kennedy. In the 1950s Catholics were very different from the other faiths. Masses were in Latin, no meat on Fridays, Non Catholics could not receive Communion (still today) very strict. They were the odd balls of the time. It was one of the central debates regarding his campaign. Perhaps that was what made it easier, people were very willing to talk out against him, and at least that got it out on the table.

[BigSqwert]

Someone might have to go and wake up Fred Thompson before it's too late.

Edited November 12, 2007 by BigSqwert

[southsider2k5]

Fred Thompson is getting the National Right to Life Committee endorsement.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8...;show_article=1

 

INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) - Fred Thompson will be endorsed for president by the National Right to Life Committee, Republicans say.

The endorsement by the prominent anti-abortion group could give a boost to the campaign of the Republican former Tennessee senator, who has seen his poll numbers drop in recent weeks and has failed to become the consensus candidate for conservatives.

 

The decision was disclosed Monday by two Republicans who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement that was expected Tuesday.

 

Thompson boasts a 100 percent voting record in opposing abortion but has faced criticism from some conservatives for what they consider conflicting statements in the past.

 

The endorsement comes after a week in which Thompson watched GOP competitors wrap up endorsements from prominent conservatives: Rudy Giuliani from televangelist Pat Robertson, Mitt Romney from Paul Weyrich, John McCain from Sen. Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee from Donald Wildmon.

 

 

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Balta1701]

[southsider2k5]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21730004/

 

Web finds Ron Paul, and takes him for a ride

Republican’s quest to become president has taken on a life of its own

 

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, touches upon the primary themes of his presidential campaign -- Iraq, immigration and abortion.

 

By Katharine Q. Seelye and Leslie Wayne

 

updated 1:30 a.m. CT, Sun., Nov. 11, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - From posting video on YouTube to enlisting friends through Facebook, all of the presidential candidates are looking for ways to harness the Internet. In the case of Ron Paul, the Internet has harnessed him.

 

Mr. Paul, a 10-term Texas congressman who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, came into the campaign with a conservative platform: a return to the gold standard, abolition of the I.R.S., a literal view of the Constitution. His campaign was bare bones. Then he started appearing in debates. His emphatic presence and fierce opposition to the war in Iraq set him apart from his fellow Republicans. Setting him even farther apart were ideas like blaming American foreign policy for the attacks of 9/11 and abolishing the Federal Reserve.

 

If his campaign had taken place in the pre-Internet era, it might have gone the way of his 1988 Libertarian campaign for president, as a footnote to history. But because of the Internet’s low-cost ability to connect grass-roots supporters with one another — in this case, largely iconoclastic white men — Mr. Paul’s once-solo quest has taken on a life of its own. It is evolving from a figment of cyberspace into a traditional campaign, with yard signs, direct mail and old-fashioned rallies, like one here on Saturday attended by a few thousand people under cold, gray skies. Mr. Paul said it was his biggest rally so far. He said it proved his campaign was more than “a few spammers” and called it a “gigantic opportunity” to establish credibility.

 

How much the Paul campaign had snowballed on the Internet became evident last week when supporters independent of the campaign raised $4 million online and an additional $200,000 over the phone in a single day, a record among this year’s Republican candidates. There is even talk that Mr. Paul could influence the primary in New Hampshire, where he could draw votes from Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is trying to revive the independent persona that helped him win the state’s primary in 2000.

 

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Paul, 72, a retired physician and a grandfather, acknowledged that the influence of the Internet had surprised even him.

 

“We always knew it was supposed to be important,” he said of the Internet. “My idea was you had to have someone who was a super expert, who knew how to find people. But they found us.”

 

As for the record one-day fund-raising, he said, “I had nothing to do with it,” adding that he had so far neglected to thank the people responsible. (James Sugra, 28, of Huntington Beach, Calif., acting on his own, posted an online video proposing one big day of fund-raising; Trevor Lyman, 37, of Miami Beach, then independently created a site, www.thisnovember5th.com, that featured the video.)

 

Mr. Paul estimated that the one-day haul had brought “$10 million worth of free publicity.”

 

He added, “It’s kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas.”

 

Those ideas were on display Saturday as Mr. Paul said young people should be able to opt out of Social Security, called for an audit into how much gold really is in Fort Knox, and, in urging an end to the war, declared, “The Versailles Treaty is one of our biggest problems we’re dealing with today, because it was under the Versailles Treaty that we created — the West created — this artificial country called Iraq.”

 

 

He also called the Internet “a strong political equalizer,” adding that the attention after the one-day fund-raiser had been “a very, very valuable lesson for us.”

 

Stirring the interest in contributions to the Paul campaign is an innovation on his Web site, www.ronpaul2008.com, a real-time display of the dollars and the names of donors as they roll in. By contrast, most campaigns conceal their fund-raising and time the release of financial information for political effect.

 

 

“What is new is how Paul’s openness about his daily fund-raising data helped foster this surge,” said Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of techPresident.com, a nonpartisan Web site that tracks the candidates’ use of technology. “It fed a powerful user-driven feedback loop.”

 

 

That success is propelling Mr. Paul increasingly toward the nuts and bolts of concrete campaigning. His staff members — in headquarters above a dry-cleaning shop in Arlington, Va., where some have built bunk beds in their cubicles — began a $1.1 million television campaign in New Hampshire this week. He even held an old-school fund-raiser here on Saturday, behind closed doors.

 

The Paul campaign says it expects to expand its staff of 70 paid workers and 8 unpaid state coordinators. (By contrast, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, who is also seeking the Republican nomination, has 244 paid staff members.)

 

“To have any chance of success, you have to blend the old with the new,” said Lew Moore, Mr. Paul’s campaign manager. “If you just have a cyber-campaign and that does not translate into votes or money, it would be a fantasy and we would just be a video game.”

 

The new success means new challenges: Can Mr. Paul translate the passion that has been bubbling up on the Internet into votes? Can he hold together his disparate collection of supporters who have united online? And as the campaign moves forward, who will chart its course?

 

To his online supporters, the responsibility lies with them.

 

“I feel like I am the campaign,” said Chester Gould, 26, who owns a technology company and was among 28 supporters last week at an Albany “meetup,” an online term for like-minded people who share an interest, whether it be needlepoint or politics, and then agree to meet in person.

 

Howard Dean, who pioneered the use of the Internet in presidential politics in 2004, also used meetups, which are now commonplace in campaigns. But Paul supporters have demonstrated how a handful of people can build them into a movement. There are now more than 1,140 Paul meetup groups in 900 cities with more than 67,000 members.

 

The meetups have operated largely independently from the campaign, but like the campaign are moving their efforts from the Internet to the ground.

 

“The crux of the problem we have is that most of the public has not heard of Ron Paul yet,” said Jeff Gaul, 50, an Albany insurance broker and public adjustor, who bought a batch of Paul yard signs at his own expense and urged others at the Albany meetup to do so.

 

At the meetup — in an unadorned, dimly lighted coffeehouse — supporters spent two hours discussing ways to establish a greater physical presence, including creating and paying for their own radio advertisements for Mr. Paul and gathering signatures for a petition drive to get him on the New York State ballot.

 

Their self-directed activity reflects just how much the Internet has changed politics since Mr. Dean’s campaign.

 

“The Dean campaign was decentralized, but I think Paul’s movement is actually run by nonstaffers,” said Zephyr Teachout, a visiting assistant law professor at Duke University who was Mr. Dean’s director of online organizing. “The buggy is pulling the horse.”

 

Ms. Teachout said that most campaigns this year knew that they needed “to build really amazing tools and spend a lot of time on the Web site” to create voter loyalty. But that led many to micromanage their Web sites. By contrast, she said, “the Paul campaign took the opposite lesson — that it was about openness and power — and focused far less on the tools and far more on decentralization as a driving force.”

 

Without centralization, the meetups can seem like sessions devoted to reinventing the wheel. But many at the Albany meeting said their freedom was empowering and only fed their enthusiasm, though they were drawn to Mr. Paul for different reasons.

 

Andrew Fox, 28, who described his day job as “sitting on a bench with a soldering iron” repairing cable TV boxes, agreed the other night to become the treasurer for the Albany group. “We have effectively lost our form of representative government,” Mr. Fox said. “The war is the worst thing, but we also have a police state at home.”

 

David Weck, 54, a chiropractor from Schenectady, said that he was a Democrat but that Mr. Paul was the only candidate who seemed committed to smaller government.

 

“Never in a million years did I think I would be interested in a Republican candidate,” Mr. Weck said, “especially after this administration.”

 

Mr. Gould said he was alarmed about the nation’s currency, a favorite Paul topic. Federal Reserve notes, Mr. Gould said, are “like a loan off of a loan that’s physically impossible to ever repay,” meaning the country “will continuously be in massive debt.”

 

Mr. Paul’s supporters seem prepared to push at least as far as he will, but how far he will go is not yet clear; he has waved off suggestions of a third-party candidacy.

 

“As long as there’s momentum, and if they’re starting another fund-raiser for me, how can I walk away?” Mr. Paul said in the interview. But if the votes don’t materialize, he added, “after every primary, you’d have to have a bit of a reassessment.”

 

[YASNY]

I love Ron Paul's platform. However, I can help but feel that if he becomes a serious candidate (Read as threat to the real PTB) we'll just get him assasinated by supporting him.

Edited November 13, 2007 by YASNY

[Texsox]

From my buddy John.

 

Dear Jim,

 

I just finished a great Veterans Day tour through New Hampshire and South Carolina. There were large crowds at the events honoring those who have sacrificed so much for this great nation. It was wonderful to spend the day in reflection and in tribute to our nation's veterans with my family who accompanied me on the trip.

 

Now that Veterans Day is over, it is time to get back to campaign business ...

 

As one of my closest supporters, I want to tell you personally about the rapidly shifting landscape in this presidential campaign and what it means to us. There is still a possibility that the New Hampshire primary could be in December, less than a month away! The good news is as the first primaries and caucuses get closer, the polls in the presidential race continue to get closer, too.

 

More and more observers believe the Republican nomination is truly up for grabs. And right now, I'm on the rise. In the last few weeks, we have seen a significant surge of interest in my campaign for President that can be summed up in one word momentum.

• National polls continue to show I am the only conservative Republican candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton next November.
• I'm in a solid position to win in 3 of the first 5 states voting - New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.
• I've had the strongest showing in two of the last three debates.

If we can win in these early states, that driving force will sling-shot us into the next round of primaries on February 5th and give us the final push we'll need to win the nomination.

 

The problem is, there are not that many days before voters start going to the polls. And to win in these states, we need to be contacting voters via TV, radio, phone, mail and door-to-door canvassing every single day. To do that we must raise $1.2 million in the next 10 days to ensure our crucial get-out-the-vote programs are fully funded.

 

So I have very important favor to ask of you. Will you stand with me today as one of my core supporters and reaffirm your support to my campaign with a generous gift of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or even $2,300 today?

 

I am confident we are on track to victory. And with your continued generosity and help, I know we can win. We will have the resources to take our message to the American people so they can make a choice based on the issues, the experience and the conservative principles I bring to this Presidential race.

 

As I've said before, your loyalty and support means a great deal to me. You've been there for me before and I urgently need you to come through for our cause again today by following this link to give $50 or more right away. Thank you.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. How are the kids? I saw your mom last week, she looks well! Maybe we can all get together either at one of my stops in Chicago or when I'm down in Texas? Call me.

 

 

 

 

[Chet Lemon]

lengthy story on Ron Paul:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationw...1,4515385.story

 

my favorite part was at the end of the bio section where they ask for a joke and the response is "he doesn't joke."

[Balta1701]

 

"That's an excellent question"

Edited November 13, 2007 by Balta1701

[Balta1701]

Ok, I'm pretty sure no one beat me to the punch on this one.

Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004.

 

The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.

 

Ms. Regan makes the charge at the start of a 70-page filing that seeks $100 million in damages for what she says was a campaign to smear and discredit her by her bosses at HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corporation, after her project to publish a book with O.J. Simpson was abandoned amid a storm of protest.

 

In the civil complaint filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Ms. Regan says the company has long sought to promote Mr. Giuliani’s ambitions. But the lawsuit does not elaborate on that charge, identify the executive who she says pressured her to mislead investigators, or offer details to support her claim.

Putting popcorn into Microwave.

[Texsox]

"That's an excellent question"

 

"I respect Senator Clinton, I respect anyone that gets the nomination of the Democrat Party."

[southsider2k5]

Ok, I'm pretty sure no one beat me to the punch on this one.

Putting popcorn into Microwave.

 

Yet another reason why Rudy does not need to win the nomination. Its like electing another Clinton with all of the personal problems and scandals bubbling under the surface, to go along with the shifting morals and platforms. Please no.

[Texsox]

Yet another reason why Rudy does not need to win the nomination. Its like electing another Clinton with all of the personal problems and scandals bubbling under the surface, to go along with the shifting morals and platforms. Please no.

 

I honestly would not vote in a Rudy v. Hillary contest. I'm taking character pretty seriously this go around, which is why I'm sitting on McCain right now.

[EvilMonkey]

I honestly would not vote in a Rudy v. Hillary contest. I'm taking character pretty seriously this go around, which is why I'm sitting on McCain right now.

Rudy vs Hillary wold be a tough one for me to go to as well.

[NorthSideSox72]

I honestly would not vote in a Rudy v. Hillary contest. I'm taking character pretty seriously this go around, which is why I'm sitting on McCain right now.

I'd vote - but I'd vote for a different party or candidate.

 

[southsider2k5]

I'd vote - but I'd vote for a different party or candidate.

 

It would be a huge chance for legit third party candidate as the negatives for each candidate are through the roof. It might literally be the worst election choices in US history.

[Texsox]

Sadly, I think a lot of people that will point to the character flaws would be attacked as religious whack jobs.

 

I have done my best to separate her actions from her husbands. I truly believe she would not take a backseat to him, and would be her own person as president. But looking at the kinds of problems with her campaign, and the questionable ethics, I have to say no thanks to her.

[NorthSideSox72]

Sadly, I think a lot of people that will point to the character flaws would be attacked as religious whack jobs.

 

I have done my best to separate her actions from her husbands. I truly believe she would not take a backseat to him, and would be her own person as president. But looking at the kinds of problems with her campaign, and the questionable ethics, I have to say no thanks to her.

Its not often I get labeled a religious whack job.

 

 

 

Anyway, they are both just as scummy as can be, and one doesn't have to be a devout, hard core Christian to see that in either case.

 

[Rex Kickass]

Although I'm no Hillary fan, as it stands right now, this year I vote for the person with the D attached - hands down.

 

It has nothing to do with party loyalty, but rather with the choices that our country has to make right now in foreign policy (and by that I mean everywhere but Iraq.) I honestly find most GOP candidates foreign policy ideas to be really myopic and too quick to eschew diplomacy for the gunboat. The only exception to that is McCain, but the man is just as much a panderer as Hillary is, so why change horses midstream?

[NorthSideSox72]

Although I'm no Hillary fan, as it stands right now, this year I vote for the person with the D attached - hands down.

 

It has nothing to do with party loyalty, but rather with the choices that our country has to make right now in foreign policy (and by that I mean everywhere but Iraq.) I honestly find most GOP candidates foreign policy ideas to be really myopic and too quick to eschew diplomacy for the gunboat. The only exception to that is McCain, but the man is just as much a panderer as Hillary is, so why change horses midstream?

What about Mr. Paul?

 

[StrangeSox]

Rudy vs Hillary wold be a tough one for me to go to as well.

 

I dunno, Romney v Hillary might be even worse IMO.

[NorthSideSox72]

I dunno, Romney v Hillary might be even worse IMO.

As much as I dislike Mitt Romney, I'd rather have him over Giuliani. Romney is less repulsive to me personally, and I think he's got a much better experience profile. He managed to, as a Republican in a very blue state, do some positive things. Giuliani is, as far as I can see, living off 9/11. NY's crime rate drops and other positive changes were well underway before him, and they weren't as tied to police changes as he and Kerik would lead you to believe.

 

In that matchup, right now, I'd be hard-pressed to decide who to vote for.

 

[Texsox]

McCain not happy with the biased liberal media hack job

 

Friends,

 

The CNN Network, affectionately known as the Clinton News Network, has stooped to an all-time low and is gratuitously attacking John McCain for not defending Hillary Clinton enough when a South Carolina voter used the 'B' word to describe her when John McCain stopped into a luncheon yesterday at the Trinity restaurant in Hilton Head, SC.

 

A voter used a word that I would not have used to describe Senator Hillary Clinton and asked the Senator how he was going to beat her. Senator McCain first responded by saying that he respected Senator Clinton, as he has said repeatedly throughout the campaign. Then, focusing on the question, he pointed to the new Rasmussen national poll showing that he is the only Republican candidate who can beat her in a general election. No other Republican candidate beat Clinton in the poll.

 

As an independent news agency, CNN owes John McCain an apology because of the outrageous behavior of their network host Rich Sanchez. Liberal bloggers and their friends at CNN went on the attack yesterday and continued their attacks through the night. They said the McCain campaign was over because of the statement of one, lone voter in South Carolina. Well friends, we are on a comeback, we are the only campaign that can defeat Hillary Clinton and CNN knows it. We are not going to let Senator Clinton's friends in the liberal blogosphere and on CNN try to destroy our campaign. Senator McCain is a fighter and he is not going to back down to CNN.

 

 

Please click here to watch CNN's Rich Sanchez's biased and factually incorrect "reporting" try to end the McCain candidacy.

 

Why are they doing this?

 

Because John McCain is the only Republican who beats Hillary Clinton in recent national polling data and who will beat her in the general election. The Rasmussen poll shows that he leads Senator Hillary Clinton by two or three points while Rudy Giuliani loses to Hillary Clinton by six points. State-by-state polling shows that he can win important swing states in the general election whereas Rudy Giuliani loses those swing states. John McCain is now in a strong second place in most, if not all, recent national polling. These polls emphasize what CNN and their liberal friends are afraid of: John McCain is the best general election candidate.

 

John McCain is improving in primary polls. A poll released yesterday by CBS News shows that he is now in second place in New Hampshire. He won New Hampshire in 2000 and he will win New Hampshire in 2008. The McCain comeback is here and it is real.

 

John McCain displayed leadership on Iraq when others were silent. He was the only candidate who criticized the Rumsfeld strategy and argued for a new strategy in Iraq - a strategy that is now succeeding. The liberal media knows that if John McCain is nominated they can no longer try to use the War in Iraq for political gain.

 

The liberal media has figured out that John McCain is the only thing that stands between a Hillary Clinton presidency, and they are therefore trying to stop the McCain comeback. Simply put, CNN is scared that John McCain will beat Hillary Clinton. They are right to be scared. We are not going to back down.

 

We need your help. We need you to stand with John McCain, a man of honor, integrity and love of country, against the liberal media and liberal blogosphere that are trying to bring him down. We need you to stand with John McCain against Rick Sanchez and his friends at CNN and their biased reporting. We need you to stand with John McCain against Hillary Clinton's allies who will do anything to prevent him from winning the Republican nomination.

 

Can we count on you to stand up and support John McCain against these attacks?

 

Will you stand up and help strengthen the resurgence of our campaign as the best candidate to defeat Hillary Clinton?

 

We are asking you to help us fight Rick Sanchez and CNN and stand with John McCain.

 

Please make your most generous contribution from $25 up to the maximum limit of $2,300 to the only candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton.

 

With your help John McCain will fight back against this onslaught by CNN and their liberal friends in the blogosphere and the McCain comeback will continue, will strengthen and will earn the nomination and the right to defeat Hillary Clinton in November.

 

Sincerely,

 

Rick Davis, Campaign Manager

 

P.S. By contrast, I invite you to read this story from David Brooks that appeared in The New York Times. It is an excellent piece that is a must read for every voter.

 

P.S.S. Feel free to email Rick Sanchez at [email protected] and give him a piece of your mind.

[Rex Kickass]

What about Mr. Paul?

 

I haven't seen enough detailed information about his foreign policy other than we should talk to people that really interests me.

 

He did vote to outlaw gay parents adopting children in Washington D.C.

[Balta1701]

A high level Romney Supporter is alleging in the Washington Times that the Thompson campaign paid off the National Right to Life committee in exchange for its endorsement.

Some pro-life advocates were astonished by the National Right to Life Committee's endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson yesterday — a move they say puts politics over principle.

 

Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, said the endorsement "makes no sense," and speculated that it had been motivated by money.

 

"I think in all probability the Thompson people were engaged with the National Right to Life people in financial dealing," said Mr. Weyrich, who has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.

 

"In the past, the Republican Party has funded National Right to Life, and while the committee can raise money on its own, it needs funding" from outside sources.

 

"Fred Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record in the U.S. Senate and is proud to have the endorsement of an organization that fights to protect human life," said Thompson spokesman Darrel Ng.

 

David O'Stein, the committee's executive director, also scoffed at the assertion.

 

"He's got to be joking," Mr. O'Stein said. "There is absolutely no financial arrangement between the committee and the Thompson campaign or Fred Thompson."