Once again, Tamara hammers the nail right on the head:
...people aren't lining up to board the Rudy train because he's another RINO, anti-gun, big city, northeastern politician; Kerry with an elephant; Dukakis with more red in his bunting. I'm about as "socially conservative" as... well, metaphor fails me. I'm not at all socially conservative, but I wouldn't vote for Rudy Giuliani at gunpoint, and neither would anyone else I know South of the Mason-Dixon or West of the Mississippi. If the GOP wants a sure loss in '08, they're welcome to continue with this big media Giuliani circle jerk, but don't expect me to join in.Said nail-hammering was in response to Ace's contention here that conservatives aren't lining up to support Giuliani because they're waiting on another Reagan. And like Tam, I am 100 percent sure that isn't the case. Every single complaint I've heard about Giuliani has to do with the fact that he's an authoritarian statist who will unhesitatingly throw various civil and natural rights under the bus for the sake of maintaining law and order -- not the fact that he isn't the reincarnation of the Gipper (and if he was, even then he'd still be flawed, for as I recall, Reagan supported both the Brady Bill and the AWB). Such doctrinaire analysis is the exact reason I don't read the big political blogs nearly as much as I used to -- they don't have nearly as good a reading of what's going on as they like to think, and not to mention the fact there are at least a few out there who would be willing to throw said rights away for the sake of The Party getting the upper hand.
Next up, we have fundie James Dobson on Fred Thompson:
...Fred Thompson, who was once seen as the savior of conservatives, isn't getting any better news of late. Evangelical Christian leader James Dobson, in an email message to friends, said he could not support the former Tennessee Senator, according to the AP.Yes, well, Jimmy, as far as this conservative Christian is concerned, you and all your followers can go take a flying leap off a cliff outfitted with wings made of lead. I am as much of a conservative and a Christian as anyone, but as far as I can tell, kowtowing to Dobson and his ilk to the extent they would like would ultimately be any candidate's undoing. And then where would we be? We'd be stuck with President Obama or yet another President Clinton, and very likely with a Democratic Congress to boot. It was bad enough in the early '90s...and there's no guarantee we'd see another 1994-style GOP takeover of Congress. I am by no means comparing Dobson and his people to the radical Islamists now running Iran, but I seem to recall reading here and there that Jimmy Carter actually supported the 1979 overthrow of the shah of Iran and the country's ultimate rule by Ayatollah Khomeini because, like Carter, Khomeini was supposedly a "man of God." It may be a reduction ad absurdum, and it might not even be true, but it still works as a great example of how supporting someone because of a common religious fervor may ultimately backfire -- and in a big way in the case of Carter's support of the shah's overthrow. But if Dobson and his people are even half as irrelevant as I think they might be, I think Fred! will do just fine. Here's hoping...
"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, ... favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson asked. "He is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
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