And if you’re going to use misdirection to try and woo the pro-life constituency by talking about judges you’d appoint rather than your pro-abortion position, better if you said Rehnquist or Thomas in my mind.

What’s your problem with Thomas?

Watcher on February 17, 2007 at 11:42 AM

Nothing, you miss my meaning. Rehnquist and Thomas both were strictly pro-life, moreso than any of the three justices named by Rudy. So if he’s going to use the argument that his own pro-abortion stance will be outweighed by nominating pro-life justices, then name the most pro-life justices as examples. That’s all.

Tancredo is #4 with a bullet, and there’s 20 months to go. 20 months before the 1992 election, I daresay 99% of you had never heard of Bill Clinton or Al Gore.

Tancredo doesn’t stand a chance. I know this is going to come as a shock to a lot of you, but America as a whole isn’t really down with Tancredo’s “America is full,” “[Miami] has become a third world country” views. And that’s all Tancredo will ever be: A racist, nativist, single-issue Congressman who lied to his constituents about how many terms he would serve and is so caustic that he’s been banned from the White House. It’ll never happen.

It means most of the people contacted for the poll live in the NYC and Washington DC area.

LakeRuins on February 16, 2007 at 11:19 AM

It’s not a national sample??? That’s odd.

And if you’re going to use misdirection to try and woo the pro-life constituency by talking about judges you’d appoint rather than your pro-abortion position, better if you said Rehnquist or Thomas in my mind.

What’s your problem with Thomas?

And if you’re going to use misdirection to try and woo the pro-life constituency by talking about judges you’d appoint rather than your pro-abortion position, better if you said Rehnquist or Thomas in my mind. I think it’s hilarious that people say a congressman cannot win the presidency because it’s too small a job with too big a jump in governance, but they are happy to vote for a social-lib mayor with an R by his name just because he’s popular. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Tancredo is #4 with a bullet, and there’s 20 months to go. 20 months before the 1992 election, I daresay 99% of you had never heard of Bill Clinton or Al Gore.

As for Newt, based on the above it is wise for him to wait. The less time he gives the Democrat attack dogs to go after him the better. Waiting “too long” would only hurt an unknown.

Seriously, Newt is a bright guy, but he sucks at Strategy. Plus, Newt’s experience is pitiful (getting beat like a drum by Clenis and Shrillary isn’t great resume building).

Rudy took on NYC liberals and won, again and again. He’s right on WoT, right on Crime, right on taxes, right on bureaucracy… Give him a good VP (Condi, Newt, Cheney) and he’s a solid candidate.

Scalia, Alito, Robert. Those are the judges he likes, the judges he will appoint. Rudy can and will win, and with the right judges his own fairly liberal views don’t matter. Rudy’s the only one who would eagerly replace Jack Bauer at the end of the IV or battery cables when an interrogation comes along. For that, and for spitting in the face fo the Saudis, he’s got my vote.

It’s ERMEY.

He’s a real risk because a lot of social conservative Republicans won’t vote for an anti-life candidate, no matter who runs. GOP risks alienating a significant voter base that decided in the last election to just stay home. GOP can’t afford to risk that in 2008.

At Hot Air, Newt Gingrich won with 38% and in second is Rudy Giuliani with 26% of the vote. In a distant third, is Mitt Romney at 14%. What may be a surprise is the lack of acceptability of McCain. He is in negative territory.

Huh. I thought I was one of, maybe, five wierdos in the country who was backing Newt. I guess there are a lot more wierdos than I thought.

As for McCain, I see him as the conservative Shrillary, in that every stand he takes is carefully calculated. His views do seem to be heartfelt, but his willingness to act on those views depends entirely on expediency. I expect that a lot of other Hot Air readers hold a similar view.

…a surprise is the lack of acceptability of McCain

I’m not sure why that would be a surprise, Bryan. All you had to do was look at the comments on McCain right here in the HotAir threads.

I think that the rank and file GOP’er will never reconcile with McCain for his current position on immigration, his sponsorship of McCain/Feingold and his backroom antics with the gang of 14. Besides, he just doesn’t exude confidence which is a damn desirable trait for a Presidential candidate.

To be honest, I just don’t know if I could even hold my nose and vote for him. It would be a real dilemma.

GregH on February 16, 2007 at 11:15 AM

I thought that stat was interesting too. Not sure if I’d assign it to us being “disconnected” from mainstream Republicans or more informed. By virtue of taking the time to surf HotAir and other political blogs, I think we’re better informed about politician’s positions. The typical guy or gal on the street probably knows McCain was a POW and served honorably, but that’s about it. So, in their eyes, he’s a solid citizen. All of that’s true, but his positions don’t fly for alot of folks here.

If you want to play the poll game, I find it interesting that in the same Fox poll, 45% of those polled said they are not very or not at all comfortable with Hillary being President, vs. 24% for Rudy and 27% for McCain. Does that place you outside of the mainstream?

GregH on February 16, 2007 at 11:15 AM

Where did you pop out of?

Does that mean that HotAir readers are completely disconnected from the rest of the GOP, or are HotAir readers representative of the ultra-conservative right wing?

It doesn’t mean anything since the GOP Blogger total is a composite number of the results of several different blogs. Each blog has members holding certain viewpoints, which tends to attract others of a similar viewpoint, and so each has a different result.

For example:

Rightwingnews.com shows that Gingrich is favored over Giuliani 31.4 percent to 21 percent.

Polipundent.com shows that Giuliani is favored over Gingrich 35.3 percent to 24.4 percent. This is almost exactly the same spread (10.4 percent vs 11.1) of the first poll but with opposite results.

Gopusa.com is similar to Rightwingnews.com with Gingrich being favored over Giuliani 28.6 percent to 19.5 percent, yet Rightangleblog.com has Giuliani over Gingrich 27 percent to 16.2 percent. This is another instance where you have two different blogs opposing each other in the total results.

So, what conclusion can we draw? It’s simple, each blog is going to have different results just like each voting district in any election will have different results when compared to others. It’s not that one blog is more or less representative than another, it’s just that people are different with separate, and sometime opposing, viewpoints and that difference is highlighted by polls and election results when compared side by side to others.

The GOP needs solid conservative leadership at the top to keep the GOP voters interested. Moderates might take some independent votes but they won’t get enough GOP support to win. A moderate at the top of the GOP ticket will guarantee a Dem victory.

Run Newt run!!!

1) Anything Dick Morris says is wrong. He said Hillary would lose her Senate seat, and that Hillary would not run for Pres.

2) I’ll vote Dem before I’ll vote McCain.

Clark1 on February 16, 2007 at 11:10 AM

I can’t stand McCain either, but I wouldn’t goes as far as to say I would vote for Clinton or Obama. That would be insane. I don’t think McCain has a chance anyway. We can only hope not.