Mort Kondracke
Second look at Jack Kemp
He visited homeless shelters as a first order of business as Housing secretary, walked the streets of Los Angeles after the city’s 1992 riots and insisted on campaigning in ghettos and barrios during the 1996 campaign as Bob Dole’s vice presidential candidate.
In 1994, he denounced California’s Proposition 187, which would have denied government benefits to illegal aliens, and he advocated a comprehensive immigration overhaul to the end of his days. He died in 2009.
Even if there was no way for Romney to win more than 6 percent of black votes against Obama, a Kemp-like platform could have saved him from a 44-point loss among Latinos and a 47 percent loss among Asian-Americans.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Who is older. Mort or Jack?
No thanks…
Kraken on November 23, 2012 at 9:20 AM
“Mr. Obama, tear down this
wallfence.”davidk on November 23, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Be that as it may, increasing Romney’s margins among Asian and Hispanic voters would have simply narrowed the margin of defeat, it wouldn’t have won him the election.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go out and compete for these votes. I’m saying we shouldn’t sell out our principles to do so, and we should be very clear about the fact that changing our position on illegal immigration isn’t going to win us national elections in the future.
dczombie on November 23, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Romney’s problem is that Obama got no more support than John McCain did… and Romney got less than that.
It isn’t an ‘outreach’ problem, it is the people no longer seeing responsiveness in the representational system.
THOSE are the people to reach out for and talk with and get back IN the system. Screw the Honey Boo-Boo voter: get in 5% of those not voting and the entire Nation changes. That conservatives have not done such outreach is part of the problem… this election is just underlining the problem.
ajacksonian on November 23, 2012 at 9:31 AM
Ugh. What a bunch of garbage it is to suggest that we ought to be giving government benefits to illegal aliens and granting illegal alien amnesty in order to win votes. The suggestion is not only insulting to the rule of law and to our values, but it is also extremely condescending to Hispanic voters to suggest that these are the things they care most about.
bluegill on November 23, 2012 at 9:33 AM
Wait–you mean the Republicans need someone who can turn around the Buffalo Bills?
radjah shelduck on November 23, 2012 at 9:36 AM
Actually Jack Kemp is dead. But aside from the “No Thanks,” Jack Kemp was more of a Reagan “Conservative” than Rush or Mark or any poseurs currently occupying that identification.
Show some respect and/or learn something before you speak.
AYNBLAND on November 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM
AYNBLAND on November 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM
True enough, but he was a horrendous candidate for VP, even ignoring the fact he was running with Dole. He let Gore paint him as the “good” Republican against the rest of the Republicans, who are “bad.”
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on November 23, 2012 at 9:45 AM
Having presidential candidates speaking out about….
Tardasil
Building Moats with Alligators
Vulture Capitalism
Hurt that vote tremendously.
Running because of some exposure.elevation by Sean Hannity and being talked into it by campaign consultants is no real reason to run and a guarantee of a loss for the candidate and the party.
Might want to look at how Texas has flipped so many Hispanics to the GOP over the last decade.
Kemp was a true conservative, don’t let the clueless make you believe anything less.
Kermit on November 23, 2012 at 9:45 AM
I believe Ryan wanted to campaign on big ideas and attack the Dems on entitlements and the destruction of civil society in the cities but Stu Stephens put the kibosh on it after the Ryan appearance in Cleveland.
Ted Torgerson on November 23, 2012 at 9:46 AM
Jack Kemp died in 2009 of pancreatic cancer.
And apparently Ryan’s new pet project is poverty in America, so that should be intriguing.
Illinidiva on November 23, 2012 at 9:48 AM
So he was the original trucon?
thebrokenrattle on November 23, 2012 at 9:49 AM
Did Kemp refer to the poor people as “parasite mooches” like the Truecons do today?
Pablo Honey on November 23, 2012 at 9:59 AM
How is the GOP going to convince white middle and working class voters to accept reined in government entitlements if it won’t even deny such benefits to illegal aliens for fear of looking mean? How does risking our own institutions’ credibility to help keep a big neighboring country on life support facilitate a workable solution to this county’s crisis of public confidence?
I’m not saying it’s in the American national interest to risk destabilizing Mexico by flooding it with millons of returning unemployed either, but it’s mindless to think the US can function indefinitely as an international relief agency when it can’t even produce a functioning budget.
Seth Halpern on November 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM
Ryan actually wanted to go in cities and talk about poverty for the entire campaign. And the Romney campaign put a kibosh on it. I don’t think that Ryan was used very effectively in many ways.. (I would have liked more interactions with college kids and 20-somethings, putting him on some entertainment type shows, actually talking about the budget, etc.). But this was probably the right call because it would distract from Romney’s message. I think that letting Ryan do the Cleveland speech was a “thank you” for acting as a good surrogate to the campaign, especially since Boston thought they were winning.
However, it is intriguing that poverty in America is apparently Ryan’s new thing. Both he and Rubio are giving speeches at the Jack Kemp Dinner in a few weeks. Rubio is being given the annual Jack Kemp award for “his accomplishments.” He will actually be talking about middle class sort of issues, which is a big deal as Rubio generally doesn’t concern himself with silly things like policies. Ryan was given the first Jack Kemp award last year for his actual accomplishments and is apparently giving the keynote address at the dinner where he is going to talk about ending poverty with an emphasis on education. (I imagine lots of charter school and voucher talk).
Illinidiva on November 23, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Contempt for the audience isn’t a winning political strategy. It’s a winning Talk Radio strategy. Jack Kemp knew the difference.
AYNBLAND on November 23, 2012 at 10:18 AM
Here’s a question the right needs to answer on charter schools. If the idea is that private, non-unionized schools are better because they will be replaced if they perform poorly, why are poorly performing charter schools not closing? Why aren’t they firing teachers? It seems we merely replaced poorly performing public schools with poorly performing charter schools, the only difference is that some investor is making bank off of poor kid’s educational failures.
http://www.progressivepolicy.org/2012/06/improving-charter-school-accountability-the-challenge-of-closing-failing-schools/
libfreeordie on November 23, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Anyone on the right taking advice from Kondrake would have to be brain dead. Kemp’s ideas aren’t the answer to our problems. L.I.B.
Having said that, it should be obvious I’m even more to the right than Reagan or Kemp. Doesn’t make me popular, but then, I never wanted to be. It’s something I learned a long time ago.
Kraken on November 23, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Good points.
dedalus on November 23, 2012 at 10:38 AM
Umm.. Just because your “liberal friends” are fixated on keeping a 1950s school model up because it helps teacher unions and you have papers from a liberal think tank to back it up, doesn’t make it so. Charter schools fail the reason that any business fails because parents don’t want the product. And teachers get fired at charter schools. The whole concept is that they are “at will” employees, so underperforming teachers are out of a job.
Rather than having failure factories and neighborhood schools preparing kids for the demands of the 1950s, it would be great if kids could choose from schools in a certain area and if they all had different focuses and specialties similar to what has happened in New Orleans. I’m assuming that this is what is going to end up being the meat and potatoes of a Ryan-type education plan.
Illinidiva on November 23, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Thinking of Jack Kemp makes me smile. I went to see him speak when he was Bob Dole’s VP pick. He walked the talk; came to Chicago’s South Side–and not the posh Obama & my mama part either.
I then wrote to him, thanked him for coming, told him I wished I had voted for him back in ’88 when he was running for President and wished that Mr. Dole had appeared with him this time to make the sale.
The thick manilla envelope he sent in return blew me away, and to this day is one of my prized possessions. from the signed, personal cover letter to position papers with points of interest circled, and scribbled notes in the margins, Mr. Kemp was sincerely trying to have a conversation.
In the end, Dole/Kemp garnered around 12% of the black vote–and that was against Elvis! Jack Kemp seemed like the last of his kind…but I hope not.
Ladysmith CulchaVulcha on November 23, 2012 at 11:17 AM