Friday, June 30, 2006

Inside the state party

Robert Bluey at Human Events has an interesting post about the Michigan State Republican Party. He points to a fascinating article in the Weekly Standard. Anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of the state party needs to read this article. It reviews a lot of interesting history.

Apparently, there is maneuvering going on behind the scenes as to who the 2008 Presidential nominee will be. One faction supports John McCain and the other supports Mitt Romney. Romney is viewed as the more conservative candidate. Hence, his supporters want have a closed primary. This would prevent Democrats and independents from helping to pick the Republican nominee. In 2000, Democrats helped McCain to win the Presidential primary over Bush.

I support a closed primary because it will help conservative candidates. I don't think much of either McCain or Romney, however. Tom Tancredo is the only candidate who is solid on all the issues.

3 comments:

A.J. said...

All the issues! Allan, I love reading your posts when they have such humor! If Tom Tancredo wasn't campaigning on one single issue and going on every talk show that will have him to sell his book, no one would know his name. The guy is a one issue candidate. They have their value, but they don't win. He won't win the nomination, and if by some miracle he did, do you think he could take Hillary? The only way Hillary wins in '08 is if Tancredo wins the nomination. The RNC knows, that- they aren't stupid.

Conservative First said...

The typical meaning of the term "one-issue candidate" is that the candidate only knows or cares about one issue. This is not true of Tom Tancredo. He has an extensive record of votes and statments covering all the issues.

You may not know about Tancredo beyond his position on immigration, but I do. He was an official in the Department of Education. He ran a libertarian think tank, the Independence Institute. He has consistently received top scores from the American Conservative Union and other conservative ratings. They cover all the issues. Most of the other candidates have major flaws on one or many issues, but Tancredo does not.

It's true that immigration has been his focus for the past few years, and that's what has gotten him the most media coverage. It's the issue that needs his efforts most.

Can he win the nomination? Well, maybe, maybe not. He certainly won't if everyone who thinks he's the best candidate doesn't support him because he "can't win." Why not support who you think is best, and let the chips fall where they may? Even if he can't win the nomination, he can still advance the right position on immigration, and that is a good enough reason to support him.

Can he beat Hillary? Well, how would you know? I think that he could. Hillary has many vulnerabilities. Tancredo is certainly not afraid of exploiting them. Immigration is one of the top issues now, and Tancredo has credibility on the issue that most others don't.

When Tancredo was first elected to Congress, he won an only marginally Republican district. Once upon a time, people said Reagan was too extreme to win, too. Look how wrong they were.

A.J. said...

I know all about the Independence Institute and is ED assignment. I went to the same speech you did. I've also done a ton of research about the Independence Institute, and I like what I see. However, by one-issue, I don't mean that's the only thing he thinks about- and I think you know that. By "one-issue", I mean it's the only thing he talks about. Ask the average FNC or CNN watcher what his policy on immigration is, and they'll tell you. Ask them what his policy on spending, size of government, campaign funding, defense, etc., and they can only give broad generalizations based on party identification. I am supporting the candidate I like best, and it's Mike Pence. He may not have a chance either, but at least he has credentials on a large spectrum of issues, and he talks about them. His middle-ground view on immigration and his very conservative views on spending and bureaucracy put him in better position to beat Hillary (if the Dems really are dumb enough to put her up) than Tancredo. I say Tancredo bows after NH and IA. We shall see...