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I defer to my colleagues on the “horse race” aspects of last evening’s ABC News/WMUR debate. In the midst of all the barbs, one liners and talking points there were a couple exchanges that made me mourn for my party.
First, an admission: I watched last evening’s melee having concluded that there are only 2 plausible candidates with a chance to beat the Second Coming from Illinois – Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani. My ambition last night was to “come to terms” with Senator McCain and condition my mind to the very real possibility that he may be the nominee.
But during a segment on health care Senator McCain said the “prescription drug companies” were “the problem” — rather angrily, in fact. To his credit, Governor Romney pointed out that pharmaceutical companies provide enormous benefits to society. He is the only one on stage who defended the profit motive as his competitors remained silent. Similarly, Romney did not go out of his way to attack oil companies as others did. Only Senator Thompson gave an anemic objection to a 1970s redux “windfalls profit tax”.
Drug and oil companies are among the least popular entities in our culture today. But isn’t it the responsibility of the ”daddy party” to remind the SUV-driving, Cialis-popping, mutual fund-owning populace that these industries do an enormous service for civilization?
Folks, when did the body snatchers turn the GOP into the party of we hate capitalists, too (but just a little less than the other team)?
Atlas is preparing to shrug.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Gary,
THat was my first thought. Why in the world are we bashing on the pharmaceuticals, are we really that desperate now?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:02 am
The party is imploding right before our very eyes. We need to rally around a candidate and Romney needs to get out of the race. He is screwing things up with his personal fortune.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Love that last line.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Gary. . . I couldn’t agree more with your main point. But I come to the conclusion that it’s not McCain or Rudy who is best suited to carry on the true GOP capitalist philosophy, it’s Romney. I’ve said before that I think Romney should be talking a lot more about his business experience. He’s not of the greedy Enron-type ilk that most people conjure up when they think of corporate leaders. He was of the kind, rare as it may be, who cared about his employees, who helped those around him, who acted as a responsible member of his community and country, and who didn’t take his success for granted. He should be campaigning stronger on that experience.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:07 am
nowandlater. . . After reading what Gary wrote, do you even see what’s wrong with what you just said.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Romney shouldn’t be campaigning. He is NOT electable and he is NOT likeable. All he is doing is damaging anyone with a real shot.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:08 am
#6. . .Who is your guy?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I think the others will be good for the economy compared to the Democrats. The others are just offering rhetoric which is not how they will really act on economics. They were just trying to endear themselves to independents.
Romney is afflicted by saying too much. Again another reason why he is not electable. He can’t play the game right.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Anyone but Romney. I just want the GOP to win and Romney represents a complete and utter electoral disaster in the fall.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Anyone? Huck has a better chance than Romney to win in the Fall? Ron Paul? Duncan Hunter? What are you basing this on?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:16 am
There are five front runners:
Rudy
McCain
Huckabee
Romney
Thompson
Out of those five, Romney has the least chance to get elect. You have seen how despised he is. It will only get worse if he is the nominee. Don’t kid yourself. All the money in the world want make Romney electable.
With Huckabee atleast you get alot of passion for him from on wing of the party and I think he is sly enough to foll the Dems on economic and foreign issues. Romney is not. He will stick his foot in his mouth by trying to be too smart.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am
You figured it out.
Romney is the ONLY conservative there.
Its time to UNITE behind this guy people!!!!
January 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am
*wont make
January 6th, 2008 at 9:19 am
*one wing of the party
January 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am
#11. . . So Romney is despised, and if he wins the nomination (meaning more people voted for him) he will be more despised? And you think Huck could win by being sly, by tricking Dems into voting for him? You’re saying a candidate should be nominated based on his ability to trick the most voters into choosing him? Are you serious?
January 6th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Romney is the ONLY conservative there.
What a completely empty argument.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Gary, I partly agree, but have some major quibbles.
It was fair for Mitt to bring up the contrasting counterpoint, but the general unpopularity of the “Big Oil” and “Big Pharm” multinationals are not entirely undeserved. Both industries spend a lot of effort lobbying the federal government for special treatment and targeted exemptions when it comes to taxation and regulations. Both industries are notorious recipients of corporate welfare and regulatory favoritism.
I don’t share the standard revulsion towards these companies that many Americans nurture. But it is fair to point out that they are no angels either. They exist in their current form because they have been quite effective in lobbying government in order to raise the regulatory and tax-policy barriers to competitors’ entering their markets.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am
#15
While Romney is despised, he may win a plurality of the votes in the primary, but it doesn’t mean he will win the general election. You win the general election by motivating the base and make gains on the margins. Romney will depress the base due to many factors (religion probably being a big one). Also, Romney does not bring in new voters, so he doesn’t gain on the margins.
Atleast Huckabee will motivate the core of the GOP voters to get out and vote. And yes Huckabee is sly. I don’t fault him that especially if he can fools the Dems and fool the voters. I may feel dirty about it but I don’t get to choose his tactics and if it gives us Pro-life judges then I can live with myself.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:36 am
#18. . . I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. . .I just don’t understand your logic. And I may not agree with Democrats politically but I’m pretty sure they can’t be tricked into voting for anyone, especially Huck.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:39 am
You’ve seen the Lefties praise Huckabee. He is fooling them.
My logic is. Out of the 5 front runners, Romney is the least electable due to his religion. He knows he cant win so he should get out. By him staying in the race, he is prevent the GOP from coalescing around a candidate. He needs to get out if we want to win against the excitement of the Dems.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:40 am
*18
Huckabee can only motivate one part of the Republican party to vote. He leaves 1/3 to 1/2 of the party out to dry. A vote for Huckabee is a vote for the death of the republican party.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:43 am
While Huckabee may be offputting to certain parts of the party, he can overcome that.
The social cons in the party are the ones who sit out elections. Remember Karl Roves point of the missing evangelical vote. There has never been a problem of the missing fiscal conservative vote. Fiscal conservatives will not sit out an election, Socons will. If Huckabee gets the nomination, fiscal conservatives will fall in line behind Huckabee. The democrats will not be an option. So yes Huckabee is very electable. Romney is not.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:52 am
“While Huckabee may be offputting to certain parts of the party, he can overcome that.”
WRONG!!!!
January 6th, 2008 at 9:54 am
RIGHT!!!!!!
January 6th, 2008 at 9:58 am
MAYBE!!!! Just kidding.
No, actually I disagree with you nowandlater. Huck’s fiscally liberal background as governor will turn off a lot of Republican voters while his SoCon views will turn away many Dems. This will be even more the case should Obama win the nomination.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:00 am
nowandlater,
GIVE IT UP.
Huckabee is a Pro-Life Lib.
If he gets nominated, HE WILL GET CRUSHED.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Just adding fuel to the fire, don’t mind me.
# nowandlater Says:
October 20th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
What the heck is Huckabee saying???? If you don’t vote for him, because he is authentic, then Faith as we know it is destroyed???? I think Huckabee has a few screws loose!!!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1007/The_Values_Voter_straw_poll.html
Huckabee took a more fiery approach. After talking about protecting freedom and family, Huckabee said: “Faith is also threatened, and let me share with you how. I believe that there are many who will seek our support. But let me say that it’s important that people sing from their hearts, and don’t merely lip-synch the lyrics to our songs. I think it’s important that the language of Zion is a mother tongue, and not a recently acquired second language. It’s important that a person doesn’t have more positions on issues that Elvis had waist sizes.â€
January 6th, 2008 at 10:06 am
If the nominee is John McCain or Rudy Giulinai, I simply won’t support them.
Thompson and Romney are fine, and I’m on the fence with Huck. Yes, his record is against him, but he has made promises, that, if he wants to be re-elected, I don’t think he could break (e.x. the tax pledge).
Before the debate last night, I was on the verge of saying that McCain would be an acceptable alternative if Romney couldn’t win. Last night’s debate showed that McCain still wants Amnesty – and I can’t vote for a person with that position.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:11 am
#28. . . Didn’t a former GOP pres take a tax pledge only to break it before the next election? Isn’t that cited as a big reason why Bush 41 lost? That’s actually why those pledges mean nothing to me. They’re non-binding and very easy to break. It’s also one of the things about which I agreed with Rudy, when he refused to take that pledge.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Jake, but it is exactly because of Bush I that I kind of trust Huck to keep his promises – we know what happens when candidates break those pledges, they lose.
Like I said, if he wants to win re-election, he would have to keep his promises.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:23 am
nowandlater,
Thanks for supporting Mike, but I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish. The Mitt vs. Mike war is likely mutually assured destruction in the primary and definitely in the general election. Mitt needs SE socons and Mike needs mountain west socons to win in the general. These two guys, and their respective camps, need to swallow their pride and get on the same team…ASAP.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:28 am
#30 act. . . I suppose but I have to look at his record, ya know, what he’s actually done as governor. I can see how he taxed and spent like the best of ‘em. He can promise anything, but his record speaks for itself. Romney is accused of flip-flopping in what he says, but he’s got a record of achievement to examine, and based on it I can believe his promises. I just can’t believe Huck.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Chris Wallace just nailed Huckabee on his statement about amnesty last night, showing Mitt supported the surge immediately, and showing that Huckabee did not. Huckabee tried hard to weazel his way out of it, but for any intelligent viewer, he failed miserably. I wish Wallace would have asked him if he would apologize to Mitt tonight for telling yet another lie.
Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson sit on the three legs of the stool that can win this election. No one else can do that.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:48 am
nowandlater:
You want to see the GOP implode? Just nominate your guy: Huckabee. The GOP is built on Think-tanks and well-laid, well-thought philosophies from people as diverse as Leo Strauss, Robert Bork, and Thomas Sowell. The GOP is made up of people who are generally better educated, wealthier, and more civicly minded (volunteers, and charitable giving) than the rank-and-file ‘black dog’ democrat. You are proving the point that Huckabee is nothing more than an identity-politics, demogogue who is a featherweight when it comes to conservative thought (he either doesn’t understand it or else he seems to be rejecting conservative thought).
nowandlater:
The only way Conservatives get elected is by lulling the idiot-voting, identity-politics constituency into compliance by having real prosperity. Huckabee see’s the ‘writing on the wall’ and knows that this is a Democratic year. Dems turned out 2:1 in Iowa. The young-people vote (having grown up reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Too Kill a Mockingbird, and Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry) are eager to validate their non-racist bias by voting for Obama (heck, even I am eager to see Obama win so that we can put racism to rest in this country).
We simply cannot win by trying to be Democrats (attacking drug companies).
January 6th, 2008 at 11:00 am
As a small part of the Pharmaceutical industry, I want to speak up on their behalf.
The number of drugs that have been introduced in the last 25 years has grown exponentially–due in large part to the efforts of the pharma industry. Those so-called ‘evil’ companies have saved more lives than firefighters, police, and first-responders combined. In fact, those other life-saving occupations don’t even approach the lives saved by pharmaceuticals developed since my birth in 1980.
Those people don’t have to spend money and energy to save people’s lives, and it’s the result of a capitalist system that allows people to work in intellectual fields, like drug research, instead of spending time having to grow their own food and building their own homes. No matter what Democrats tell you, you can’t simply create a 5-year plan and mandate a drug-resistant strain of TB out of society (like governments routinely do), and the ONLY reason why the U.S. can back up it’s so-called initiatives to reduce AIDS by 50% in Africa isn’t due to GOVERNEMT’S efforts, but to the efforts of PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS who make things like cell-phones, life-saving drugs, computers, the Railroads, etc.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Joseph D. Walch, I don’t have a huge problem with drug companies making a profit. I know for a fact that if you can’t afford a medicine they will often supply it to you free through your personal physician. My problem is when the drug companies ignore their own testing and put out dangerous drugs. Or drugs that aren’t safe enough to sell in the U.S. are sold overseas. Or testing on children overseas without the parents being warned of the true risks, allowing them to think that “American Medicine” will automatically help their child.
I don’t have a problem with the oil companies making a profit, but when they are making “record” profits while crying that they have to raise prices because they can’t meet demands, for whatever excuse, that ticks me off.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Joseph #35. . . I would LOVE Romney to say this at today’s debate. It is so true and would really highlight his business acumen. Just as not every cop is corrupt because of the acts of a few, and not every soldier is a murderer because of the acts of a few, so too not every big corporate entity is greedy and selfish because of the few Enrons and Tycos of the world.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Illinoisguy & Joseph D. Walch,
Although my comment in 31 was addressed to nowandlater, it was also for Romney supporters. It seems that we have many mutual goals, but the competition of this race and the resulting hostility for each other’s candidate is making it much less likely that either side will get their candidate of choice as the nominee and, more importantly, the realization of our mutual goals.
Mitt is THE candidate for mountain west socons, Huckabee is THE candidate for socons in the SE. It may seem hard to accept, but these two guys need to call a truce and start to work together.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Just trying out the emoticons on this old post so i’m not disrupting any conversation. If i am i apologize but i just realized how to make these thingies.