The Great Republican Hope

[deacon blues]

Originally Posted by MikeinAR

Interesting thoughts, Tim. I have no idea what will happen in 2012. A lot of responsibility comes with running a government from top to bottom. Voter's are going to expect results and will want tangible things on the economy that they can see and feel. The problem with that is that there isn't a single economist who can really tell us what the next move is or where a real bottom is. It's hard to fix a problem when you're not sure exactly the paramters of it. Maybe the economy goes down from here. I haven't found many that will say they feel like we've hit the bottom.

Now, if BO can end Iraq and get us out of that mistake, then maybe that'll buy him some time on other issues, but right now he's banking on a very shaky economy, IMO. I'd say his popularity in '12 is anything but certain.

Bobby Jindal is very talented and will be a fun guy to watch ascend. Of course, who knows what the Republican party will look like in 4 years. They are going to have decide what they really stand for and where they go from here. The base of religious voters isn't going to win elections from now on. They can mail that strategy in. It barely worked in 2004, and it worked by 500 votes in 2000. They're going to have re-evaluate how they win elections other than pandering to evangelicals, because that isn't producing great results for them.

The biggest mistake the GOP can make is take religious right voters for granted. Anyone running as a moderate in the GOP loses: Ford, Dole, MCain. Solid conservatives win: Reagan, Bush I, Bush II. The GOP can't win without religious conservatives. When someone runs as a fiscal conservative, especially in this environment, along with conservative social values, they win. Bush I lost to Clinton because of his tax increase. Y'all just don't like the fact that most conservative Christians vote GOP so you try to make them look like the problem with the party versus what's right with it.