{"id":9250,"date":"2006-12-05T14:58:34","date_gmt":"2006-12-05T19:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9250.html"},"modified":"2006-12-05T14:58:34","modified_gmt":"2006-12-05T19:58:34","slug":"there-is-no-george-w-bush-in-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/there-is-no-george-w-bush-in-the-field\/","title":{"rendered":"‘There is no George W. Bush in the field’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The far-right base is gearing up for the next presidential race, but they’re looking at the field and noticing something disconcerting: the leading candidates aren’t nearly right-wing enough<\/a> for their tastes.<\/p>\n

A year ago, few could have predicted that the three front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination would be a U.S. senator who favors embryonic stem cell research and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a governor who twice campaigned on defending abortion rights, and a former mayor who not only supports gay rights but moved in with a gay couple — and their pet Shih Tzu — after the breakup of his second marriage.<\/p>\n

But after the Republicans’ midterm losses, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have emerged as their party’s presidential favorites, according to public polls, GOP insiders, and Washington pundits. And stunningly for a party that has championed conservative social issues — like opposing abortion, banning gay marriage, and restricting embryonic stem cell research — not one of these front-runners is a bona fide social conservative.<\/p>\n

“There is no George W. Bush in the field,” says one neutral GOP strategist, referring both to Bush’s wide appeal in 2000 and his conservative views. That worries some on the right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s not just a supposition; prominent right-wingers are genuinely worried. Paul Weyrich said, “Right now, we’re very concerned about it.” The Family Research Council’s Charmaine Yoest, noting the current top-tier, said, “There is a certain lack of excitement at the moment.”<\/p>\n

Poor conservative movement, they only have a few extremely conservative candidates (Brownback, Huckabee) and a few more pretending-to-be-extremely conservative candidates to choose from.
\n
\nThe trick of it will be the extent to which movement conservatives are a) willing to compromise; and b) able to coalesce around a single candidate in order to avoid diluting their strength.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s possible that a more conservative Republican — like U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., outgoing Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, or maybe even former Speaker Newt Gingrich — could emerge in the GOP field. Indeed, Weyrich says that some social conservatives are exploring the idea of rallying behind one of these candidates, which could elevate that person’s chances.<\/p>\n

Brownback filed paperwork on Monday to form a presidential exploratory committee. “I have decided, after much prayerful consideration, to consider a bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency,” he said in a statement. “There is a real need in our country to rebuild the family and renew our culture.”<\/p>\n

But Dal Col, Steve Forbes’ former campaign manager, says one of Giuliani, McCain, and Romney will most likely win the nomination. “The reality is the front-runners essentially remain the front-runners. When the dust settles, it will probably be these three names out in front.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that’s largely true; I just don’t think there’s much the far-right can do about it. It’ll be fun to see them try, though….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The far-right base is gearing up for the next presidential race, but they’re looking at the field and noticing something disconcerting: the leading candidates aren’t nearly right-wing enough for their tastes. A year ago, few could have predicted that the three front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination would be a U.S. senator who favors embryonic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}