Golden Pen San Diego… If I were handing out FlashReport Golden Pen Awards (Fleischman typically gets that job), today it would go to the Union-Trib’s Bob Caldwell for his Memorial Day tribute, "That brave and fallen few," which includes the following passages:
"Our losses today are our brothers, sons, fathers and buddies, and, yes, sometimes our sisters, daughters, and mothers. They are those we grew up with, lived alongside, perhaps the kid next door, maybe the shortstop or linebacker in high school, the quiet boy who wanted to serve his country, the young warrior so proud of his new calling as Soldier or Marine. Bombs, bullets and terrorists are no respecters of uniform, gender, soldier or civilian. Each and all are targets."
"Behind every name is a family, friends and the too-short history of a cherished life given by God and delivered over to the service of country. Yet, soldiers in the crucible of combat don’t die for abstractions. They die for their friends, for the comradeship bound up forever in that mystic brotherhood of arms. Cynics scoff at sacrifice. No combat soldier scoffs."
Read the entire Caldwell piece here.
Conservatives Still Uncomfortable with the "Top Tier" POTUS Choices… No, really?! Old song, new dance perhaps, but John Marelius does a great job hi-liting the dilemma in the U-T this morning.
When more is penned about the lack of confidence by conservatives in the big three than anything about their actual conservative credentials, that’s probably saying something.
At any rate, it’s worth another take. Link to Marelius’ Conservatives not cozying up to GOP’s big 3.
And the Winners are… In case you missed it, Red County/San Diego held an "Elected Officials Contest" this week and a slew of folks e-showed up and voted. After more than 200 ballots were tabulated, the winners are as follows (the anonymous Mr. Murphy of Red County is the writer):
Wow. What started as a lark on a nice afternoon ended up as a serious chore – sorting and adding up a couple hundred ballots is not the way Mr. and Mrs Murphy like to spend the evening.
In tallying the results I made a couple of new rules that observers should be aware of. First, if any winner got the majority I’ve noted it. A majority for any person, given the number of votes, is telling. Second, if winners at any level were within 2 votes of one another I counted it as a tie. Mr. Murphy had a couple glasses of scotch during the counting and there may be some limited margin of error.
To the results:
Intelligence
Winner: State Senator Mark Wyland (Majority)
Runner Up: Supervisor Ron Roberts
Honorable Mention: Supervisor Dianne Jacob
Political Power
Winner: Congressman Darrell Issa (Majority)
Runner Up: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
Honorable Mention: State Senator Mark Wyland
Effectiveness (Legislative)
Winner: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
Runner Up: Supervisor Ron Roberts
Honorable Mention (tie): Assemblyman George Plescia and Supervisor Greg Cox
Potential
Winner: San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders
Runner Up (tie): Assemblyman Joel Anderson and San Diego City Councilman Kevin Faulconer
Honorable Mention: Assemblyman Martin Garrick
Best Under 40
Winner: San Diego City Councilman Kevin Faulconer (Majority)
Runner Up: Chula Vista Councilman John McCann
Honorable Mention: Water Board member Frank Hilliker
Best Nonpartisan
Winner: Encinitas Councilman Jerome Stocks
Runner Up: Escondido Councilwoman Marie Waldron
Honorable Mention: La Mesa Councilman David Allan
Want to Have a Beer With
Winner: Assemblyman George Plescia (Majority)
Runner Up: Congressman Brian Bilbray
Honorable Mention: Congressman Duncan Hunter
Back to Barry here: A couple of minor criticisms ensued, such as Kevin Faulconer not being under 40 and a question as to whether Dave Allan is actually a Republican this week or not (sorry, Dave buddy, I’m just the messenger here), but all in all this was a good contest, sparking a lot of interest. See Red County/San Diego here.
I don’t make a habit of blogging about political weddings, it’s just not right, but noting that Frank Hilliker made the list above, I wanted to throw out an additional congrats to Frank and Cindy for their big day yesterday!
All my best for a great Memorial Day holiday and a great week!
May 28th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I was reading the article in the Union Tribunes regarding the top 3 GOP candidates, as I’m sure most of you have done by now. I see a silver lining for all Republicans. The base is most likely going to swing either its support behind either Giuliani or McCain, because in this particular cycle is going to be dominated by change. The electorate is not happy, and when you consider that independents are going to play a bigger role in this particular election. Republican candidates who don’t fit the normal stereotypes and normal policies, stand a much better chance of convincing the public that they are in fact agents of change. The fact that you have the top three and none of them appears to be dyed in the wool social conservative will give the party a much better chance of bringing the Reagan- Democrats home.
Make no mistake about it, the Reagan Democrats were typically socially moderate and strong on national defense. This is the coalition that can win this time around. If the Dobson’s of the world hold the party hostage. It will be a tough cycle. I think Republicans all over the country should take a lesson from the top three and stress to the public their independence of thinking.
This is a time when we MUST reach out to anyone from any walk of life who is willing to help fight for smaller government and fiscal restraint. Our candidates have calculated that they cannot march lock step with the religious conservatives, and Republicans especially would benefit by handling the issue under the banner of personal responsibility and not religious theology because if personal responsibility is discussed, it will help encourage the kind of social behavior that will please the religious conservatives enough support the party. Whether labeled as a faith conscious or civic duty, the politics of personal responsibility will bring about the social change that religious conservatives crave.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
James Dobson is probably the last guy I can imagine trying to hold
anybody hostage, literally or figuratively.
Social conservatives are the Motor that makes the wheels go round
on the conservative car. Ronald Reagan welcomed them into our
coalition in 1980, and the result has been Republican successes
unmatched since the 1920s.
[The GOP hadn’t won 2 straight U.S. House majorities since 1928.]
BTW, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are both strong religious believers,
and their faith has helped them through many a personal crisis.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Thank you for responding. I wonder if you happen to catch the Reverend Dobson on Fox news the other day. He clearly stated that should the former New York mayor become the nominee, “I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran — or if worse comes to worst — not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life.” http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273455,00.html This is a clear call for his followers to sit out the election if they don’t get the nominee of their choice. If this is not holding the party hostage, I don’t know what is.
I myself consider myself Christian and moderately conservative. I commented on the article, that stated that the top 3 GOP candidates were not offered a ringing endorsement by the Christian conservative wing of the base. Now lets go over a few numbers here. As you yourself stated, Christian conservatives were in fact responsible for house wins during two consecutive cycles in the past. With the operative word being the “past”. Politics is about winning and what have you done for me lately. While it is true that Christian conservatives flocked to Ronald Reagan. Reagan himself was a bit of an anathema to the religious right. He himself was a Hollywood divorcee who had a liberal view of abortion while Governor of California, but the reason why the Christian conservatives flocked to Mr. Reagan was because he was a winner, and they knew it. Reagan himself practiced the politics of personal responsibility and it was the religious right who courted him, not the other way around, and now for these numbers I promised you. In 1994 67% of self described conservative Christians voted republican. While only 24% voted democrat. In 2006 only 54% of self described conservative Christians voted republican while 31% voted democrat. Currently only 1/3 of the base of the republican party is identified as Christian conservative with a large division between Dobson evangelicals and Cizik evangelicals. When the evangelical community itself is divided and only 1/3 of the base is evangelical. It seems pretty hard to state that they are the motor that drives the party. Here are some other numbers to think about. In 1984 22% of registered voters identified themselves as Christian conservatives. By 1992 that number had dropped to 17% and by 2006 that number had dropped to 13%.
If the religious right is as successful as they claim at registering voters with less than 50% of eligible voters actually registering, that means they only represent 6% of those eligible to vote in this country, and I think it is safe to say that Christian conservatives who are eligible are probably registered, and that would bring this number down even further. So now maybe the mystery as t why John McCain called the Reverend’s Falwell and Robertson agents of intolerance becomes a little clearer. This was in fact his Sista Souljah moment. Just as Bill Clinton had to criticize that portion of his base in order to connect with moderated and independents. John McCain has calculated that he must do the same thing in order to win a general election.
So what is in fact more important? Bending over backwards to pander to the 1/3 of your base thereby rendering yourself unelectable in the general election or is it more important to position yourself where you at least have a chance in a general election. If we as Republicans choose to sit on our laurels and hearken back to the good ol’ days and not look to the future, than we are in fact destined to also be a thing of the past.That point that I think you really missed here is while yes Giuliani and McCain and Romney are all men of faith, faith alone does not win elections.
If you need further proof just check out recent polling on which issues American find most important today. Iraq 31%, Economy 8%, Gas/oil 7%, Immigration 7%, Family values 3%. These numbers are running very close in various polls, including Gallup, CNN, Zogby, and the New York Times. If you want more info on the factionalization of the religious right I suggest you look at an article called ” The Christian Right, Looking Beyond Falwell” by Rachael Zoll an AP writer 5/20/07. Or read the article in Time magazine June issue by Jim Wallis called “The Religious Right’s Era is Over” Speaking purely pragmatically, most conservative Christians will continue to vote Republican, but if the party does not make a serious attempt to bring back the Reagan Democrat and instead cow tows to the religious right. It will be another 60 years before Republicans win majorities in both houses.
Food for thought: Fob James, David Beasely, Jim Lightfoot, Lauch Faircloth, Bob Inglis, Mark Newmann, Linda Smith, J. Williams, Vince Snowbarger, Bill Redmond. What do all these candidates have in common? They were the canaries in the coal mine, all darlings of the religious right, all losers in 2006. Let me give you two other names Jeb Bush, Tom Ridge. Jeb argued against an initiative to bring prayers back to the public schools. Tom Ridge was pro-choice. Both of them won their elections in 1996. You can either be ahead of the curve or be swallowed by it. Which will it be?