tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post501415878045613220..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: So What Now? Santorum? Roy Moore? You-Know-Who?Jonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-15008531254623249082011-10-21T11:50:22.772-05:002011-10-21T11:50:22.772-05:00more evidence of abortion as a fading issue.more evidence of abortion as a fading issue.charlienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-31110661017160313852011-10-21T09:13:46.713-05:002011-10-21T09:13:46.713-05:00I think there is a reasonable portion of the pro-l...I think there is a reasonable portion of the pro-life community that thinks basically like Cain.<br /><br />A lot of people conflate something being legal with something being good. Something illegal being something bad. Abortion is bad, so it should be illegal.<br /><br />The nuance of being able to think something is bad but that having government interference in it is ineffective and expensive is a level of nuance that would take more consideration than they are willing to make.<br /><br />So they think abortion should be illegal, and at the same time they think families - especially families like theirs - should be left alone to make the best decisions for their own families.<br /><br />I don't mean to sound condescending; this is a large segment of my extended family. It is not logically coherent. I have often thought that if abortion were actually made illegal and began to have that ban enforced, they would become pro-choice as soon as the issue hit close enough to home to make an impact.<br /><br />Of course there are going to be a wide swath of folks completely outraged and feeling betrayed by Cain. But I think he speaks for a lot more people than many of us realize on this.Curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-36379291604514478832011-10-21T09:05:06.198-05:002011-10-21T09:05:06.198-05:00I knew I was missing something...thanks!I knew I was missing something...thanks!TapirBoy1https://www.blogger.com/profile/11327586630549189956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-3217841519189312642011-10-21T08:57:38.990-05:002011-10-21T08:57:38.990-05:00Tapir,
Hey, that's my TNR column this week.Tapir,<br /><br />Hey, that's my <a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/96413/gop-primaries-field-business-plan-candidates" rel="nofollow">TNR column this week</a>.Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-85582416709614879192011-10-21T08:49:04.034-05:002011-10-21T08:49:04.034-05:00Jonathan -
Where do you stand on the debate over ...Jonathan -<br /><br />Where do you stand on the debate over whether this is an "unusually thin" field of GOP candidates? (Sorry if I missed your post on this). I think this is what GOP presidential primaries are likely to look like for a while, with a big caveat. <br /><br />If Mitt Romney is elected President in 2012, he will almost certainly be the party's nominee for POTUS in 2016. Mitt's VP is likely to be in the Gore-mold, not the Cheney-Biden elder statesman, and thus may be the nominee in 2020. So there may not be another truly open GOP primary for some time. Right?TapirBoy1https://www.blogger.com/profile/11327586630549189956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-67670415118925897272011-10-21T08:22:56.730-05:002011-10-21T08:22:56.730-05:00If the conservative media have not picked up on Ca...If the conservative media have not picked up on Cain's abortion remarks, I think that in itself is interesting.Scott Monjenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-47667984301799186522011-10-21T00:35:28.787-05:002011-10-21T00:35:28.787-05:00HuffPost has an article on reactions to all this i...HuffPost has an article on reactions to all this in Iowa (not good), along with a review of Cain's various statements:<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/herman-cain-abortion-comments_n_1023046.html<br /><br />The guy says abortion shouldn't be legal, but that "government" shouldn't make the decision. He has said this repeatedly. He seems honestly not to understand that making something illegal is an act of government. Which means he's not even qualified to be a city councilman, let alone president.<br /><br />If I had to try to explain this, aside from Cain just being a big doofus, I would say that what we've got here is a walking embodiment of the libertarian / social conservatism divide in the Republican coalition. Cain manages to cram extreme versions of both positions not only into the same platform, but into the same sentence.Jeffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-27877282910183299882011-10-20T22:48:13.788-05:002011-10-20T22:48:13.788-05:00Cain seemed to have charmed a lot of Republicans, ...Cain seemed to have charmed a lot of Republicans, but they will tire of his gaffes and "trust-me" responses to questions about his 9-9-9 plan. I don't think they'll run back to Bachmann, who would be a great Stepford wife but not a good president. Even someone who would want a Stepford wife can see that.<br /><br />Santorum is more a culture warrior than someone to handle economic issues, and people probably vaguely remember how badly he lost his last election.<br /><br />That will leave the <b> <a href="http://moderatepoli.blogspot.com/2011/09/republican-goldilocks.html" rel="nofollow">hard conservatives wondering</a></b> whether to support another less-than-smart Texan or Romney. My god, it'll probably be Romney.ModeratePolihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01721945380057992971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-90904910299081727922011-10-20T22:44:59.732-05:002011-10-20T22:44:59.732-05:00Why not Santorum? He has actual government experie...Why not Santorum? He has actual government experience at a high enough level, and hasn't been out of office any longer than Romney. Are his anti-gay stances causing him trouble even within the Republican party?Wkdeweynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-14642254427155777262011-10-20T22:44:19.808-05:002011-10-20T22:44:19.808-05:00Mercer: you may be right, but the abortion argumen...Mercer: you may be right, but the abortion argument isn't crazy, either. Since that apostasy doesn't seem to be getting as much coverage in the conservative media circle (using your NR reading as the guide; I'm not in that loop), it might take longer for the abortion thing to sink in. By the same token, the attacks on 999 have been coming in for a while now, so (since he hasn't plummetted yet) I'd expect either effect to not show up for a while, if both these readings are correct. If that's the case, sorting out the why will be very difficult.Matt Jarvisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-44285540468711744032011-10-20T20:40:01.252-05:002011-10-20T20:40:01.252-05:00If Cain's numbers go down I think would be mor...If Cain's numbers go down I think would be more due to 999 then abortion. Every other person in the debate criticized the plan and National Review has had several pieces critical of it. I have seen nothing in NR about this abortion interview.Mercernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-14332435077787154762011-10-20T18:00:41.572-05:002011-10-20T18:00:41.572-05:00But it's not a real presidential campaign, and...<i>But it's not a real presidential campaign, and everyone except perhaps the rubes and a handful of gullible pundits know it</i><br /><br />For a not "real presidential campaign", you certainly seem to be regularly stringing together a lot of words about it, you being a guy who scoffs at secondary candidates. ;-)<br /><br />An interesting phenomenon, this Cain candidacy. Perry made the precise wrong move, attacking Cain at that last debate. He probably needed to let the others take on Cain, for now. It didn't help him, and it didn't hurt Cain. It probably helped Romney, if anything, and that's who Perry should focus on. <br /><br />Perry needs to focus on the inevitability of a Perry/Romney showdown, even if it doesn't seem so inevitable. All these guys would have to rub the corners off their past apostasies, to win an R primary, so it's still best to bet the usual trends.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-54891817197224152992011-10-20T17:13:19.071-05:002011-10-20T17:13:19.071-05:00I wish the GOP would nominate Ron Paul, because th...I wish the GOP would nominate Ron Paul, because the American people need to listen to what he has to say. Not that I'd vote for him against Obama, but dammit the public need to listen him.<br /><br />On the point, how do you determine the winner of an election when every candidate looks like they cannot win? Santorum or Newt could surge instead of Perry, but how do those two beat Obama?davenoreply@blogger.com